Side Scroller: Style Guide

When starting the Side scroller project it became quickly clear that we'd need a style guide to hold it all together and this fell to the concept artists to do.

We looked at everything from super stylized games such as limbo to realistic games like Hitman two in order to decide on a uniform style and theme for the game. In the end we drew from Trine for its fanciful scale though we chose a slightly more toned down colour palette:

The style part of the style guide and game colour scheme

The style guide we produced contained the overarching concept of the game – as a pilgrimage through numerous areas – as well as overall game look guidelines and guidelines for creating architecture and other elements.

We also included information on what to expect when it came to architecture, though we were inspired by Cambodian structures like Angkor Wat we wanted to include Art Noveau influences into our patterns and decorations. I produced a rune alphabet for all of the levels to use to create a feeling of a shared language or culture between the very different levels.

The Rune Alphabet used throughout the game

I’ve never had to create a style guide for many people to use independently before and trying to create something flexible that could be used to create a cohesive game that contained very different environments was a challenge that was eventually overcome by creating a style matrix that could easily be referred to as assets were being created.

The Style matrix

In the end the style guide was successful; the game flows well from level to level and none stand out as being a different style or feel