Concept Art

Case Study

Concept Art for Duality

Environment
Characters & Creatures

Duality is a 3D platformer/puzzle game with a heavy emphasis on narrative, meaning that my environment & character concept art needed to not only support the game’s core mechanics, but also to tell a story. Additionally, it was crucial to ensure that my concept art would translate well to a low-poly 3D art style. These factors all informed my approach to designing & illustrating character, environment, and prop concept art.

Environment Concepts

Early on in the development of Duality, the team decided it was important to us that the visuals of our game were accessible to colorblind players. Rather than creating a separate “colorblind mode” within an accessibility settings menu, I ensured colorblind accessibility would be built into the game from the ground up by carefully selecting color palettes that would read clearly and look appealing to players with different kinds of colorblindness.

Duality has two different dimensions to every location within it: a “real world” version and a “spirit world” version which the player can travel between at will. To make sure that every possible version of any given location was accessible to colorblind players, I used image editing software to simulate the way that a colorblind person would perceive various color palettes used within the game world.

screenshots of the game environment with different colorways that simulate different types of colorblindness.
screenshots of the game environment with different colorways that simulate different types of colorblindness.
screenshots of the game environment with different colorways that simulate different types of colorblindness.
screenshots of the game environment with different colorways that simulate different types of colorblindness.
a monochromatic purple sketch of a fantasy environment with floating sky items.

Environment concept sketch (without color) showcasing the sky islands setting for Duality.

image showcasing a brightly colored environment comprised of floating sky islands

Full-color environment concept painting developed from the previous sketch and utilizing colors from the world palette.

3D game assets and level layouts based on my concept art, viewed either in-game or in-engine.

Early concepts for village structures and layout.

concept draw-overs and sketches for the final boss fight tower.

Draw-overs and detail call-outs developing the final boss fight tower.

ornate tower under a moonlight sky
side view of tower detailing
ornate tower under a moonlight sky
side view of tower detailing

In-engine views of the tower based off my concept art.

Character & Creature Concepts

Concept art of a spirit creature.

The spirit creature concept painted over an in-game screenshot, accompanied by mock-up UI.

a deer-like tree creature with glowing blue antlers

The spirit creature as seen in-game.

Concept art of the character “Aloise.”

3D model for Aloise.

a game screenshot where two characters are seen speaking with one another on a floating island above a tower.

Aloise as seen in-game speaking with Atlas after the final boss battle.

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