Desktop Dungeons Rewind lives somewhere between a remaster and a reimagining of the 2013 classic. The project had an incredibly tight deadline, so a primary challenge of the visual developement work was making sure that whatever art style we came up with could be produced within our schedule. There was also a desire on the part of QCF Design to make something that felt "bigger" than the original; the environments needed to feel expansive and the magic, expressive. We eventually landed on a look that was saturated, readable, and would look good on a tv screen (console was a key platform), but that had a very fast turnaround time. It also played to the strengths of the art team - the three artists I managed had experience with illustration and low poly modeling - which was crucial for making our milestones.
VFX Reel
Images
Early preproduction work for DDR. Sketches, paintings, models.
An early mockup from Desktop Dungeons Rewind, before the decision was made to zoom things out and make the world feel more expansive.
Sketches and paintings from Desktop Dungeons Rewind. I was exploring the concept of a more expansive world here.
Building off the previous concepts, I spent some time figuring out how to translate the drawings to 3d and then methodically built up the rest of the environment. This work was done in-engine. It was built to fit the grid, and I even went so far as to author the shaders needed.
An interior mockup that immidiately followed the previous exterior work. The aim of this work was to ensure that the pipelines and approaches I figured out for the previous environment could, in fact, be used across the game.
I followed the interior environment work with character development work. Sketches became models, which became textured versions with a custom shader to help them pop at their small size.
A colletion of environment shots from the shipped game. I produced all of this work.
A shot of the kingdom screen from Desktop Dungeons Rewind. I designed and produced all of this work.
I acted as the UI/UX designer on Desktop Dungeons Rewind. This is a shot of the level select screen.
