Ash & Adam's Existential Treads is a mashup of retro top-down vehicle action, settlement building, and tower defense. Based on an idea I had been slow-cooking since the mid aughts, it's the second game Ash and I created collaboratively. We decided to iterate the art style I did for Gobsmacked for this game. Like Gobsmacked, Existential Treads0 can be quite chaotic during it's peak. As such, we needed an art style that was easily parsable during moments of high action. We moved away from the browns and grays of Gobsmacked, though, to better convey the emotional aspects of the experience. This is a game about the beauty of natural world and the irrepressibility of the human spirit; warm, bright colors can be found throughout. The Noise - the rogue AI antagonists - use an opposite visual language. Instead of wonky, janky organic forms and expressive colors, the Noise are highly geometric black metal and neon pink glows. They pixelate the very atmosphere around them. In this way, the settlement you're building and the natural environment you're nurturing are visually at odds (glaringly so) with the big bad of the game.
