Mood

The overall mood of the game is driven by a serious fantasy world with funny characters. Goofy pirates are juxtaposed against a more serious fantasy setting that creates a noticeable contrast. This contrast is also present in the game’s Music styles.

The island

Ancient and mysterious. Home to magic, wizards, and old gods. The island is almost completely devoid of any native human presence - most people you meet are castaways, same as you. The old wizard civilization has been dead for a long time, and only ruins and inscriptions are still around to tell you about it.

Island interior (Forests)

Art test screenshot

Without any humans or gods, the island has become a tomb of plant life. Residual energy of the Nature Spirit has helped the island thrive, but without a guiding force the plant life runs rampant. The woods are full of life, but its trees form a thick canopy that creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere. A lot of levels are built around wide-open rooms for gameplay reasons, but I like to connect them with tight tunnels that are “cozy” without feeling claustrophobic - which is a great place to enforce this atmosphere. I draw a lot of inspiration from real-world temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest.

• Dark and hazy, a little creepy but still full of life
• Shouldn’t feel like a safe haven away from the beaches, moreso just another hostile setting to deal with
• Occasionally will encounter ruins of Wizard civilization - a couple isolated buildings here and there

Summary: Overgrown, heavy dark green saturation, gloomy, dark, melancholic, decrepit, a little spooky

More references: https://pin.it/5IkXI0s

Island exterior (Beaches and shores)

The coastline marks the extent of the Nature Spirit’s reach and is the only place in the game where the plant life backs off a bit. Beaches are literally the edge of the world: The sky is blasted white at all times, and the thick fog makes it feel like there’s absolutely nothing out there for you to explore.

Sea life, on the other hand, can be found all over the shores. As The Sea Devil is an ocean god, it should feel like the sea is clinging to the edges of the island, refusing to let go. The island is surrounded. Barnacles and sea stars try to reach their way up the steep cliffs surrounding the island but never quite manage to make it all the way. This land vs. sea conflict is present in other parts of the island as well.

• Tall, imposing cliffs you can’t work your way up - need to find a cliff path that leads inland
  • The reason castaways haven’t filed into the island by the time you arrive
• Plant life sticks to tops of cliffs - should look rocky and sterile along beaches
  • Looking below the water is a different story - sea life everywhere

Summary: Sterile, blank slate, edge of the world, thick white fog, shipwrecks

More references: https://pin.it/4jVN90Q

Island inhabitants and buildings

The few native islanders you do encounter (like The Last Wizard and the Big Tree Cultists) are basically humorless and take the situation of the island very seriously, like a traditional fantasy world would. Like the island, these guys contrast sharply with the goofy, more colorful tone that castaways / pirates have. The player will only ever encounter a small number of these guys (like less than 5 total), so encountering one of them should feel like a big deal. Several of these guys are likely enemies, so they should exude the strength and energy of the old magic world (I have played so much Dark Souls this past year)

The pirates

An unending number of smelly pirates and dishonored sailors. They constitute the only real human presence on the island and prevent the player from ever feeling truly alone. Castaways are rambunctious and most manage to stay in good spirits despite the horrible overcrowding and starvation they endure. They are not very smart and usually will do the dumbest thing imaginable when presented with choices.

Aside from a few notable people on your crew (The Captain) I imagine most of the pirates will be pretty minor characters. One thing I do want to try and do is create a lot of distinct pirate crews to help sell the scale of just how many people are washed up on this island. We could potentially have ALL castaways be part of many, many separate crews if we make them distinct enough.

Sense of humor

Part of what makes the castaways such effective comic relief is that, kind of paradoxically, a lot of them should try to take everything super seriously. I’m not sure how to describe it well: The situations the castaways end up in are serious matters of survival, but from an outsider’s perspective it seems hilarious. Some characters instill a sense of hope by staying goofy in such a hopeless situation.

Like, one scene I’ve had in my mind for a while happens after The halfway point, when there are a lot of big fish swimming all over the place. You run into two castaways on the verge of starvation who have hatched a last-ditch plan to launch one of themselves onto a passing fish so they can cut some meat off it. One guy catapults the other into the air - with a perfect trajectory - and the fish just eats him in one bite without reacting. The other guy crumples to the ground and sobs. Again - horrible situation in-universe, but funny shit to the player.

Here’s another example. In Pikmin, Olimar’s whole situation of “if I don’t find all these ship parts my life support fails and I die out here” is pretty grim, but then he goes and digs up a bunch of red and blue things that he flings at alien wildlife and marches in circles around himself. It’s the type of thing that’s just funny to watch, but the game is totally straight-faced about it. Helps make what would otherwise be a pretty morbid premise a bit more lighthearted for players.

None of the islanders have this sense of humor either: any you might encounter remain dead serious, which helps to strengthen the contrast between them and the pirates.

Biggest references for mood

• Bone: Basically the granddaddy of “serious fantasy world with funny characters”

• Halo: Ancient ruins on an giant mechanical world created by a giga-civilization eons more advanced than humanity. Then they throw in a guy in a green suit of armor and a bunch of little alien guys to duke it out + have Sgt. Johnson say a bunch of one-liners. Embodies the “you’re an outsider entering a much older conflict” idea nicely.

• Paper Mario: Excellent sense of humor reference, especially as a guide for how characters might talk

• Black Mesa has a similar thing going on in Xen to some extent: