Project Elementals
A short concept jam where a small group of 5 student artists tried conceptualizing a videogame in about 3-4 days. Our briefing was that of a VR Puzzle game, featuring elemental aspects and (optional) motion controls.
We came up with Project Elementals. Heavily inspired by games like Mop and Captain Toad, you explore small diorama-like puzzle areas controlling or guiding a tiny creature. Your creature is representative of one of the four elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air) and you use their elemental powers to interact with the environment around you to solve puzzles and keep moving forward. You also use the power of VR to search for different visual perspectives to help solve each area.
Our main character is Enya, the fire elemental who takes on the form of a fox. We also quickly tackled the other elementals, but because we were limited on time, we focused more so on making environments specifically for Enya. Our first area is an old decayed forest that slowly transitions into the ruins of an ancient temple.
(notes in Portuguese)
Exploring different level obstacles and Enya's abilities, as well as elements for the first tutorial area. We kept the environment monochromatic to make Enya and the obstacles stand out.
The layout of what we called "level 2", but it's mostly just a generic representation of what a level could look like. Oval in shape, to facilitate walking around it in VR.
Forest thumbnail and collectible by https://www.artstation.com/madalenaventura
Sketches for the earth elemental, which we decided should be based on the giant sloth. We thought it would offer a very different gaming experience relative to controlling Enya, who is tiny and fast.
Render by https://www.artstation.com/jefv
Sketches for the water elemental, based on a jellyfish. Again offering a very different look compared to the others as well as a distinct movement and gameplay.
Render by https://www.artstation.com/jefv and bottom right sketches by Filipe Silva