ASUNDER

 ↘ is a side—scrolling platformer game about a little rover exploring a vast planet.

At the end of everything, in the face of eternity, for what reason do we persevere?

ASUNDER was my first experience working on a game development pipeline. Functioning as the only artist on the team, I served as the concept-to-realization visual designer. From our charming little rover Atlas to the land in which he traverses, I had complete control over all the art direction and asset production.

Throughout the game development process, ASUNDER took many turns: from its varied prototypes to our vastly improved final product. ASUNDER eventually transformed into a narrative experience telling of both a stubbornly determined team, as well as an accordingly resolved rover intent on fulfilling their respective missions.

1/2023 - 05/2023

Danny Pongprapakorn - Lead Artist / Art Director

Katherine Waterman - Game Design / Technical Art

Emily Cheng - Narrative Design / Technical Art

Isaac Berman - Programming / UI

TIMELINE

TEAM

DESIGNING ;

↘ Atlas ; Little Man

Going into the rover design early in development was paramount for setting the theming of the game. While designing for Atlas, the main points I was looking to include were ;

→ Functional mechanical systems which could be implemented in game design.

→ Distinct shape language and colours which would make Atlas stand out on an otherworldly, dreamy planet.

→ A friendly and approachable design— Atlas was loved by the crew that sent him out, afterall.

With these points in mind, I created the flash sheet on the right, and sent them off to my team for their additional ideas.

  • In the meanwhile, I decided on the materials I wanted Atlas to be made out of; my rendering practice for those materials can be seen at the top left.

Designing ;

↘ Atlas’ Gear ; Satellite

As a space rover sent to a faraway planet, Atlas of course needed his gear to operate on that planet.

As the only piece of gear pre-existing on the planet from previous missions, the satellite served as our demo’s milestone point; the climatic vista at the end where things start to make sense.

In designing the satellite, my key points to hit were ;

→ A more worn and battered outer shell, befitting a long-standing structure.

→ A unique unfolding mechanism reminiscent of an origami flower.

→ A colour scheme matching Atlas.

I wanted the satellite to look like a flower wilted, brought back to life by Atlas’ interaction, blooming anew— similar to the alien flora specimens you scan throughout the game.

After consulting the team, we ending up going with this boxy design— the vibe we ended up wanting to achieve was something a bit more janky, worn from travel, dated but endearing.

→ Yellow painted stainless steel, rubber, and black coil circuitry are what Atlas is constructed out of.

→ His little floppy red—blinking antenna as well as his “ears” and pseudo four-legged stature quickly endeared himself to our team.

↘ BG-308A ; 1st Pass | BYGONE

Designing ;

Before ASUNDER was “ASUNDER,” we called it “BYGONE.” Prior to the pivot, the game was going to be a lot more overtly somber in theming, not that it wasn’t in the end, but originally we were going for a true tragedy. The only traces of the original game are seen briefly in the opening trailer cinematic, as the ground continents of the planet are still made up of the desolate purple rock we used in BYGONE.

This first pass had a few design points I wanted to hit ;

→ Desolation: this planet has been dead for eons, and its construction shows it.

→ A cold, unwelcoming colour scheme.

→ Built of geometric, dark purple granite pillars, the planet presents as a harsh landscape with no life.

Early explorations put a hard focus on optimizing the workload towards modular assets which could be used freely in the Unity client. As such, swatches with hexcodes were made to provide accurate hues for the greyboxing phase.

This was all scrapped in the end, but you get to see it here! This is your insider scoop.

Finalist ;

↘ Minor Tweaks

↘ Atlas’ Gear ; Pod & Winch

Atlas’ space-faring pod had just about the same design principle as the satellite.

As the pod landed on the planet amongst the foreign foliage, I wanted it to feel as if a new seed was being planted on the planet. A new future— a new path, something like that, haha.

As for the winch, I wanted to make it fairly easy to read as an “anchor” point, as such I included fasteners to the ground, as well as decorative plating reminiscent of Atlas’ ears.

↘ BG-308A ; 2nd Pass | ASUNDER

As you can probably notice instantly, we genuinely did a 180 in terms of environmental motifs and mood with our mid-development pivot; ASUNDER is bright and hopeful in the face of solitude while BYGONE was crushing and hollow— their respective designs mirror this.

With the pivot, a few changes in our design philosophy altered how assets were made;

→ Instead of constructing completely modular assets to be placed at the behest of the level designer, a greybox of the stage layout was provided beforehand and assets were designed specifically for those stage layouts.

→ The main actionable mission of the game changed from simply wandering and scanning the terrain to specifically scanning the planet’s alien flora— as such, flowers were designed to be collected by Atlas.

→ The “platformer” part of our genre was now at the forefront, compared to BYGONE’S more “side-scroller” nature— islands were made to accommodate our level designer’s jump puzzles.

Ultimately, I wanted ASUNDER to feel dream-like; something that feels vaguely familiar yet disjointed from actual reality. Winding branches, swirling rock structures, and bulbous puzzle-like leaves lend to that idea.

THE TRAILER ;

↘ & Final Thoughts

For my first time ever working on a game, I wouldn’t have changed my experience at all. Working in a group wholly more experienced in game dev then myself was truly an enlightening experience, throughout the highs and lows. While we didn’t have the time to polish ASUNDER into exactly the game that we envisioned in the beginning of development, I’m still proud of how much the team and myself learned through the entire process of making it.

ASUNDER was truly a design challenge as someone who doesn’t usually do creature or environment design, but what I learned has made me a stronger artist as a whole, and I fully intend to bring everything I’ve learned into the projects of my future!

Thank you for following my journey. :)