Early Concepts
The creator behind "Legend of Zelda: Second Wind" reached out for help create concept work for an upcoming expansion. The project is a community-created mod for the Nintendo game "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild". The project seeks to add to the base game, tweaking and modifying the mechanics of the original game in order to create more questlines, content and stories.
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I was tasked to work on the most recent expansion which seeks to add an underground area building upon the game's existing lore. The task was to help in creating a design language for a civilization hailing from the ancient "Zonai". The game is populated by their ruins and certain small symbols and patterns were talking into account when imagining their descendants.
Gate to a New World
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One of the main tasks was designing the entryway to this new underground area. The game designers wanted it to be a segmented entrance that would, in essence, teleport the player. The game already included a method of teleportation and, to make this distinct, the idea became to use a more explicitly magical method of transport. Given what we know of the "Zonai", and their recurring dragon imagery, the idea of a dragon statue coming to life and devouring the player immediately came to mind. This would visually show the transition underground and produce a sense of wonder and danger in the player.
Ruined Village in the Clowds
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As the development progressed, the project shifted. The village would now be located on a floating island in the sky. The visuals for the "Zonai" remained consistent, but the environment changed, which meant more freedom when designing the buildings.
The buildings and all their variations were developed with modularity in mind. A small team could easily create a varied town from just a few assets that could be re-arranged and re-interpreted.