Art style: Realistic/Fine Graphics | Theme: Fantasy/ Easter Europian Medieval Architecture
The Kingdom/ Grasslands
This is the starter area, where the player spawns and learns the game’s mechanics. Of all the areas of the game this will appear the most “normal”; green grass, brown trees, blue skies etc. As my game takes inspiration from the exploration and design of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I will take inpiration from its appearance and aesthetics:
The Kingdom and the surrounding area will have sunny weather and relatively flat land with the occasional hill here and there. It will have forests filled with foragables the player can loot, use and consume. There will also be large grasslands with animals the player can slaughter for food and rivers the player can swim and and fish for food. Enemies will be relatively scarce, with few hostile animals that attack the player in packs – and even fewer camps of low-ranked demons that attack the player.
This area will be extremely forgiving to the player, allowing them to explore and learn the game at their own pace. Having many save points, numerous ways to gain consumables to heal and very few hostiles.
Demon King’s Domain/ Volcanic Region
This area of the game will be a fiery, hellish wastleland. Almost like a physical representation of hell, dark stones, running magma, spouts of flames. The following is a colour analysis of Muspelheim in God of War:
Constantly filled with ashy air, grey clouds and spouts of magma that can damage the player; everything in this area is out to kill. The entire area will be constantly winding up a volcano in order to get to the Demon King’s Castle at its peak.
There will be many demons – much stronger than those in the grasslands – in larger groups. With less save points and even fewer foragables in order to gain HP; this area is very harsh towards the player, the hardest area in the game.
The Queen’s Domain/ Ice Region
Matching with the Queen’s blue aesthetic, her region will be overwhelmed with ice and snow, she manipulates her underling and enemies using this ice which will be portrayed by the designs of her underlings. This image was taken from God of War (2018)’s Hel.
With the constant freezing blizzard in this region, the visibility in the northern mountains is always low and slows the player down. Vertically, its peak is much higher than that of the volcano, therefore the landscape is much steeper.
Enemies in this region do not spawn in large groups but are able to use ranged attacks to hinder the player, whether it be rooting them in place or slowing them etc.
The Jester’s Parade/ Circus
In order to suit the Jester’s theme of Humiliation, I felt a moving circus/parade of evil performers, clowns and puppets would be best. The following is from The Secret World’s Atlantic Park.
As a relatively small part of map – compared to the volcanic, mountainous and grassland regions of the game – the area will be flat with lots of circut tents and attractions etc.
Different tents will have different Demons with attacks that correspond to certain circus attractions. For example, one tent of Demons will throw bowling pins at the player, others will throw water balloons filled with poison.
The Prisoner/ Ace’s Prison
As the Ace’s theme is isolation, its only fitting to have his area take place in a dark prison, completely devoid of light. It would be an interesting mechanic to have the player need an item to see in the dark in order to navigate the area (Similar to the Lunarfly Lantern in Hollow Knight). Therefore the image I have chosen for inspiration below is from Outlast using the Camcorder for night vision.
The smallest named area of Arcadia, only accesible once the player has access to a source of light – such as a torch, lamp, lantern etc. Obtainable from the merchant or looting chests. This area is extremely confined, causing the 3rd person camera angle of the game to make the player feel uncomfortable.
Enemies in this area will be completely alone, but will sneak up on the player from behind – being completely quiet until they launch themselves at the player. These enemies aren’t as strong as they are in the Volcanic Region, but are extremely scary to deal with.
