Project Update: The Friday Ride | 145% Funded + The Cover Concept
Welcome back to Friday my friends,
We are in the home stretch, with just 6 days remaining for the funding!
This grimdark Dungeon Delver gets to exist because you all brought it to life-- and if you're getting this update but haven't backed yet?! Get in here!
Today, we're taking a look at the Cover Art and how it came to be! I told Salty Water the rough composition I wanted-- featuring The Maker of Hands, Trophy Collector, and Malefact Bonecutter (who has not been a fan favorite!) around a campfire on the road. I knew I wanted a lizard mount, a motorcycle, and that was about it. From there, Salty stepped up with the idea of approaching it as a triptych.
We are in the home stretch, with just 6 days remaining for the funding!
This grimdark Dungeon Delver gets to exist because you all brought it to life-- and if you're getting this update but haven't backed yet?! Get in here!
Today, we're taking a look at the Cover Art and how it came to be! I told Salty Water the rough composition I wanted-- featuring The Maker of Hands, Trophy Collector, and Malefact Bonecutter (who has not been a fan favorite!) around a campfire on the road. I knew I wanted a lizard mount, a motorcycle, and that was about it. From there, Salty stepped up with the idea of approaching it as a triptych.
Here is the tough composition, referring to the form of reliquary box.
Showing the road in the middle as the theme, with the aeonic rings behind the maker of hands (here is some of my thoughts, I know they don't align their soul to that but their overall atmosphere leaning into that and I'd like to think they collect much material and technology from aeons.) And Malefactic as the theme for Malefact bonecutter, both for the decoration in the corner and the pattern in the back.
Going to adjust the size of character to show more of background but still keep them looking around a campfire in front of trophy collector, which is a pile of skull and bones lit up by blue soul fire. (The pose for characters is referring to the description you provided.)
Also idea for the side panel of the box cover, the border of bone oils and skulls will surround the lower edge and I would like to make the two panel, the one below the character's feet, and the one over character's head with specific patterns, one as extension of sky and one as extension of road. The other two side panels on left and right maybe can feature the ruins, or leave place for texts.
We got to this for the rough cover of the top of the box. Overall it felt pretty spot on for the approach based on the boxes for ZOETROPE and What We Possess. They have become my template for making boxed games, and I'm pretty happy with how it was coming. Then, Salty delved further into the designs for the characters and their mounts in particular.
For the lizard, it's referring to some deep sea fish type of translucent look and glowing at several parts. I think it could be good to use it as the lantern in dark, such as its big eyes. Also it has several parts with feathers and growing excessive bones to echo with the bonecutter's look. For the belly and tail part, I am thinking about being translucent so that we can see the inner organs and the victims it consumes to emphasize on the theme of sacrifice.
For the motorcycle, because among the characters we have, the mechanical elements aren't too strong, I feelt we cannot really use too heavy of an industrial look for the motorcycle. I'm considering leaning into the armor for horse to coverup the metal structure of the motorcycle and beneath it are the two rings and one regular wheel. To connect two rings using tangled pipes and the bigger ring is mostly broken with gears and basic steam engine parts to fill out the center. And considering the maker of hands based on the design doesn't have physical hands, I'm going to have the horse saddle for supporting torso part with an extra "handle" to fix the arms to.
And that brings us to the final cover of the box! That covers the main art assets we had pre-campaign, now next week is our final days so we're going to explore what's ahead, what our collab is offering with A Land Once Magic, and more of what to expect in this game ahead!
The Poll!
First though, before we part ways for the weekend, I think we should take a final look at that darn poll.
Oh gosh, the Trophy Collector in first?! Maker of Hands and Caged Wraith tied for second? Color me surprised y'all. The Bonecutter is still in last, I'm sure he's seething over that one. For your own sakes, I'll give you one more chance to make this right. There's no telling what he might do!
See you all Monday,
7DA
your pub gob
53 votes
• Final results
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