![]() One of the areas we’re working on at the moment is based on Norwegian pine woods, which tend to have less leafy plants and more fungus, lichen etc. So we’re looking into ways of simplifying the designs, but still having the possibility to get that embroidered look where we want it. What we’ve seen in some early tests is that a lot of swirly plants with small details can become quite noisy for the player. In addition we’re making 5-ish area specific plants for each area that will give each one a distinct look and feel. We’re creating a set of basic plants that can, with different textures, fit into all these different themes. The game world is divided into a series of areas which all have their own theme based on different types of Norwegian environments (fjords, glaciers, mountains, woods etc), all in all 11 different themes. And this is what we’ll be working towards with all the growy bits in Pode. Bunad is the national dress of Norway, and every area has its own style.Ĭommon for both rose painting and bunad embroidery is that they have these gorgeous, colorful, elaborate, swooshy-swirly stylized plants and flowers in them. ![]() So when it comes to the mood and feeling of the game we’re trying to capture that trolsk-ness of Norwegian nature, leaving out the spookyness, but keeping the mysterious feeling that will make you want to explore every nook and cranny of the game world.Īnother art form common to the same era is rose painting, and this, as well as bunad embroidery, is where we’re finding inspiration for the flora of Fjellheim. Here’s a good example of some very trolsk nature, painted by renowned Norwegian painter Hans Gude: It’s also very closely connected to fairy tales and art from the Norwegian national romantic era (google it, it’s gorgeous). It’s a word that makes you feel small, and though it can mean that something is on the spooky side, it doesn’t have to be, and it’s usually a word that invites exploration. Trolsk is a word we mostly use to describe a mood in connection with natural environments. So… where the word trolsk does kind of imply that something is troll-like, it is also an implication that there’s an aura of magic surrounding it. It does of course derrive from the word “troll” which is the same as the english word, but in Norwegian we also have the word trolldom, which means magic (I could go into a whole history lesson about Norwegian folklore and superstition here, but that would take more time than I have right now). In Norway we have a word (trolsk) which can be translated into troll-ish, although that doesn’t really give it justice. So first I want to go into what that means for us. Our two main sources of inspiration for the visual design is Norwegian nature, and traditional rose painting. The basic visual direction for Pode is something we decided on quite early, and it’s something we’re getting more excited about as the concept progresses. Yngvill Pode ConceptArt Narrative GameDev So what we’re left with right now is a pretty clear idea of how the game will look and the outline of the story, and it’s all starting to look pretty good. There are however some similarities between the two, which make them easy to combine without creating too big a contrast for it to seem as it all belongs in the same world. ![]() On the other hand we have the viking era, and specifically its petroglyphs which are much more geometric in shape than rose painting. ![]() This will be incorporated into the living, growing flora of the game. On one hand we have the national romantic era, and traditional rose painting which is recognizable by its flowy, organic shapes and colorful designs. The two-parted story has also had an effect on the visual style of the game, and ended up having us draw inspiration from two different eras of Norwegian cultural history to separate different aspects of the game. Which is a challenge when you have a bit… a lot actually…. This means communicating through body language, imagery, game mechanics, and all kinds of symbolism to guide the players understanding of what’s going on. We want Pode to be a non-verbal, no text game, and we have to figure out how to tell the story of the world as well as the story of our two characters within these limitations. These days we are focusing a bit on story.
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