Update Post - 02/02/23

Hey, everyone!~

Over the past few weeks i've been working on various art related things for Lost Case and would like to share them with you! I know since we're currently not working on characters much getting through this progress phase might be a bit boring for you, but bare with us!

As you have probably noticed the levels have already been reworked and visually "downgraded". This is not a state we want to keep the game in obviously and is just merely the first step to make level design easier. In the past I've been drawing the whole level as one file, but this wont last for long and will just end up with a huge mess, so were going with tilesets now!~ I have the wish to still make areas feel unique and full of variety and clutter similar to our first versions. Even our first versions weren't as far as i wanted to go. I want to make the final version of the levels to be a compact and dirty city with buildings and alleyways having multiple background layers to make it really immersive! For that i've been recently collecting a lot of reference and made concept art, lists of areas and what kinds of tilesets and decorations they need to feel completed. I will show you an example of a half finished house that i'm still working on.

Tilesets weren't the only thing i've been working on though... my work was very spread over multiple tasks and one of them was the inventory. Together with Avan we've been working on the layout and navigation. At its current state its only placeholders, but im sure you can see where the final version is going. It's supposed to be his trusty book with each page containing different tabs of the inventory. At the end i'd like to have a page turning animation too to switch between each tab.

My favourite thing though that i've recently worked on were the accessoires or as we call them: clues! If you've read Avans post you already know what they are about. To me designing them was a blast! Each enemy has their own unique set fitting visually to them but as well have a combined version with another enemy. The nice thing about those clues is that each one represents something about them. We have one for appearance, showing a visual element about them. For those I mostly took elements that you can actually see on the character, for example nail polish for the fairy. Another one is a food item that either is their favourite, they consume often or just means something to them. This one was tricky because i wanted to keep a colorscheme but didnt wanna decide on their color what they like to eat. I knew that the combined food item of the fairy and vampire would be a delicious cheap burger they regularly get at the shop, which neither has blue nor much red. But i came up with doing wrappings and containers supporting their color so it still fits. In this case I did red wrapping with a cute little blue flag to hold the burger together. Sometimes things just come together nicely as the shopkeep has a little logo on a red background as her apron, which was perfect for the wrapping design of her products. The third clue is somewhat akin to a pastime item. Just something they interact with regularly or a hobby that they have. That was pretty easy and also pretty fun to think about. With the example of the Fairy and Vampire burger I will show you their combined pastime item so you can see how I made them fit together color wise. And lastly we have the aspiration or desire item. All those catergory names are wip, so they might change in the future. Those items are about what they want in their life. Honestly, portraying a "want" as a physical item was harder than I thought. Luckily we will have some flavour text to make things more clear~ 

An example for this one is a Camera that we gave to the Vampire. The Vampire seems to be pretty stylish and likes to take care of her look, doesnt she? pretty impressive for her not being able to see herself in the mirror... luckily in modern times she can check up on her looks on cameras!~ Maybe it even inspired an interest in her. Its up for the detective to interpret those items~

Aside from that i've also continued on the new banner art, but this is currently my least priority.

These were mainly the things that occupied me in the past few weeks~

Keep in mind that im streaming every week on Sunday, 3 a.m UTC in which you can see me make progress on the game. Everyone can watch it, patreon or not!~ Feel free to ask me questions there if you have any and if you missed it you can still watch the vods. (if my internet doesnt mess up the uploads of my streams...)

Stream link 

Thats all from me!~ 

Thank you for your support!

- Veila