Our Life 2: Bridge Concept Art Sketches (Patreon)

Here's more concept art made earlier in development! The special place from the above perspective only needed one test to be just right. The lower area, though, went through a bit of a process to finally get it exactly as we needed it. 

The most important thing that has to be considered for a location is how the character sprites will look layered over the image. There has to be room for them to "stand" and for the perspective/sizing of everything to match. Otherwise, the world becomes uncanny. After that, the next most crucial thing is that the little details match with the story elements we want to mention! For example, I wanted there to be room under the bridge to sit, rather than for the river/rocks to go all the way to the edge of the space. It can be tricky to get perfect, but the end results have always been wonderful.

These are the fully realized backgrounds-