Behind the scenes: Background art (Patreon)

Since things are a bit barren for Patreon posts here lately, as sprite and cg art related stuff is slowing down a bit and I've been focusing time towards getting the next bit of content released. I thought it'd be neat for a little discussion dev talk about some bg art since it's been a long time since we've finished all of the bg art for the game. :P

First off, sadly I don't have very much progress that shows off how some of the finished bg art was made. (The preview image above gives a good idea though for a very early concept preview of what I'd get when working with Olivson.)

A little fun fact: Later once we finished the initial bg art required for MA's locations at the academy. We had to have new bg art made for Miki's Dream side story content. This actually had us hire another artist named Fuyunokawa to handle it, as the original artist didn't feel up to the task sadly.

In the future we'd like to have a tiny bit more bg art added, but I think the main content of the game is fully covered minus maybe 2-3 areas that would maybe make sense to have seen a bit more uniquely.

~Concept dev ideas~

Time for some dev talk about early concept ideas!

Originally the dorm room bg was going to have extra variants to help make each dorm room more unique to each character. So when visiting Erika's dorm, we'd see more books laying around and some personal stuff and it'd look neat. Meanwhile, Miki's dorm would've had clothing scattered about on the floor, along with toys/board game stuff in a mess. Trying to give a bit more visual character to each dorm room, but sadly it didn't feel logical to do this. Even just doing it for the main cast of characters would've been a good chuck of extra bg art the game would have to store for use.

Another thing that was going to make it into many bg's was for night time variants. There was going to be night time variants of locations that had the lights off, making sense for the dorm rooms and some other areas. Not only would it have made sense, but also help set the tone of a scene if there isn't cg art to help.

There was also going to be some weather variants for some location bg art, but it never came to be and in reality it would've have been used enough probably. I think a long time ago in a early build, there was a single day within the game that was meant to be rainy/stormy out and that sort of was it. >.>

I believe originally there was going to be a basement area of the academy but it was scrapped, along with a subjective room that if I recall right it was hinted at or named in the first build of the game. The location in question was more or less a disposal area for dirty diapers, but it seemed like it'd be a location that'd be visited and had a different tone by the early hints. Something that wasn't quite intentional and later this disposal area would become a location under the academy, linked to the whole system of disposal tech we hear about in the nurse's office.

I think there was also plans for some sort of closet location, but naturally the amount of use for such a location would've have been used often. ^^" (Probably useful for episode 3 for Heather, but beyond that not so much maybe.)

The headmaster office was going to and might still receive bg art for it's location, there was plans originally to get that area done as it'd have some ties into the main story taking place as things unfold.

I believe there was also plans at one point to have a forest location bg art that'd be within the surrounding school grounds. It'd give a better visual idea of how secluded the academy is and getting a better idea that the only other nearby areas a good mile or two away was a small village/town. The surrounding areas around the academy are mountains and lust forest pretty much, actually the rooftop bg art is the best example of showing this off for what's further around the academy location itself. (The track field area does have trees seen around, but it might also not quite give the exact visual that it's pretty thick forest and goes on for miles.)

One location that wasn't really thought about until more recently is within the locker rooms, being part of that area is the showers. Ideally it's the only area for students to wash up, as their dorms don't have bathrooms naturally. It's something that doesn't get a chance to pop up in context, but it'll actually probably be put into the game context wise soon enough.

When it came to the overall concept map for picturing just how and where these locations were at within the world setting, along with piecing together the academy to feel like a living place that's connected together. I more or less had the concept that the academy is sort of like a squire box shape with the middle being the courtyard if you were looking top down at the academy building.

It'd be a three floor building, four if you count the rooftop. The main floor being set in mind for all the major academy daily areas that students roam around. (classrooms, gym, locker room, swimming pool, library, cafeteria, doors leading to courtyard, bathroom, offices, etc.) The second floor would be for the dorms living space purely and the third floor would be ideal for club rooms. (The club rooms hinted to have once been used in earlier years as old classrooms.) Lastly the rooftop was a simple small area of the building for students to hang out, similar to the courtyard being a ideal area for fresh air and relaxing.

I wanted to more or less have the academy building formed around the courtyard in terms of design. The track field location would be directly behind the back of the academy building area with a pair of double doors leading out into a little walking path and connect to the track field. The front of the academy we can see at the very start of the game and gives off a decent idea in terms of implying there's a courtyard in front of the building. The one thing that oddly seems to be missing is no sign of the distant mountains or forest, which is kind of a oversight as the front of the academy bg art was the first piece of art made for bg. ^^"

It's hard to really flesh out a location like the academy to be this living, breathing space and vessel for the game's location. Trying to imagine how everything would come together naturally, realistically and at the same time given the nature of vn's we're not meant to really quite see which bg art piece is connected to another at times, making it harder to pinpoint exact locations and how things are really connected in a more 3d living space. (Even if there's little subtle things, like hallway bg art trying to give off subtle hinting at doors being connected to classrooms or even club rooms maybe.

I think it's safe to say I'd like to see a tiny, very tiny bit of bg art added in the future still for MA's project for the base game. Perhaps depending on how things work out, if I can contact the original bg artist that worked on many of these. I can have them touch up a few locations to feel a tiny bit better connected.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little behind the scenes dev talk sort of post covering bg art! ^^ Posts are a bit slow right now, but moving into December there should be more engaging posts and polls taking place.