Coming up with ideas (Patreon)

A suggestion by Alex Vissaridis, let's talk about my reference collecting, research and concept art. We'll take a look at my reference collection folder and see what's inside.

Reference photos

There is one objective to finding my references. Find the mundane. Take a look at this google search below. While the photos represent "Japan", it's a romanticized representation of the country and it comes from a tourist perspective. This representation exists for every country, only the ideal and iconic imagery is used to describe what the place is like. 

What I look for is the mundane, actively looking for the boring. While tourist photos are definitely not fake (and my stance on a beautiful landscape may come off as elitist), I realized the representation from the media and my vision is different at times, so my job is to showcase what's around me. Google wasn't sufficient enough, there needed to be another way to find reference beyond my environment.

Photo from Nara, Yamanobe No Michi. This sparks joy.


Beautiful...

Familiar?

These example photos were taken during my time in Nara. I hike as a hobby and take lots of photos, from morning to evening. Most of my reference comes from personal photos and Twitter (I have 3 private accounts for those). There is a big photography community on Twitter, here are some of my favorite people:

https://twitter.com/Taishi_Arashida
https://twitter.com/nekoisanxxx
https://twitter.com/hi_konnkun
https://twitter.com/kaidanmeguri

I don't really look at anime for inspiration, which many people bring up (Yes lots of Ghibli comments). I have occasional Ghibli screenshots for reference but if we're talking about anime, I'd argue Letter to Momo, Yuru Camp and Yama no Susume is a bigger influence. 

Hobby-based anime is my favorite.

Arguably the most important sources include pamphlets, documentaries, magazines, and text documenting how people live and think about their life. These are found at government websites, tourist websites, DVDs, scientific databases, and physical prints in stores. 

LOTS of reading and watching.

Documentaries (In Japanese)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kngo8RVqUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RdaavgQT48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZcWE46hS0o

Most of my narrative resources comes from first hand experience and I write stories based on real life people, but I felt it was necessary to study as many regions as possible to find differences in character/opinion. I'm mostly familiar with the Kansai area and hope to visit the northern and southern areas when I have time.

Level design

Fun fact I take screenshots of google earth satellite images, plop them into my world and block out my level. I have no education in level design/game design so I think this method is breaking rules on good design but whatever. I would often tweak things for better pacing and performance though.

A very old concept of the map. It used to be a large island.


That's about it. Lots and lots of research, which feels very natural to me because it's a subject I'm always interested in. And I think this is a good example of the importance of research, which in my case covers my weaknesses as a relatively inexperienced game developer and writer. 

Thanks for reading (￣▽￣)ノ