關於《Sundered》的藝術方向和故事敘述

作者：Jo-Annie Gauthier

當Thunder Lotus Games的創意總監Will Dube讓我編寫《Sundered》的藝術方向相關內容時，我發現這個任務比想象中簡單得多。

或者至少是直接得多。當你的學習經驗是受到其他藝術家的啟發時，你便很難去明確你的靈感來源到底是哪裡。

我發現《Sundered》是觀看了來自迪士尼，夢工廠，吉卜力， Don Bluth與萊卡等等公司的電影而學到的一切內容的結合體，我也發現了來自這些電影中的一些風格。我所認識的許多優秀的藝術家都在某種程度上影響著我的作品，即不管是在作曲，顏色的使用還是設計方面，但只有少數資源是《Sundered》中一些概念的最初推動力量。

Eschatons(from gamasutra)

Eschaton（那些會在湧向你之前朝你大吼的怪人）便是一大挑戰，因為他們既需要保留模糊的人類感同時也需要具有奇特性。把臉藏起來去創造不安感的做法已經過時了，而Eschaton的面具靈感是源自《千與千尋》中的無臉男，即能夠傳達這個角色的神秘感，即通過帶有非人類的身體去傳達一種驚悚感。但我們也必須說，即在他們承受命運之前，並在變成自己的影子之前，他們的面具其實也是一種敬畏與和平的標誌。它需要能夠傳達這兩種極端。

Valkyries(from gamasutra)

Valkyries是進步的體現。他們是伴隨著有問題的技術，不能控制自己的意志並會對Eshe發動進攻，沒人能夠制止他們。不管是遊戲，電影還是書籍等科幻媒體在過去幾年裡都非常盛行，所以我嘗試著在設計這些內容時去內化它。這是伴隨著巨大的槍支，重甲戰士以及演戲的強大軍事力量。

《Sundered》的整體配色方案是設計師設定好的，所有派系都擁有自己的顏色代碼，包括環境及其障礙區，在這些群組中每種類別或難度層面也都有不同顏色。（遊戲邦註：例如你應該提防所有綠色，並且遊戲會鼓勵你與那些紫色進行互動！）《Sundered》最初的靈感其實是源自電影《異形》中的懸疑感，我們知道我們想要通過使用充滿活力的顏色去保持前進並嘗試著避免顏色的限制使用。

透過環境設計和藝術形式去傳達故事是我們一直在努力做的事，而當我們真正能夠做到這點時我們便能夠最大化玩家的體驗。

（本文為遊戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉發，如需轉載請聯繫：遊戲邦）

Sundered: Art Direction and Visual Storytelling in a Hand-drawn Indie Game

by Jo-Annie Gauthier

When Thunder Lotus Games』 Creative Director Will Dubé tasked me with writing about the art direction for Sundered, I figured it would be simpler than it turned out to be.

Or at least more straight forward. It』s hard to pinpoint one or two inspirations when your your learning experience boils down to being inspired by other artists.

Sundered is certainly an amalgam of everything I』ve learned from watching movies from Disney, Dreamworks, Ghibli, Don Bluth, Laika, (and many more!) and I』ve retained things from every one of those movies in terms of style, as well from studying 2D animation. Many great artists I know have influenced the work I do in one way or another, be it composition, use of color, design, but a few sources were key to give the initial push to some concepts in Sundered.

An Eschaton Cultist.

The Eschatons—those strange tentacled people that screech at you before they swarm you—were a challenge to work on because they needed to retain a vague human feel to them while being monstrous. The idea of hiding the face to create uneasiness is as old as time, but the Eschaton』s mask was inspired by No Face (Spirited Away) for its uncertainty, for its slight creepiness once paired with an non-human body. But it must be said that before their fate was bestowed upon them and before they became only shadows of their former selves, their masks were a sign of reverence, of peace. It needed to be able to represent the two extremes.

The Valkyries – Technology gone wrong

The Valkyries are designed to appear as the embodiment of progress. They』re the ones with all of this technology that, somehow, has gone wrong and seems to be acting out of its own volition and attacking Eshe, with no one to reign them in or shut them down. Sci-Fi media, be it games, movies, books, (etc.) have been affluent for the past years, so I tried to internalize it all when it came to their designs. A large military force with big guns, big mechs, big drills!

Wakey, wakey!

The overall color schemes in Sundered are very intentional; all factions involved have their own color coding, including the environment and its hazards, and within those groups are different color tiers for each class or difficulty tier. (For example, you should probably be wary of anything green, but you are encouraged to interact with those purple!) If what prompted the initial spark for Sundered was the Alien movies for their suspense and feel, we knew that we wanted to keep going with our signature use of vibrant colors and try to avoid limiting our palettes.

A shrine from the Sundered underground.

Telling stories through the environments』 designs and compositions is something we are working hard to achieve so that we may maximize the player』s experience when discovering the regions. After all, I hear the people who once lived in there had a lot to report on what happened in this eerie underground world…(source:gamasutra)