awakening oceans

story & inspiration

My game is inspired by the stories Dagon and The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft. I've also taken inspiration from Bioshock (in terms of environment) and Outlast (in terms of game mechanics).

Awakening Oceans is about Clementine, a young girl who has found the diary of a man named Gerald Thatcher. In his diary, Gerald claims he's found the lost city of R'lyeh. The diary is incomplete, however; the final pages have been torn out. Clementine decides to follow the ghost of the old ex-marine into the depths of the ocean, looking for a long lost city which is said to be prison to the great Cthulhu.

The game starts off cheery and colorful, and Clementine doesn't run into a lot of trouble while exploring R'lyeh and solving puzzles. But the further the player gets into the game and the closer they get to Cthulhu, the darker it gets. Challenges get significantly harder and Clementine begins seeing things that aren't there, one of them being Gerald Thatcher himself.

When Clementine arrives at the final room, she finds out it's locked. Luckily, the key that came with Gerald's diary fits perfectly. The room is empty, and has a single large Cthulhu-shaped window. The ocean, visible through the window, slowly turns darker and darker, until the room is completely dark as well. A glowing light from outside then illuminates the room again, casting a Cthulhu-shaped silhouette on the ground. When Clementine tries to leave the room, the door slams shut and the screen goes black, effectively ending the game.

character design

The art on the right shows the character designs of Clementine, Gerald, and a mind flayer, one of the enemies of the game. Clementine wears an orange coat and the mind flayers are purple, which make them stand out from the environment more. Gerald has a more muted color scheme with darker colors, causing him to blend in with the environment more; this means the player has to look better in order to spot him. Gerald regularly shows up to give the player hints throughout the gameplay.

render target

The final render target is an action scene, showing Clementine approaching two mind flayers. In my design, I work with emphasis on the vertical axis; the tall windows, the large throne, and the high ceiling. This is to make the main character look very small compared to her surroundings. I did this to show how great and impressive this ancient location is.

The color scheme I used for the background is neutral, with blue, red and brown. The characters have a color that make them pop out of the background: for the main character this would be orange, and for the enemies this would be purple. I added in some light blueish green as well as supporting color, giving the environment some mystery to it. This color is also what brings some "natural" lighting to the scene; the only other sources of light are Clementine's lantern and the eyes of the enemies.

I composed the colors of the render target in such a way that most of the viewer's attention goes to Clementine. I decided to put more focus on the windows than on the enemies, because my goal is for the viewer (or player of the game) to be so distracted by the environment, that they don't see the enemies at first; the game would be a horror game, so that would fit the genre well in my opinion. The rays of light on the ground do still lead the viewer's eyes back to both Clementine and the enemies.

reflection

This project has made me more aware of how to build up an art piece that's supposed to tell the viewer as much about the game as possible. I had to create a visually pleasing piece, but also one with enough contrast between characters and environment. It was very interesting and fun to compose this work and to figure out the right balance in colors and lighting.