Azure was a 2nd year school project involving the creation of a pre-production for a theoretical game. At the end of the project we were tasked with creating a short pre-vis trailer.
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Role Writer, Visual Director
Team Size 5
Responsibility Story & Characters, World/Environment Design, Historical Research, Visual Design
Project Output Pre-production for a theoretical game, pre-vis trailer for theoretical game
Development Time 3 months
Completed Dec 2021
Art: Ronja Metso
Pre-Vis Game Trailer
While there were no large defined roles in the pre-vis trailer portion of the project, I acted as a director. My contributions were the shot arrangement/storyboard, the dialogue scripting, voice direction, and the final edit.
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The trailer composition began with a simple draft I made consisting of nine beats. These nine beats were expanded upon when moving into the storyboard, adding more shots per beat when needed. Photobashes were also created to aid in the concept of some shots,
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Pre-Production
My role in the pre-production portion of the project was the world and story, where I worked collaboratively with two others to fashion the main story beats and important areas. I was given more free reign over characters and environment, allowing me to create multiple pivotal characters and locations to the plot.
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Azure is not a direct 1 for 1 historical game, but heavily draws upon the upper Adriatic history of the 1920s and 30s. To create the world and story with accurate historical influence, I had to research the time period and understand what important aspects to include. My primary visual output was the map of the Kvarner Gulf, where the game would take place. I took the approach of placing pre-existing islands in their real life locations to add familiarity to any who have seen maps of Croatia, and then filling the empty spaces with islands taken from southern Croatia. I drew inspiration from the AC Odyssey world map, which used a similar technique of making the main landmasses instantly recognizable in shape and position, but tweaking their size to fit the game designer vision.
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I also created the style reference as well as the appearance of each major area. I traveled through Google Maps to understand the environment and studied architecture to understand the characteristics of the buildings and climate, allowing me to design appearances that would be recognizably Croatian and Italian while containing a style for Azure. My research into Italianate Villas was specifically in depth and I sketched up a floor plan and 3D model for reference.
Art: Ronja Metso
Level Layout
For an additional school task I designed a short level where the player would have to navigate an Italian fort to steal intel. The fort is based of a true location in Rijeka, Croatia, called Trsat Castle, which has a history tying all the way back to an ancient Roman fortification. I tried to keep as much of the original fort layout as possible to keep the area recognizable, but still offer a linear challenge for the player to progress through.