Environment Design Rocks!

[Xiaogabe]

Good evening folks! I can see that many of us have had problems this week. It seems to be global! I feel horrible for suggesting an extension, and then not being able to complete my work by it. But, I had to set priorities. I'm designing a game as a group for a core class, and half my group isn't pulling their weight, so I'm left to pick up the pieces...

Anyway, I want to at least post the story of my concept as well as the character designs I'll be centering the story around, tomorrow I'll post the environment designs (it's fine if they're not video critiqued):


So, lately I have become very interested in the concept of stories where there isn't a good force, or a bad force. The interest came from reading about Hayao Miyasaki in my history of animation class.  In his features there is never a clear bad or good force, and the characters are left without necessarily happy endings. They overcome emotional boundaries and maybe learn how to deal with each other.

I also have some character designs who will be the characters “living” in this world. The characters were done earlier, and I'm just finding a way to unite my character designs to my environment designs, so this wasn't thought out months in advance.

Enough about concept and now into the assignment:

This would take place in a medieval fantasy world, and the story would be centered in the growing Sun Kingdom. The ruler of the kingdom is a Queen, and she resides in the Sun Palace. With neighboring rival kingdoms also growing and expanding close to the Sun Kingdom (thus creating a threat), the Sun Kingdom must accelerate their growth process.  As the kingdom grows, a lot of trees are cut down for expansion. Some creatures from nature have tried defending their territory, but they had never been successful, until a spirit is woken. This spirit does not take lightly to the expansion, so it starts enchanting the forest's creatures and environment so it can fight back.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Sun Kingdom is forced to release a dormant being from deep within their palace in hopes for it to aid them in their quest for expansion.

(Will be starting with just the palace)

Location: Palace (inside palace want palace to have gothic-like architecture), underground of palace,  Sun Queen's chamber || Throne room
Time of day: day, sun setting
Mood: familiar (undecided)
Weather: clear skies with minor clouds
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Obstacles/Objectives: columns and opening floors (releasing the dormant being)
Focal points: Palace's designs and floor (for opening)