Mind Over Magic Environment Concepts

My initial concepts focused on big/medium/small vignettes as to what running a school could visiually be. From the very macro of an entire school structure, to the micro of what an individual classroom dynamic would look like.

We decided that the tone needed to be grimmer, more dangerous, where the world was a threat and survival was not guaranteed. These concepts explored an edgier look to the world, where everthing felt slightly unbalanced and on the edge of disaster.

After a lot of iteration, this image really turned into our snapshot for what we wanted the game to aspire to be visually. An old world sensibility with a touch of the fantastic. The furniture sketches established a visual language of wonk.

More room sketches for the game, focusing more on furniture scale and proportions more than anything else. Intended to create props that felt like only magic could build and operate them.

Sketches of the world itself, different biomes and environment types. In addition to differentiating what time of day it was. We wanted the world to feel different and dangerous both in close proximity to the school as well as the surrounding environment.

Production concepts for the background and how it would be constructed. This allows for some 2.5 D parallax without needing geometry.

Early sketches of the underschool, trying to establish a visual language for different areas in the underground network of caves beneath the structure. Ranging from more natural cave environments to more constructed ruins of long dead mages.

An early narrative beat we explored was the idea of abandoned mining equipment that old mages left behind. Ominous machines of simple looking complexity, they would become more active the further the player explored.

Detailed environment prop and scene paintings for our three cave "stages" We wanted to keep the painterly look to the textures of our rocks and equipment beneath the school just like we had established in our look above the school.

A fully realized "mine" room, from initial sketch to in game capture. We added additional recognizable mining equipment to further reinforce narrative elements.

We knew the mages needed somewhere more fantastical to go. These sketches were the postcard concepts for what would eventually become The Nexus. An area of unchecked magical power where the world was tearing itself apart.