Project Malus-Game Art
Iris Wang
Project Malus is a game art project for my original 2D metroidvania game idea done throughout the past semester.
The project currently includes gameplay exploration, character designs, environment designs and an experimental asset sheet.
Game Plot
Smash them ALL!!
The Tree village is in danger! The sunlight that Leaves depend on is getting lesser and more irregular, and the Tree is threatened by madly expanding, mutant pests! In order to protect the habitat, our protagonist Malus decides to go off fighting against the source of the situation and eliminate them. But they find out that their world is contained in a huge, ruined lab, where humans used to draw energy from them.
Now that humans are long dead. Without maintenance, the facility slowly withers. Causing aberrance among insects and less sunlight due to a dysfunctional dome, which was supposed to let the sun in. Now the goal of our protagonist is to smash their way out, and break free from this grave!
Character Designs
Before designing my protagonist, I first explored the gameplay, and experimented with key poses to match the controls
Malus sketches
- The imagery of Malus originates from wild crab apples and apple leaf
- Choosing red outfit so the character stands out from the environment
- Outfit design took inspiration from Celtic and Kazakh clothings
- Weapon design merged mace and a bitten apple
Final design of protagonist—Malus
NPC sketches
Horse Chestnut
White Oak
Environment Designs
Tree Village early sketches
More environment sketches
Stage concepts
Ground Level of Tree village, containing:
Workshop for Weapon Upgrades;
Gates to Hallway;
Elevator to Root Transportation;
Elevator to Second Level;
Second Level of Tree village, containing:
Shop for Collectables;
NPCs for Side Quests;
Elevator to Top Level;
Elevator to Ground Level;
Hallway of Tree village, containing:
Space for tutorial combats;
Gates to Outside;
Pathway of Lab, containing:
Space for plot combats;
Gates to the Lab;
Experimental asset sheet
Test Build in Unity
