Maive's World
Kerris' research on fantasy is the main informant for the setting of Maive. We wanted to use a broad western fantasy world to suit the cosmopolitan cast of characters, as this genre of fantasy is widely popular worldwide. Limiting the world to a particular niche genre of fantasy would in turn limit the character species we could use. Western fantasy is clearly based on western historical environments, however the genre has transcended beyond that to become a blanket statement for fantasy in general. The visuals are rich, natural and appealing, and feels like the perfect setting for the game.
This moodboard I created catches the vibrant, vivid atmosphere we are attempting to capture with the visual design for Maive's World.
In accordance with the plot, we developed the four main settings for the story - the settings for each of the three beats, and then a setting for Maive's home. Kerris created a couple of maps for the environment which helped us visualise the world a little better.
I then created mood boards for each of the sections to further assist with visualisation. I found it beneficial find other material that captured some of what I was thinking, and then use that to spring-board off of to help me develop a little further. After each moodboard, I wrote a small extract of text about each one to give us as a team a sense of what the world feels like beyond the visual.
Coastal Town:
A small fishing community on the coast of the island. The town is not poor or poverty stricken, and has a comfortable, homely feel to it. It does, however, lack the lavishness of bigger cities, with most of the buildings being work or residential. The community is close-knit, and everyone knows each other. Wooden buildings on stilts jut out over the water’s edge, houses are painted bright colours to help people find their way home when the sea-fog rolls in. Cobbled streets are lit by paraffin lamps, and tackle hangs down from merchant windows like garlands. Crevices between buildings house loose and structured fishing nets. There is an ever-present salty tang of seaweed and fresh fish in the air, blown through tight winding streets by the sea breeze.
My main inspiration for this area was Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada. The small coastal town captures perfectly the rustic environment we are looking for without being run-down or shabby. I also visited Lymington, a town on the south coast, and it was that which inspired the details of this area a little better than online pictures of Peggy's Cove could.
Campsite:
Posited on the flat top of a cliff overlooking the coastal town, the campsite is a small grassy spot with beautiful views of the sunset over the ocean. Backed by the forest, it feels private and cosy whilst still being an open space, the wind filling the air with the rustle of grass and leaves. Designed as a place for travellers to stay before they catch a boat from the coast, lanterns hang from posts dotted about the site, casting a warm glow. But light also comes from the fireflies that hover low to the ground in the evening, blinking in the dark. There are logs arranged around the ash pits of past fires, and hammocks strung between some of the trees before they become dense forest. Visitors fall asleep to a spray of stars overhead, with the sound of waves lapping against the rocks below.
I wanted this campsite to be cosy and welcoming, and the clifftop element was inspired by Osmington Bay in Weymouth, which I visited this summer. The coastal walks were beautiful and peaceful, and I drew on that feeling of tranquility and the sounds and smells of the area when writing about the campsite.
Forest:
The forest is dense, trees with amber and scarlet leaves reaching high into the sky. Sunlight dapples the ground, streams of gold cutting through the light mist that permeates the woods. A trodden path winds between the trees, weaving back and forth over uneven terrain, veering towards the river that runs down to the ocean, babbling softly. Leaves drift through the air. In the centre of the forest live a community of people who dwell in the trees, stacked up in the branches or carved into the trunks themselves. Golden light twinkles from rounded windows, and thick moss beds stretch across the ground like carpets. There are bridges built from wood that pass over the river, and stone steps leading up the side of waterfalls.
My inspiration for the forest didn't come from first-hand experience, but from the magic forests I've read about in books and seen in movies. This was, for me, the most magical place to write about, and I could imagine the closeness of the air like Fangorn Forest in The Lord of the Rings. I tried to funnel that feeling into my own writing about the forest, but remove the menacing feeling and replace is with saturated magic instead.
North Clearing Community:
Getting closer to the mountain’s peak, snow begins to fall and settle in the divots of boulders and on the edges of paths. The trees shift to evergreen, deep, cool-toned firs that are dusted with snow. The forest begins to thin, however, the sky becoming clearer overhead. Dense bushes dotted with bright red berries rustle in the chill wind, and little log cabins start to appear between trees. The deepening snow mutes the natural sounds of the mountain, the loudest sounds are the soft crunch of footsteps. A bush-bordered pathway is lit by small lanterns, leading to a clearing in a forest, where a small, cosy log cabin sits in the darkening evening. Candlelight gleams from behind the windows, smoke rises from the chimney, and a soft humming can be heard inside.
The moodboard for the mountain community piggybacked off of the forest, I tried to focus on quirky, cosy houses in patches of sunlight in the forest. The character of the buildings was key when selecting pictures. Later, however, Kerris and I decided upon having each section of the game rooted in a "season". While the world is magical, these seasons aren't real seasons, we more wanted to show the decreasing temperature as Maive ascended the mountain. Thus, the coastal town and the campsite would be experiencing something akin to an Indian summer, the forest would be deep autumn, and the mountain top would be snow-laden. I made one more moodboard to demonstrate this.
