There are many planets, among the vast cosmos, but only few have the magical potency of Elenia. A world so beautiful and rich of culture,
animals and magic, that many of its inhabitants, despite their differences, agreed easily that it was a piece of heaven, gifted by the gods to their servants. There were many conflicts among the centuries. Empires and kings falling and raising, nations being forgotten in the past, as all these conflicts were always playing a huge part of their planets history, changing the cycles of Golden and Dark age over and over again. At first, it wasn’t visible, but eventually, the peoples of Elenia could see their planet, losing its divine beauty, and many wild and plant life going extinct.

It was two thousand years ago, when the empire of Kalia, decided to put an end of this cycle, and his majesty, the Emperor Rai gathered his armies and set on a march towards the smaller nations, to either submit or be conquered under their rule, to unite the continents under one banner and ruled with an iron fist. And while his conquest was fruitful, after ten years of wars, the remaining nations united under one alliance to put a stop to the emperor’s conquest. Both armies met, and powerful spells were channeled, draining the life of the local land, and disturbing its core. Eventually causing an apocalypse. Chains of explosions occurred through out the world, the lands splitting apart, cities and mountains falling into the depths of Elenia. It happened in mere hours, when the entire world changed its shape, thank to the overload of magic that has been drained from its primal magical core. Leaving only scattered pieces of earth and ruins floating in the space, yet still connected to the remaining core of the planet, the only energy that was keeping them together and still inhabitable. Most of the nations were gone, ninety-five percent of the land was obliterated by the calamity. And two thousand years later, those that remained alive from the entire conflict, now are scattered into small tribes, living in villages or small towns. And to not repeat the same mistake, they avoided any contact with one another. The vast knowledge of old, now lost forever, forcing the remnants to only make up their own story, of how the world came to be what they know it today, each tribe having their own story, and gods they worship.

The Butterfly clan

Known for their vast knowledge of brewing potions, to help themselves with their day to day lives. The clan is teaching their children from young age how to craft potions, using the herbs and magical crystals that can be found across their land. However, consuming potions, eventually starts to change their bodies, forcing the members of the clan to cover their body with cloth and mask. They believe that a great butterfly resides in the magical core holding this planet together, coming out once a year to spread its wings above the land, the dust that finds itself stuck within the soil for more than a week, eventually becomes crystals, that can be used for stronger potions.
For the clan, a massive meteorite clashed against the planet thousand of years ago, wiping out many of the previous inhabitants and only few survived, awakening the great moth from the core of the planet, and now protecting them from going extinct.

The Ki’lak clan

A clan known for their very unique way of surviving. For them, food such as meat and vegetables and fruits, should be consumed only during great feasts, given how scarce the resources are for them. During the rest of their time, the clan eats insects. Consuming the insects, caused the clan to show small changes such as antennas and stings.
The Ki’lak clan worships the great worm. A massive worm within the soil of the land that digs holes every three months, and from the destroyed land, it gives birth to more and more insects, for the clan to feast and survive from, thus why their small evolutions. For them, the destruction of the planet happened because of the father of the great worm, who was digging so many holes near the core, eventually shattering the world into pieces, forcing the great worm to turn on his father and stop him. To save the remaining people.

Jelai clan

The Jelai are people with little understanding of the world and care little for who created it or controls it. For them, there is no great being that controls the land. They care only for their survival by any means necessary. Their culture is all about scavenging the land and taking whatever they can and making the best out of it, to connect both ends. The Jelai are always open for offers and exchanging information for materials that can help them and their village with their survival. They are known to make something out of nothing. Due to the fact none of them know how to write or read, they have no idea, and no interest, to find out why their world is floating, they are too focused on surviving.

The way we decided to approach our target audience was to research our competitors’ target audience because they have similar mechanics and features.

After completing the competitor research, we decided to make a persona and an empathy map for a better understanding of our target group.

The project has been developed across ~5 months (1 semester) and it followed the general design cycle.

My main role in this team was as a Character Artist, but I also took part throughout the entire development process from the very beginning. Starting with research, identifying target audience, competitor analysis and taking part constantly in SCRUM board and assigning the proper tasks and deadlines.

Character Art

Before starting to work on the actual 3D character, my team and I conducted research among diverse characters style and concepts and put everything together on a mood board.

All the 3D characters shown in this section are created exclusively by myself using Blender and Substance Painter.

Once the mood board has been set up, I’ve created a few initials 3D models that would represent the first tribe present in the game. It showcases 3 different characters archetypes.

Once the concept art has been better outlined, the models got a new design:

Second tribe characters

Third tribe characters