Here’s some of Nixis concept art of the main characters for Penalty of Heroes. This and some other collages were Nixis contributions for “Best effort in art” at the Gotland Game Awards, last week. The larger versions of the characters on the sides are the newest versions of the main characters. There’s also some smaller sketches at the bottom of different moves of the characters

Every game needs a start screen, something that tells the player what kind of game they can expect and what the story is about. Earlier on I made a concept used as a background for a couple of presentations. My producer liked the epic feeling about it and so did I. However it didn’t reflect any of the action elements in the game. I thought about this and came up with the idea to add some enemies, standing ready for battle on one end and our heroes on the other. The upcoming conflict is placed on a bridge that separates the lands, showing Era (the hometown of the heroes) on the left side and a dark forest on the right side.

Depending on what selection the player makes something happens ex. Camera pans and shows something related to the selection. When the player start a new game, the characters runs towards each other and just before the battle starts, the screens fades and the game begins.The placement and the behaviour of the menu is something that I will continue to work with.

Early concept for the PoH startscreen.