Case study 02/02Outer Zone Studios2020–2023Unity · C#

Space DistrictDaedalus

Press start

Questmaster · Mission 01

Simple characters a small team could animate, each one easy to recognise.

Client: Outer Zone Studios
Genre: 2D top-down shooter
Years: 2020–2023
Engine: Unity · C#
Role: Art direction, Character design, Animation, UI & level art, C# programming
Tools: Unity, C#, Photoshop, After Effects, Blender

Level 00

The rules

Before a small team draws a hundred things, it needs a few rules: what has to read on screen, and what can stay cheap.

OutlineOne weight, on everything#0b0f1c
Deep spaceBehind it all#141a33
Station steelWalls and floors, kept cool#3f5f80
Console lightThe brightest surfaces in a room#a9c4e0
NebulaThe only colour outside#3e8080
SkinWarm, so people read first#f2c9a2
The cultEnemies get their own hue#5e3a80
AlertEnemy rings, key words#d8352f

01
Cool station, warm people
The rooms are steel blue and console light; the cast carry warm skin and coloured suits. The eye finds a character before the room.
02
One outline for everything
Characters, props and interface share one dark outline, so a sofa, a raider and a button all belong to the same world.
03
Colour has a job
Red only means danger or something important: enemy rings and key words. Crew stand on pale rings. Nothing is red for decoration.
04
Silhouette first
Big heads, few shapes. Every character had to be recognisable as a black shape before it got colour, then cut into parts a small team could rig.

Lead — The silhouette test: if you can tell who it is as a black shape, it works in a fight.

Princess — The silhouette test: if you can tell who it is as a black shape, it works in a fight.

Level 01

Crew

Few shapes, big heads and one outline weight. Easy to animate in a small team, easy to tell apart on screen.

Lead F · Standard · Front

Lead

View

Suit

The standard suit has a full turnaround. The other four suits were drawn from the front only. Choose him in Navy to see his idle animation from the game.

The rest of the crew

Six more crew members, drawn by the same rules.

Level 02

Station

The levels and the interface were designed together. Open the lockers, switch the interface off in the lab, or tap a marker.

In-game screen: crew quarters with a lounge, lockers and the player standing in front of them

Storage open: a grid with a blaster, two gadgets and a large weapon taking three cells; 1,250 credits

01 / 05
Storage
Each item takes up as many cells as its size needs.
02 / 05
Large items
The big weapon takes three cells, so storage space has to be managed.
03 / 05
Credits
Your credits are shown right next to the items.
04 / 05
Props
Sofas, lockers and plants use the same outline as the characters.
05 / 05
Abilities on Q and R
The number under each slot shows the charges left.

Level 03

Hangar

Enemy warships as line drawings, the player’s ship in colour. Pick a ship and move the pointer to steer it.

Player ship · 01 / 04

Colour

Player ship

Enemy fleet

The player’s ship. Players upgrade it as they progress through the game.

Cam 01 · Nebula00:00:00

Cam 02 · Engine trail00:00:00

The player’s ship in an early Unity build.

Level 04

Factions

Two enemy factions: space raiders in scrap armour and cultists in masks and robes. Their silhouettes are different enough to tell apart in a fight.

Space raiders

Scrap armour, goggles, gas masks.

Cultists

Skull masks, robes and a staff.

Cultist splash screen

Level 05

Motion

Hands, weapon and the swing effect were drawn as separate layers in a fixed order. Characters are animated from these parts in Unity instead of frame by frame, and the logic behind them is written in C#.