Tales of the Shire - Growable Plants
I modelled and textured lightweight art assets for each growable state used in gardening and foraging, based on my research on traditional English gardens and the surrounding countryside.
I modelled many plants from scratch and did a careful polish pass on each asset to maintain cohesion. Credit to Kurt Adams and Nick Sussmilch who created a selection of the initial models.
Each type of gardenable plant required several different states - seedling, medium and harvestable. And of course the final crop asset used in cooking.
We were able to decorate hobbit holes and shopfronts with plants, varying their states seasonally to reflect how they change throughout the year.
The final harvested flowers shown here in the customisable player home. I love how the flowers make the spaces seem so alive. I can't wait to see how players decorate their homes.
An early capture of the game in Alpha, showing more of the gardenable assets.
Tales of the Shire - Growable Plants
I worked on a variety of growable plants in Tales of the Shire, caretaking them from early research stages to final game mechanic integration. This was a treat to work on. I have always been fascinated by how plants grow and change, and this project only encouraged that fascination. It was also a great technical challenge balancing many different factors, such as the stylised look, performance, and visual design communication.
I also created the forageable assets found throughout Bywater, taking care to model them so they would fit in with the environment, but also have enough visual presence to convey their interactive state to the player. These especially could not be possible without help from the programming team who assisted with implementing systems which reflected art and design's needs.
Flowers were my personal favourite which I championed throughout the project. I'm so happy to see them add so much flavour and character to the world of Bywater.