PROJECT OVERVIEW

Heartache

2022

Team Rookies

Heartache takes its namesake to heart, acting as an expression of our director, Sam Smyth's process of navigating grief and self-care following personal tragedy. By heading the words of Care as you traverse through an abandoned, grey factory, find ways to breathe color back into your life and life back to the world around you.

Level Artist - Created all art (character, environment, item, ect) for each level of Heartache, as well as the early concept versions used in the first prototype. Due to the short time frame I had available to me when creating the art for the final version of the game, I designed a pipeline in Adobe Illustrator using patterns, allowing me to very quickly create full overlays and individual assets to layer ontop of the white box level design provided to me. Through this pipeline, I was able to completely the full art cycle (concept, testing, design, and implementation) for 7 fully detailed levels in just under 4 days.
Character Designer and Animator - Animated the player character and the spirit, Care using Clip Studio Paint; Additionally animated some environment elements, such as moving platforms.

This project was created for the final project for Making Meaningful Games at American University and then later expanded for the Capstone Project of its director, Sam Smyth.

It was later showcased as a part of IndieCade's 2022 Horizons Festival, where the director and I were interviewed on our process (see video clip here).