Yeseul Lee. The implementation team of Dora Vasiliou, Semra Usanmaz, Ray Jantayeva, Dan Nicholson- Coombes, Fin Miller, Nico Smith and Rudi Kolenc. Character design from Rachel Kehoe, VFX and Tech-Art was Luke Peek, Alois Mispelon, Nicolas Maschall and Rafael Ribeiro. Our lighting partners at White Paper Games were James Burton, Oliver Farrell and Nicola Hynes. All of these incredible artists, under the direction of our art director and lead character designer Lucy Kyriakidou, were vital in creating the art for the game.
WHAT TOOLS WERE USED TO CREATE THE LOOK OF THE GAME? Chris: The two main tools used for creating the art in Disney Illusion Island were Photoshop and Unity. However, it is a game that has been created using a combination of different techniques, from utilising beautiful hand-drawn sprites for the set dressing, to creating the large majority of the world with a modified version of Unity’s sprite shape toolset. Aj: It was definitely not without its challenges and
learning curves!
Chris: The use of sprite shape in this manner is not something we have done before.
Aj: I don’t think anyone had used sprite shape to this extent before!
Chris: It allowed us to essentially create a large majority of the art directly in the engine, utilising a very minimal texture set. For example a majority of the larger pieces of art, such as floors and large background shapes, were created using only two different tileable textures. Using this method of creation allowed us to create much larger and bespoke-looking environments than if we had done a more traditional manner. This combined with the modified version of Unity’s 2D lighting system, and VFX, allowed us to create a unique look and feel.
DID YOU PARTNER WITH ANY OTHER STUDIOS OR AGENCIES TO HELP COMPLETE THE GAME? Aj: We had our long-term animation partners, Rumpus Animation, on the project. We’ve actually worked with
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Rumpus on every project we’ve made since we were working on Nothing To Fear, our shelved original title. Rumpus allow us to ramp our animation team up and down to meet the needs of the project at different parts. On this project they also partnered with us on the wonderful
animated cutscenes you see in the game. I imagine we will be working with them for years to come, and this project really is a highlight of the collaboration between our studios.
WERE THERE ANY UNEXPECTED DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTING THE LOOK AND FEEL OF ILLUSION ISLAND? Lucy: I am a big fan of curves and swirls and twists in art, which immediately took tiles out of the question of “How do we build the world?”. We had to find new ways of working to create a world that feels organic, full of bespoke curves and leading compositions, and it took all the departments to make it work. It was definitely not always easy, and we had big pivots during development, but the problem solving made for such a successful final product. It also made for a unique development experience, even for some of us who have been in games for over a decade!
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