The Art of... Pentiment


Inspired by medieval manuscripts and art, Pentiment released late last year and immediately impressed with its distinct visuals. The game’s creative director Hannah Kennedy tells us how 


Hannah Kennedy is the creative director on Pentiment at Obsidian, and was previously a concept artist for The Outer Worlds


HOW DID THE IDEA FOR PENTIMENT’S VISUAL DESIGN COME ABOUT? Pentiment director Josh Sawyer’s early ideas   narrative adventure game set in 16th Century Bavaria with an emphasis on art and bookmaking.  resources be driven by the players experiencing the story and the setting and less on mechanically    the game in a personal way, where they can relate  world and art around them. It also was a style we  team that we had and the development scope we were managing.


“Styling the visual language of Pentiment to evoke the illustrations of books of that period helps the players engage with the setting of the game in a personal way.”


48 | MCV/DEVELOP March 2023


WHAT WERE YOUR VISUAL INFLUENCES AND REFERENCES?  and time period, most directly the Nuremberg   shown in this book, exploring all the textures and   to the Northern Renaissance in so many ways, I   and a brand. It’s such an exciting and challenging   and non-wealthy patrons were relatively rare, we  the Elder regularly while designing clothing and landscapes in outer Tassing.


WHAT PROJECTS INFORMED PENTIMENT’S VISUAL DESIGN?      team, we all really needed to be willing to go beyond


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