Hey howdy ho Lions! Welcome back to another Dev Diary! As far as updates go, it’s still full steam ahead on bringing our game to the finish line. Our team’s gotten Hugo’s route done and tested, and moved on to Riley’s! That means we’ve crossed the halfway mark, and we’re rounding the bend! Right now you can date two out of three of our eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, and we’re chugging along to make sure you can date all three of them very soon.

In the meantime, we took a peek behind the curtain to talk to our stellar art team about working on Dream & Sugar. They’re the ones who put the ‘visual’ in visual novel. As much as we love the stories we’ve written and can’t wait to share them with you, without the fantastic art team you’d just be reading a book. Our art team had a unique challenge working on Dream & Sugar, since the game combines both 3D art environments with 2D characters and Computer-Graphics (CGs). We asked our artists to share their experiences working with such a blend of mediums, and about the input on the art in general. Artists Aurore, Kara, and Shannon sat down with us to give us a peek into their world.

Q: What inspired the team to go with a mixed 2D and 3D style? What were some challenges that came up when mixing 2D and 3D? 

Aurore: Since our team is composed of both 2D and 3D artists, we thought it would be fun to explore a combination of the two styles into one cohesive look. The challenge at present is getting them to match stylistically, but we are still working on that part at present.

Kara: From a 2D perspective integrating with a 3D environment, I thought Shannon's 3D modeled environments were a fantastic solution for getting detailed backgrounds with a variety of perspectives. Finding a style that made sure the 2D and 3D elements complimented each other was an important element to keep in mind while creating the style for the 2D characters.

Shannon: We started the art in 2d because it is the style usually used to illustrate Otome games, so that was expected from the beginning. However, since my [Shannon] forte is 3D, and I was tasked with creating the backgrounds of New Yoronto, I created them in 3D. This gave the added benefit of being able to show different angles and times of day. Personally, I feel that I'm not as good at 2d art as 3d art, and especially not art in an illustrative or Anime style, so it took me a long time to get anything to a place that I was happy with.  Happily, however, Aurore is wonderful at creating 2d art, and then Kara added her 2d artistic talents to this project.

Q: How did the team decide on CG placement and composition?

Aurore: We chose the most ideal and rewarding places in the script, and I did rough drafts of how some should look. Then these roughs got over to Shannon and Kara for them to work their magic.

Kara: The insight and direction came from Aurore and what she envisioned for the CGs, along with Shannon's helpful resources, references, and my own photobashed references. Altogether, it allowed me to draw Dream & Sugar's characters with the intended emotions and poses in CGs consistently.

Shannon: From the beginning, Aurore, our project leader, has had a strong artistic vision and often had an idea of what she wanted to see in a scene.  I often looked at similar scenes, including pictures or even 3d models posed for reference when I helped with CGs.  Kara now does the CGs and would be able to speak more on her method for this.

Q: What are some of the differences between doing character/background art versus working on user interface art (like game buttons)?

Aurore: The UI has to work around the background art and characters, and still fit the overall concept that we are going for. Since we each have a specialization, we divided and conquered these tasks and brought them together to create our overall style and theme. 

Kara: Speaking for character art specifically, it comes with its own rules. Making sure characters are proportioned correctly and stylized with enough individuality to make their appearances recognizable, even if you were only looking at an outline of them, is one important rule I wanted to keep in mind while working on Dream & Sugar.

Shannon: We all have our strengths.  Aurore is excellent at graphic art which lends itself to UI asset creation.  Kara is wonderful at illustrating characters.  My strength is 3d, and so I utilize it to create the settings.  We all work together to create a beautiful and fitting game aesthetic.

Q: What are some unique challenges with Dream & Sugar’s art versus non-game art?

Aurore: Continuity and making sure we have all the right assets. Most art is a series or standalone. Game art is a long intense series of series, organized by a coding wizard. 

Kara: This is my first time combining 3D with 2D, so adding effects for the characters (ex: how sources of light hit a character or how their shadows interact with the environment) to blend naturally with the background has been a unique learning opportunity for me, but it's one I think contributes to giving Dream & Sugar it's own unique look.

Shannon: For me, I guess it would be that I render scenes within Unity game engine so that I am able to utilize different lighting, camera angles, and even camera panning to create scene transitions.  It also allows me to use a particle system to create smoke, steam, and snow.

Q: Did the art influence the story and characters or did the story dictate the art?

Aurore: Both, we started with the character designs and a rough story idea, then our talented writer Grace came up with the script. From there, other design elements and scenes were created to fit the narrative.

Shannon: I think very much both.  As the story was created, we got a sense of who the characters were and their body language in a given situation.  Similarly, I think it is possible that our author was influenced to develop the personalities of the different characters based in a small part on early character concept drawings.

Q: What were some challenges you faced when making multiple gender identities of the same character?

Kara: Taking the key design characteristics of what makes a character them and translating that into another gender can have its challenges. I've always been a fan of genderbending characters though, (watch out Bennett, Riley, and Hugo) so it was a welcome challenge.

Q: What have you liked most about working on Dream & Sugar? What’s been hardest?

Aurore: Working with the team has been the best part, since this is (was supposed to be) a small passion project. It is fun to come back every week and see how the project has grown. The hardest part is that we all have full time obligations outside of Couch Lion, so progress can sometimes be a little slow. We are looking forward to finishing the game up this year!

Kara: My favorite part working on Dream & Sugar has been seeing the results of everyone's hard work and dedication to the game. Seeing the art I make go into a game I'm helping work on with a bunch of great people makes me proud for everyone involved. For the hardest aspect, I'll second what Shannon said. Juggling other responsibilities in life at the same time can make it difficult sometimes to get time to work on things. But progress is still progress!

Shannon: I have enjoyed being able to contribute my artistic talents and have a hand in the development throughout the whole process.  I also get to explore artistic avenues that I am interested in.  The hardest aspect has just been having time to work on it with other jobs and responsibilities.

Q: If you could give advice to your past self or other aspiring artists, what would it be?

Aurore: If you want to improve your work, you have to actively do the work. Practicing your medium is necessary for improvement! Also, make sure you are having fun. 

Kara: Consistency is key! Find what helps keep yourself accountable and consistent as an artist, and remember to have confidence and get out of your comfort zone if you want to keep improving!

Shannon: I feel that having a truly creative project that you can develop and contribute to in an equal and meaningful way is vital to continued artistic learning, engagement, and joy.

That’s it from our impressive artists! A big round of applause to them, and while they’re not quite done yet, they’ve put hours of blood, sweat, and tears into this project. We wouldn’t be here without them! Just like the rest of the team they’re doing everything they can to bring Dream & Sugar around the bend and heading home. Thanks so much for coming with us on this journey and we’ll have more updates for you soon! As always check out our Dev Logs if you’re interested in seeing the most recent technical developments, and we’ll see you in our next Dev Diary!

• The Couch Lion Team