About the project

Our Personal Hell is a fake video game project that I put together for a Concept Design class. 

Far in the future, nearly past the point of human recognition, there is a small town nestled into the side of a cliff face.

Here in this town, a yearly sacrifice must be offered to the ocean beast. Should a sacrifice not be offered, the beast shall rise from the sea and consume the entire town in one gulp.

To choose who is sacrificed each year, the chief picks the least-liked, most-ignored, and oddest member of town to cast into the sea. To them, this is their new natural selection.

Our hero is Moke, a girl who lost both parents to this sacrificial practice. She can tell that she is surely next--and that she must do something to stop this archaic practice.

This is all organized here as:
  • Story
  • Characters
  • Environments
  • Props & Assets

Story

In a future far from now, our species took on new life after the apocalypse. They now believe they are all demons, and sacrifice a townsperson monthly to the terrible monster in the sea. If they do not do this, the sea monster will rise up and consume the whole village at once.

Our protagonist and puppeteer, Moke, hopes to put a stop to this before she is next.

Character Design

With the intent of becoming a video game as the final project, the goal was to create characters and environments that went along with a cohesive story and theme.

To start, I needed a protagonist.

Protagonist: Moke

Moke was born from the iteration of several designs. I knew I wanted a cute, young female protagonist, and that I wanted her to be weird. An outcast among her village of outcasts. For this world, that meant making her a little more human-like than the other characters, to make her both more relatable to the player and to stand out from the rest of the cast.
Picture
She ended up with a mix of all the design elements I had thought of: the large menacing demon horns for power and silhouette, the solo hoodie and backpack for mobility and cuteness, and the prominently dinosaur-like body for monster strangeness and big feet.

Her colors were intended to be bold and bright, symbolizing her new energy and fresh perspective. She wants to be seen for more than just what she is naturally; she chooses to express her loud inner energy in her outward hair and clothing colors. The more muted tones for her skin were chosen to balance this high level of vibrancy, and match more the rest of the tone of the character cast.

The necklace was a gift from her father, and represents the need for careful observation. Her hoodie and backpack where knitted herself; costume pieces to compliment her career as a puppeteer.

As a puppet master, she entertains young children in the village with her stories and knitted characters. She has a knack for magic, and uses animation magic to bring her puppets to life. These puppets are her friends and family when nobody else is.

Protagonist Support: Pin

Antagonist: Indoas

Protagonist Support: Urvok

Village Civilians

Environments

The Seaside Village

The village was designed to be place that is both beautiful and intimidating. Built into a cliff and alongside the ocean, the village rests at the cusp of danger yet also in a place full of breathtaking views. This in-game village would be fully explorable, and the player's house is one of these cliff huts.

I created two different colored versions for different moods.

Props / Assets