Concept Art
This page explores some early art concepts and their end points, along with some of the stories that shaped them.
Nigel
We knew we wanted to introduce a new hero character into ‘Stitch’. This was mainly driven by the fact that we didn’t want to turn WMYT into a serial drama where Nathan shows up each episode in a new situation that launches into a new self-contained adventure. Also, there was a lot of weight hanging on the end of WMYT, so we thought it would be a bit anti-climatic to immediately resolve Tick and then scramble to set up a new story that was equally as interesting. Instead, we decided to let Stitch play out with a new story thread set within the same world as WMYT. Our new hero would allow players to mine back story on the Smith Institute scientists, while still progressing forward toward the resolve of Tick. So, we decided to introduce Nigel Trelawney – the son of a now-deceased member of the Smith Institute who has come to his fathers home to settle his father’s estate.
Evolutions of Nigel
The early passes at Nigel were surprisingly difficult. We were struggling to strike a balance between someone who looked like an average young man while still capturing some expressiveness. Matt’s brother, Sebastian, was a huge help on coming up with character directions. By the time we reached the above sketch, we felt that we’d found a face that worked and bore a family resemblance to one of the characters in the Smith Institute photo.
However, his costume remained a problem. While it may sound odd, a hero is a lot more difficult to design than a non-player character. An NPC needs only a single personality profile that matches the context in which they appear within the world. A hero, on the other hand, needs to feel comfortable everywhere. In the case of Stitch, we needed Nigel to feel comfortable at day and night, in the woods and out to sea, napping at the inn and sitting by a campfire. In the above concept, Nigel’s trench coat and scarf made his outfit feel a little too cold-weather for our climate-neutral game world. While I can’t find the sketch in which it happened, there was a drawing where Sebastian introduced the sleeveless sweater that became the official Nigel costume. As for the satchel, that’s actually straight off Matt’s personal appearance… He has an official “Indiana Jones bag” (WWII gas-mask pouch) that he basically drew right onto Nigel.
Ravenhollow Harbor
As we began the process of designing Ravenhollow, the natural starting point for conceiving the world was at the beginning of the story: the harbor area. Given that our plan was to release a demo game and then proceed to the full release, we specifically planned on making the harbor a self-contained area that could be used to stage a stand-alone demo.
First concept sketch of Ravenhollow harbor.
My first quick harbor sketch (above) is one of the earliest world concepts to emerge. We had discussed putting a boathouse, a port authority office, and a merchant ship into the Ravenhollow harbor set. This sketch defined a few of those elements, while adding some of the flavor that carried into Matt’s later designs and the rest of Ravenhollow. You’ll now find that statue within the main Ravenhollow village square.
Second concept sketch of Ravenhollow harbor.
Moving forward, I turned that first sketch into a perspective drawing with more focus on architectural composition. This sketch was largely influenced by the conch architecture of Key West, Florida, and takes a utilitarian visual approach to the working of a harbor: the port authority office is situated immediately in front of the primary dock so that incoming ships can check into port. Merchant shops and carts surround a communal square (influenced by Key West’s Mallory Square), a wrecking tower watches over the surrounding waters, and warehouses store transient cargo. You’ll now find that cart in the main Ravenhollow square.
Matt's first full sketch for 'A Stitch in Time'
While this technically wasn’t the first-ever game sketch (Matt’s brother, Sebastian, had drawn the mill scene before Matt started working on the harbor area), this was essentially the very beginning of art production on Stitch. This scene really set the style for the entire rest of the game. While this illustration far surpasses the original concept sketches, some of the establishing elements did carry through: the wrecked rowboat came ashore and later evolved into a puzzle item, the boathouse design carried through, and Matt brilliantly evolved the wrecking tower into a lighthouse (which ties into the lighthouse seen in the distance within the original WMYT).
Matt's full harbor illustration.
Matt moved onto the primary harbor scene for his second illustration. While the docks had established a general visual style, the harbor really locked down what the rest of the game would look like. The harbor was a big undertaking for Matt, and it still stands as one of the two most ambitious illustrations within the game (the other being the castle scene). A key point that Matt wanted to address within the scene was to make it big enough to feel real. A village has a culture, lifestyle, and utilities – and while we won’t be taking our players into any bathrooms or broom closets, we still wanted the world to feel full enough that they could exist somewhere. Matt first sent me this illustration when only the left-most third of the scene was drawn. I asked how much of the scene I was looking at, and he replied that he didn’t know yet… he just kept drawing until it felt big enough.
Ultimately, Stitch has grown into a collection of over 30 illustrations which depict the world of Ravenhollow. Of those, about two-thirds ended up getting colored as both day and night.
