Early Wayfinder : Part III
Today, we will focus on some explorations I did during the early phase of Wayfinder, this time, not in 3D, but 2D! Back in around 2020, the game was still to be defined in a lot of areas, and we all took some time to figure out what some areas could be, what the Gloom could look like. It was a really fun experience, seeing the all art team exchanging ideas, concept art, small blockouts and being free to propose visuals and gameplay elements!
On my side, some of the first explorations were dungeons and places to explore, simple stuff that would lead the players toward new adventures.
This one was simple, the entrance to what we were calling at the time the “God Maze” The surface level was to be overgrown and forgotten in time, as if a bigger civilization built this thousands of years ago and no one knew what the purpose for it was anymore.
Another layer deeper and things started to change a bit, the weather would be more chaotic. This was one of the first “concept” that I tried to do for Wayfinder, a frozen underground maze where the wind would create massive ice spikes and lead the players toward the exit.
This was also part of the god maze but way deeper, where a mysterious swimming shadow would be watching your every steps, the idea of changing the laws of physics and making the place feel “alien” was something that we wanted to explore back then. The world was full of mysteries to unfold, but this could have been a great reveal that things where not what they seamed to be in Evenor.
The deeper you would go, the more things would become odd and out of this world, and suddenly the players would find The Gloom, a mysterious and dangerous infection that was spreading underneath the surface of the world.
And finaly at the heart of the maze, the gloom was spreading, living, deforming, this was a quick sketch done to show what a gloom infested area could be looking like, what the colors and shapes would be. We had many idea, liquid shapes, crystals, tech.. and the final gloom in the game is this mix/evolution of those ideas.
And here’s years later what we ended up with for the heart of the Gloom that you can find in Wayfinder! A mix of crystals, organic and tech like shapes, mixed together.
