CHARACTERS
Defining the visual feel of the game was a question of balance between our existing IP, NeuroNet’s character illustrations, and the specific needs of this new gameplay. Here the players spend all their time talking to these characters and, in a way, exploring the city they live in through a camera lens. Having more stylised and graphical art was important to give the game a unique look. Additionally, it made it easier to produce a variety of different facial expressions to match the tone of the recorded dialogue.
Comparing young Kyros from Mendax Proxy with old Kyros from NeuroSlicers
ENVIRONMENTS
NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy provided a nice opportunity to explore the different areas and moods of the city that you’re in charge of, Catena. Narratively you’re looking at it from camera feeds, but it was important that the characters integrate nicely on top of the backgrounds, so I kept the camera around the eye level when I built the scenes in 3d, so the perspective we see in-game feels more natural. [previewyoutube=BmwNve3S_4M;full][/previewyoutube] Building all the environments in 3d was no small feat just to produce 2d illustrations, but it allowed us to get a more immersive and believable final result, along with some special effects for the transition between the camera feeds. It was important as well that the aesthetic of the background relates harmoniously with one of the characters. For example, they couldn’t look too photorealistic, as the characters were stylised, the environments needed to have the same tone, so everything feels like belonging to the same universe. But the environments also needed to be more detailed and intricate to feel immersive, so I started to design all of them in 3d, before painting over them. This would allow the reuse of outlines and brush strokes to match the unique aesthetic of our character art and create visual harmony.
In NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy you’ll discover new areas of the city as you progress the narrative; from the underbelly of Catena with its Meta-Church to the private apartments of the richest corporate sharks.
If you play on mobile, you will have the choice between seeing more details on the character with your screen in portrait mode, or locations in landscape mode.
