The Crimson Apple

Credits

Programming - Rog

Music and Sound Design - Nicole

Character Art - Ally, Ace, Callistis, Cee, Rhys

UI Art - Rhys

Environment Art - Aru

A mystery puzzle game with narrative focus, Crimson Apple was produced over 3 months for Phantasia Jam 2022.

Our aim was to make a satisfying demo with a full cast of characters and some simple puzzles and battle mechanics threaded amongst the visual-novel style dialogue interactions.

This was the first game jam for a majority of our team and I covered a production role as well as providing concept and environment art.

Play Crimson Apple on itchi.io

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Background art by Aru, UI art and design by Rhys

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Early tavern interior concepts

Our setting was inspired by primarily Romanian culture and fashion and the interior of the tavern was designed to be a place that could be both spooky or comforting depending on how well the player interacted with its occupants.

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Early tavern exterior concept

Originally based on Romanian longhouses, the idea that the tavern should somewhat resemble an apple was greeted well by the team, although no exterior shots made it into the demo there is option to implement this aspect of the taverns character in future builds.

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Tavern exterior - Fountain concept 1

The fountain, where the games' magic originates, was initially designed to be typically european but it was decided that a more naturalistic spring would better fit the theme.

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Tavern exterior - Fountain concept 2

Second fountain/spring concept, the runes around the fountain became a key puzzle and it was thought they should be a more prominent part of the fountain's design.

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Tavern exterior - Front entrance concept

The front entrance was designed to be both comforting and ominous with a door that appeared to bulge outwards towards the player. The tavern sign was removed from the final design in the demo to avoid spoilers due to it becoming a more important puzzle aspect later on in the story.

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Tavern exterior - Front entrance final

A cosy, inviting, yet uncanny entrance.

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Tavern interior - Main floor concept

The first concept of the tavern had a large coffee machine behind the bar which would be a moving-parts puzzle, however this idea was scrapped due to time constraints and replaced with simple point and click interactions with the items behind the bar. The layout of the corner booth was also tweaked slightly after the staircase background was designed to pull the architectural style together.

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Final Bar interior art

The character of the Baker would first be met in the booth on the main floor and as such this had to be an inviting area to the player to encourage them to seek solance within. The scene is contructed in a way that the eye is immediately drawn to this area.

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Booth final art

The location where the character of Baker is first met.

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Tavern interior - staircase concept

The staircase was a location that would be key to puzzles and investigation as well as a place for the player to meet the character of the Smith. It was designed around an ominous window overlooking the tavern but with an intivitng fireplace beneath to echo the duality of the tavern.

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Final Staircase art

As well as using the area to showcase more aspects of the tavern's personality, this is where the warm colour palette was settled on to contrast the blue-purples of the exterior scenes. The Smith was provided a table to have has their base as well as a door at the top of the stairs leading to the library.

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Tavern interior - Library concept

The library was where the Historian character would first meet the player. Due to time constraints this scene was cut from the demo.

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Battle scene concept with enemies

The generic enemies had no specific descriptions originally so I went ahead and designed a speedy fish-folk and a heavy, more powerful fish-folk drawing on the original design of the fish-folk Bartender. The team decided not to use weapons for the final enemy designs, leaving them to scratch at the player and hit them with a tail spin attack.

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Battle scene final art

Contrasting the warm colours of the tavern interior, the battle scene where the player encountered antagonistic, possessed fish-folk would have a much spookier and unsettling vibe.

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