Relapse
Relapse is a WIP FPS game following the story of an addict battling his inner demons.
Relapse was created in Unity by a 15 person team known as Outlandish Development. The total development time for the project will be 8 months, with the estimated completion date being May 2025.
My role on Relapse has been mostly as the main 2D artist. Although I've created 3D assets for the project as well, I mostly focus on 2D VFX, concept art, UI elements, and marketing materials.
Relapse was originally intended to include a gauntlet as a means of diegetic UI. This was the semi-final concept of the gauntlet for our player. While I was creating it, I was trying to channel a robotic/tech look, without making it look too medieval as my previous iterations did. (See previous and alternate iterations below.)
The top view of the gauntlet features a glass cutout to show the player's veins (with color changing depending on the power-up), with a mechanical syringe sitting on top, injecting liquid into the player's veins.
The bottom/palm view features a screen which will provide the player with important info (health, type of power-up, etc.). The screen is overtaken by the player's exposed veins coming out of the wrist portion of the gauntlet, in order to signify how reliant the player is on the gauntlet/drugs in the beginning of the game.
We ended up scrapping the gauntlet completely in the final version of our game, in favor of a more traditional UI, but it was still great practice for creating concept art and reference material for our 3D modelers.
This is the character card for our apartment level dealer. My main goal when beginning the concept was to try and make the dealer look as grungy and repulsive as possible, to signify the effects of drug use. We ended up changing the artstyle midway through development in favor of a more comic inspired look, so I wasn't able to keep the same grunge effect in the final concept.
While it is still in progress as the team develops the art style more and more, the drug dealer's face is meant to contrast with the painted and textured background.
The final version will also be animated, with the line art flickering and the cigarette smoke flowing upwards. Two other poses for the same dealer are also in progress.
This is the animated screen overlay for Relapse, and will appear and obscure the screen each time the player Relapses.
My goal when creating this was to instill a sense of fear and panic in the player, which is why the background is textured with frantic brush strokes, and the main focal point is a decrepit human skull.. The background is also intended to mesh with our overall "hand-painted" art style.
The swirl displacement on the video was added to make the overlay look dreamlike, as this is all in the player's head. The screen shake was added to intensify the fear and stress as much as possible since it will only be on screen for around 2 seconds.
2D Effects
