Environment and Character design made for PermaDeath, a video-game themed opera, during RISD's five week Wintersession. As part of the Team Nyx Visual Development Team, characters and environments were made to contrast with the flashy, technologically-savy Team Phoebus, giving them an earthier, organic feel. As creatures of the night, they operate within a luminescent bio-world that is increasingly falling into decay
The Team Nyx Lair sits in the middle of a labyrinthine forest, inside a rusted mechanical skull.
Value Study
Alternate view of the Team Nyx Lair
Inside the lair, you will find a tunnel lined with roots which ends at a large mushroom staircase that leads you down to the heart of the lair: the crystal catacombs
Color and vegetation sketches
Niobe, the Team Nyx Leader:
In the early stages of development, Niobe was designed to resemble a moving mountain, overgrown with a mantle of leaves and moss. Her moth mask works as both a symbol of decay, and as a crown harkening back to her royal lineage.
Niobe's rock form gains strength from a large energy generator on her back, which is powered by the hearts of her twelve children, hanging down her back
Instead of hands, Niobe originally had tentacle-like vines which she would use to smash her opponents with. Her children, on the bottom right, were melee figthers, working together like a swarm.
Early concept sketches for Niobe's dying form, her rocky exoskeleton ripped away
Fighting stances for Aphrodite. Graceful and elegant, Aphrodite moves like a dancer, controlling the glass shards that extend from her like wings to hover over the ground and slice her opponents
Done in Collaboration with Angela Hsieh
Character expression sheet for Niobe
Character Expression sheet for Aphrodite
Done in Collaboration with Samrath Kaur
To see more for PermaDeath, visit permadeath.artstation.com/
