Sovereign Tower goes in the opposite direction to many new games, RPGs, and even the best indies, by dropping grand scale for a single stage – a magical tower – and just letting the wonderfully elegant art direction do all the work. Developer Wild Wits' art director, Gobert, uses line art and colour to draw out density in his character design; visual storytelling and game systems merge as Autharian knights' egos clash as much as their swords.
The art, painted in Photoshop and brought into the Godot game engine, is designed to communicate intention quickly and clearly, and it's this illustration-led art direction that has been capturing players' imaginations, with 2.2 million views on Instagram alone. The game draws on Gobert’s own style for its design, one that can imbue a character with instant personality and draws on fine art traditions and style; he cites Russian painter Ivan Bilibin as an influence.
Below, Gobert goes into more detail about the approach to Sovereign Tower's art (the game releases 6 August). But Gobert also has some broad advice to anyone looking to get into game art:
- Find what the identity of your project is, what its themes and inspirations are. Try to understand what makes it unique
- Work on coherence; try to make it so every asset looks like it belongs in the same art style as the rest. And extend this to as many aspects of the game as possible.
- Be mindful of colours. Coherence is key once again, but limiting your palette is also a very important step into creating a strong identity for your project.
CB: How did your personal interests, art and style influence Sovereign Tower's visual style?
Gobert: More so than our previous games, Sovereign Tower is a game that’s very much based on my original style, with a stronger accent on my favourite inspirations, which are old-school etchings and classical fairy tale illustrations.
CB: What inspired the game's mix of medieval fantasy and illustration-driven design?
Gobert: There are many reasons for it; firstly, it’s quite cost-efficient, as I’ve worked on this project completely alone (which would not have been possible with a more technically challenging art style).
As for the medieval inspirations, they are a bit of a staple of mine, so it seemed a no-brainer to go for it since we still had many ideas we wanted to explore in that particular setting. It’s also a setting that is very easy for most people to identify with, as the Arthurian types of stories are fairly common worldwide.
CB: Why did you choose stylisation over realism for the art direction?
Gobert: We already knew we would be making a 2D game from experience right at the beginning, so it did not seem relevant to explore realism. It’s just not something we’re very interested in, in general as well, as we’re more interested in exploring original and fresh aesthetics.
CB: How do you balance historical influences with fantasy world-building?
Gobert: We knew we wanted to make a fantasy from the get-go (following the Arthurian theme), so we went for something that’s similar in tone to the old tales: a fairly archetypal medieval world with a relatively light fantasy element.
As we progressed through development, we started to take more and more liberties with the setting. The setting now has many more fantasy elements than we originally expected.
On a more visual note, I use a bit of historical pieces as inspiration for the armour and clothing, but I also use a lot of old illustrations from many historical periods as inspiration. So I’m also very inspired by the Arthurian aesthetics that were developed during different times in history, like the 1800s or even the Renaissance.
CB: What references were on your mood board from day one?
Gobert: I think Ivan Bilibin and the many artists of his era were the first direct artistic inspiration I wanted for the project. Bilibine in particular had always been an artist I was very obsessed with, and my first ambition with the game was to make something that felt like a living, breathing illustrated storybook.
CB: When designing a character, what comes first: story, silhouette, or costume?
Gobert: It depends; some of the more surprising characters are just doodles with a strong focus on silhouettes that I had done, and eventually some of these concepts start to fit a particular role we wanted to fit in the world. But a lot of the main characters have a stronger focus on story and are usually based on a particular type of character I want to explore.
If I had to say, the first visual step is always silhouette, but story can come first or later depending on the necessities of the project.
CB: Which tools were essential to creating the game's look, and why?
Gobert: For this project, we use Godot, as always, for the game engine, as well as Inky for the narration. On my end, I use Photoshop.
But none of our tools is absolutely essential or irreplaceable for this game in particular; overall, I would even say the tools are somewhat irrelevant. It’s the skills of our team members that make our game unique. Our focus was not on using extremely complicated features or incredible technical improvements, but more on creating original and interesting content.
CB: What lessons from your personal illustration work carried into Sovereign Tower?
Gobert: When I was a student, I was mainly interested in becoming a comic artist. And if you’re going into that industry, one of the important things to learn is that it’s absolutely key to find an art style that you can draw extremely quickly, but also looks as good as possible.
That experience carries into videogames, where I try to find the sweet spot between unpolished and “dynamic” penwork. This helps me find the time to work on many things but also the ability to add new stuff quickly whenever necessary.
CB: Was there one concept piece that defined the game's visual direction?
Gobert: The very first asset I created for the game was the sprite of our first knight, Angelica, alongside the UI of the roundtable. It was very important for me to create something that would give us an instantaneous idea of what the game would feel/look like. And it’s often through mockups that I explore these concepts.
You’d be surprised how little some things have changed, and despite a few edits, Angelica still looks almost exactly the same.
CB: What's the best advice you'd give artists trying to develop a distinctive style?
Gobert: A few pieces of advice for this would be: Find what the identity of your project is, what its themes and inspirations are. Try to understand what makes it unique. Work on coherence; try to make it so every asset looks like it belongs in the same art style as the rest. And extend this to as many aspects of the game as possible. Be mindful of colours. Coherence is key once again, but limiting your palette is also a very important step in creating a strong identity for your project.
