The Concrete Karma video game is an in-house 32 bit arcade game design project. I am the main designer on this project, tasked with executing all worldbuilding, which includes the background layers, the playable platform layers, and game UI which includes title typography, decision box pop up designs, and the in-game HUD.
The concept for the game is an arcadial take on moving through New York City, in which the player must make ethical decisions on each level that effect the gameplay as they continue. The objective is to make it from beneath the subway to the top of the highest skyscraper before time runs out, moving through housing projects, pizza shops, high rises, hotels, corporate environments, and eventually the matrix room, collecting money and gaining/losing morality points as you go. It is meant to be both a social commentary on New York life and a social experiment for the player. It will eventually live in arcade cabinets across New York City. Data will be taken on the choices players make as they move through the game.
Everything here is in progress and unrealeased, please do not share any of these compositions or ideas.
The concept for the game is an arcadial take on moving through New York City, in which the player must make ethical decisions on each level that effect the gameplay as they continue. The objective is to make it from beneath the subway to the top of the highest skyscraper before time runs out, moving through housing projects, pizza shops, high rises, hotels, corporate environments, and eventually the matrix room, collecting money and gaining/losing morality points as you go. It is meant to be both a social commentary on New York life and a social experiment for the player. It will eventually live in arcade cabinets across New York City. Data will be taken on the choices players make as they move through the game.
Everything here is in progress and unrealeased, please do not share any of these compositions or ideas.
Illustrator
Photoshop
After Effects
Cinema 4D
Photoshop
After Effects
Cinema 4D
Shown above are the home screen, the decision pop up boxes for the demoltion level, subway level, and park level [Note: character faces are temporary placeholders]. This is very much in progress, and these exports are missing Player 1, NPC characters, and collectibles. All assets were hand drawn by me in photoshop, aside from the cave background layers, which are rasterized and pixelized images.
Demolition level: At the first above ground level, the player must make a choice to either help demolish the housing projects to make room for high rises or refuse to do so, both options with monetary and moral consequences.
Subway level: At the second level, subway trains will be animated to move through the foreground and background. When one of the trains stops at the station, the player must decided whether or not to assist three bank robbers in their subway escape, both options with monetary and moral consequences.
Sub-Subway Cave level: At the very first level the player traverses through underground caves that exist below the subway, where an ancient and forgotten rat civilization once flourished.
Matrix level: At the second to last level, the player decides whether to enter the matrix and end the game before the final level or to continue and finish.
Note: The design of the main character and NPC characters, the copywriting and game story/objectives, the coding, and almost all in-game animations are executed by my teammates. Everything is in progress and subject to change!
Shown above are photos of the arcade cabinet art, printed and wrapped onto the machine. Art for the front of the machine is still in progress.
Without the ability to hire a professional illustrator, I took it upon myself to create the cabinet art myself. While I have illustration skills, I do not have enough skill to draw this out myself. Instead, I used MidJourney to render individual assets, characters, and buildings that I could then collage and composite into a piece of working art. While I did not draw these individual illustrations, I imagined and then executed the composition after many Midjourney prompts and much compositional experimentation.
The cabinet art shows the main character [front and center], NPCs that players interact with [rat king, bank robber, mob boss, art dealer, etc.], the logo, and elements of the cityscape and building within which the game exists.