Ariel Meylan 3D Game Artist
  • Individual
    • Firemelon
    • Synagogue
    • Alchemy Desk
    • The Samaritan
    • Guitar
    • Door & Dummy
  • Team Projects
    • Cyberdrome
    • Interstellar Racing League
    • Zoey and the Magic Paintbrush
  • Resume
  • About Me
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Project Description:
Zoey and the Magic Paintbrush is a strategic, line-riding, puzzle game.  Eternal Winter has befallen the village of Summertown! With your Magic Paintbrush in tow, you play as Zoey, Princess of Summertown, who has bravely agreed to overcome the scary Mountain of Trials to free her land! Collect Trial Gems to unlock Magic Portals and progress up the Mountain. Use Zoey's Magic Paintbrush to roll, zoom, and bounce your way to victory in 12 challenging stages!

Project Title: Zoey and the Magic Paintbrush
Engine: Unity
Development: 3 months | 185 hrs
Team Size: 4 developers

Roles and Responsibilities:
Role: Lead Artist
  • Contributed to game design decisions
  • Concepted and created all art assets (character, environment, UI elements, splash screens)
  • Created sprite sheets for all animation sets (character, tutorials, gameplay assets)
  • Created particle systems
  • Created all marketing materials including t-shirts, CD case cover, CD label, stickers, game poster, and trailer
  • Arranged non-gameplay art assets, making sure they were high res and scaled correctly
  • Reviewed and refined gameplay art asset placement​

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Early Development:
My team decided on having our main character be a princess pretty early on.  Because our intended audience is 7-8 year old girls, we decided that whatever aesthetic we arrived at, the princess should look about that old too - in order for the players to relate more to her.

Regarding the environment, the original plan was to have four different locations - each with their own pallets.  We settled on unifying the different environments as different locations climbing up a mountain.

We weren't sure if we would use the in-engine lighting.   Taking this into account,  I broke up the first environment into layers to allow for light placement in case we ended up using it.

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Environments:
Each environment represents a stage in Zoey's progression up the mountain.  The colors are meant to be muted and faded by fog to allow the gameplay elements to be distinguishable from the backdrop.

Each stage shares the same gameplay elements and contrasts from them, while at the same time looking as though they belong together.

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Gameplay Elements:
I created simple sprite sheets to animate the player and collectibles.  We decided to not animate the goal portal because it would make the screen feel too busy.  

​​In addition, I created a goal portal, an anti-paint zone, and simple ice block sprites for the level designers to place in each level.​

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Visual Effects:
I also attached different particle effects I created to different events in the game.  Usually they were added to grab the player's attention or adding juice to reward the player for doing something good!​

UI/UX:

​Creating a UI that was easily accessible to children was an especially difficult challenge.  In addition to short text directions, I also created short animations to show the player how to use the given tools.

Marketing:
I put together the game trailer shown above, as well as designed the marketing materials including fun extras like t-shirts and stickers!
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  • Individual
    • Firemelon
    • Synagogue
    • Alchemy Desk
    • The Samaritan
    • Guitar
    • Door & Dummy
  • Team Projects
    • Cyberdrome
    • Interstellar Racing League
    • Zoey and the Magic Paintbrush
  • Resume
  • About Me