Rhiza, Wisp of the Woods

Hi! Welcome to my submission page for my first IGA Challenge Jam!  When I saw the theme was Fantasy Forest, I just knew I had to participate since magical forests are my jam. 

I started by drawing up some concept art by hand, since I still feel most comfortable with traditional art for the brainstorming stage.  I decided to create a game concept around a Wisp, since my personal art brand is the Wisp Hollow.  My wisps had never been incorporated into digital art before, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring them into a new format.  The world I imagined for this game was one in which a forest is weakened and the player acts as the guardian wisp of the forest, Rhiza, who can enter plants and fungi to heal them from within.  Gameplay would revolve around dodging enemies by strategically escaping into nearby trees and mushrooms and trying to heal the forest before it can be fully corrupted.

*Concept Art for Rhiza in the Forest*

Now on to the digital!  I decided to convert my idea to isometric pixel art because that is what I am creating in for my current ongoing project and I needed more practice.

The elements for the Jam:

1) A Main Mythical Character

Rhiza, the Wisp of the Woods, is a semi-transparent fairy/ghost type creature.  By attuning the magic spiral in her chest with the plants and fungi around her, she is able to enter inside them and supply them with magical energy.  She does not have combat abilities, but rather focuses on healing and stealth. The name, Rhiza, comes from the underground fungal system of communications that connect trees and fungi in the woods (mycorrhizae).

2) Obstacle Wall Model

For my walls, I made a corrupted tree trunk block. These blocks have a similar pattern to my healthy tree, but are dim and lacking vitality.

3) Decoration Model

 

A bush.  I felt like my blocks needed some more texture and fluff, so I made a bush.

A mushroom.  This mushroom is showing the synergistic magic spiral, where Rhiza can communicate with it, and enter the mushroom.

A tree.  This is a healed tree, the healthy version of the corrupted wall trunks.  Like with the mushroom, it features Rhiza's spiral.  I ran out of time to make the leafage from scratch, so I used a bunch of layer bushes.

4) A Ground Texture

For the forest floor, I went for a soft mossy/grassy texture with soil beneath. I tried my best to have the pixels mimic the texture of the ground I illustrated with my markers because I really liked how it looked.  If I were to expand on this concept, I would love to add a variety of ground tiles with slightly different patterns of greens, floral blooms, and small mushrooms.

Once all these features had been created, I made an example scene, roughly inspired by the original concept art image!

I hope you like the glimpse into Rhiza's forest!