Rosie Flanagan
Games Designer and Artist
Those Left Behind
What I learnt:
- How to take another students game design document and turn it into a working vertical slice.
- How to create game art that follows the rules of the game design document while showcasing my personal skills and art style.
- How to work collaboratively with other students within my discipline (other artists and game designers) and outside of my discipline (programmers and sound designers).
- How to manage time and assign tasks to myself and other team members, as well as complete tasks assigned by others.
- How to conduct thorough playtesting by logging bugs, noting player choices and conducting surveys.
- How to collect and conduct effective research and apply it to my work.
We had to work from a very thorough games design document created by another student who wasn't allowed on our team. I made this document that summarised every artistic element the GDD covered so we wouldn't miss any important details. I added my own notes and photo inspirations, and shared it with the team to gather their insights and opinions.
The survivor camp is the face of the game, as it is where most gameplay occurs, so it was essential to get right. Each camp creates resources for the player to collect, but require specific resources to be built and upgraded. They each use colour and details to help the player remember which resource they provide. As the game is set in the ruins of the Kennedy launch complex, I decided to set the camp at the very base of the launchpad. In my concept art (bottom left), I sketched an apocalyptic landscape over the top of a real photograph. I thought the aesthetic matched well with what was described in the games design document, as well as my own research into what a post apocalyptic Florida might look like. This design took a lot of tweaking - I asked my teammates for their opinions and sent out surveys to gather feedback and ideas for further fixes. The final design can be seen on the bottom right.
For my second year project at university I worked in a team of five to create a vertical slice of another student's game design document. This offered many new challenges, such as communicating with teammates and working to a strict brief, but also provided me with a really exciting opportunity - to work as an environment artist on a project that would lead to the creation of a real game.
Play the game: https://silliergoose.itch.io/those-left-behind
I also designed the games resource icons, resource camps, and cutscene backgrounds. Above are my designs for the tech resource, tech camp and tech camp cutscene. They all use blue for design consistency, and contain tools and scraps for engineering and experimentation.
Environment Artist
Survivor camp development
Design Journey:
Art Bible
Jan 2025 - May 2025
Game Synopsis:
Natural disasters and climate change have turned Earth into an unhabitable and hostile environment. The world's elite took advantage of your scientific expertise, creating ships to escape the apocalypse, and abandoning you and some other unlucky survivors at the Merritt Island launch complex.
Take on the role of the leader - help survivors by listening to their stories and requests, build up the survival camp to protect your community, and collect resources while learning about the new world around you.