My Lovely Wife Devlog #3: Reliving the Gothic-Victorian Vibe in Game Environment
Hello, everyone! It’s me, Lasheli, back with a new devlog. This time, I’d like to invite you to delve deep into the setting of My Lovely Wife. For that, I did a little chat with the game’s lead artist, Raswan Orizka, about how he designed the environment for the game. Let’s check it out!
1. Hello, Raswan! Could you please tell us a little bit about you and your art journey?
Hello everyone, I’m the lead artist of My Lovely Wife, nice to meet you!
About my art journey, I started my career as an art tutor for four years at an art course place right after I graduated from college. My students varied from elementary school students to adults at that time. Aside from being an art tutor, I was also quite active as a freelance illustrator.
In 2018, a friend told me that GameChanger Studio was looking for a 2D visual artist. Without hesitation, I took that opportunity to broaden my experience. It’s been three years since I joined and I still put the pedal to the metal! My first project here was making assets for My Lovely Daughter’s DLC: The Inquisitor, including the character design for the Inquisitor, cutscenes, and additional cutscenes for homunculus. Once the game is finished, I immediately work on My Lovely Wife.
2. What were you working on when the My Lovely Wife project first start?
When the project started, I was assigned for the character, UI, and environmental design with Faiz — who is now the sound designer & animator for the project. I can say that the whole initial design is like a “copy” of the previous game My Lovely Daughter. However, I added some gothic details in the design to accentuate the theme of the game.
Since then, I was entrusted to specifically work on the game’s environmental design. I’m really eager in doing it because, in my opinion, environmental design is pivotal in terms of shaping the world of the game — through the shapes of the buildings, the rooms where the characters interact, and how, story-telling-wise, it all influences the characters. The environmental design in My Lovely Wife itself can be realized with the direction of the game writer too. She writes the concept, and I’m bringing it to life through visuals.
3. What are the challenges that you face when working on My Lovely Wife’s environmental design?
At first, I had difficulty portraying the town’s landscape. Initially, Harbaloth (the town’s name) was portrayed in a top-down view and only showing the main buildings. Meanwhile, I want to show the whole area of the town to give more information on what kind of era that the game takes place in.
Aside from that, it’s also a challenge for me to decide on which real-life cultural influence will be imbued in My Lovely Wife. Ultimately, I decided that victorian-era and gothic styles are the best fit for the game. Once we found the direction for the town’s visuals, designing room interiors such as Jake’s room and succubus’ room became much easier.
I had an idea to insert a magical and mysterious feel to the design, hence it was really purplish at the beginning — which got scrapped, don’t worry. Deciding on the coloring style is also one of the difficulties I faced. I had to try to draw using traditional watercolor media in order to get the feel of washed-out color so as to bring the horror vibe out from the game.
4. What’s your favorite part of designing the environment of the game?
My favorite part is designing the town because it is both challenging and exciting! For me, the visuals of the town could bring the whole world of My Lovely Wife to life, and it affects the whole environmental design as well. Some of the games that I took reference from are Might and Magic Heroes VII and Darkest Dungeon. In those games, the town is displayed in full landscape, which allows people to feel the difference in the proportions of each area and building.
5. We’ve talked about the cityscape and rooms. As for the buildings, where do you draw your inspiration from?
Since we have victorian-era and gothic style as the design approach of My Lovely Wife, you can find that the architecture of the buildings in the game actually mimics European victorian-era buildings. You’ll see high pillars, curved ceilings, pointy rooftops, and gargoyle statues. One of my main inspirations is the cathedral’s gothic architecture, which I applied in Harbaloth’s building designs such as The Hallowed Shrine and Charm School.
I also took references from movies such as Titanic and Pride and Prejudice, which took place in the victorian-era. The things that I took from those movies for the game are mostly unique details like leaves and flowers ornaments which can be found in the door frames, windows, and pillars’ design. The main shape of the buildings in those movies, for example, triangles and curved shapes, are infused into the buildings in the game.
That concludes my talk with Raswan! We hope that players can get immersed in the gothic-victorian world of My Lovely Wife when it’s launched.
My Lovely Wife is planned to be released in early 2022 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox.
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Thank you for reading, and see you on the next devlog!
