Another Ghost Mansion

Style Guide

C. Lucy Yeh & J. Chuy Gudino

Theme and Feel

Colors and Lighting
Attic
Second Floor
Ground Floor
Basement
Characters
Traps

Theme and Feel

Colors and Lighting

The games intended feel can aptly be described as spooky, unnerving, where
danger lurks. It is neo-classic, a revival of gothic architecture and haunted The
game takes place in a haunted mansion, with unique characters roaming within
it. It borrows from board games that this strategy game is painted with distinct
and saturated colors, if not brighly vibrant, that provide cartoonish identifiability.
Still, it will be shadowed with seriously presented danger, with dark shadows
blanketing most areas.

There are four floors, or four levels. Each floor will have a different color and
lighting scheme to suit its contents, gameplay, and props. In all cases, the
lighting will be dramatic, high contrast, without hindering visbility.

The level design of the mansion is largely freeform, left to be as mazelike as the
game designers wish. Artistically, we aim to have an uncanny discomfort carried
by the sharp, dark, and imposing aesthetic of gothic design.

After escaping the introductory Attic, the player enters the Second Floor. This
floor is brightly lit with pristine golden wood and glass. Rooms branch out from
long hallways, including personal quarters and special interest rooms, like a
medical room and a study. Still, there will be some pockets of darkness.

The game takes place in modern day America; the characters are like 2016
people, but they have no cell phones. The mansion is a gothic revival mansion
from the late 1800s. It has electricity, but it is very early technology. There will be
use of crow and skull motifs, representative of death. The mansion is a wonder of
engineering. While it is operated by malevolent spirits, its dangers are mostly
from mechanical contraptions.
The game will be made in 3d. The characters are designed stylized, and so they
will be modeled and textured stylized. The environment will be designed
realistically, modeled realistically proportioned, but textured to match the
stylized characters.

The game begins in the Attic, the top floor. This floor will be mostly desaturated
with blues and greys, with pale light coming from a window and a yellow flame
lantern.

Descending further into the enigmatic mansion, the player enters the Ground
Floor. This floor has many large connecting rooms with few hallways, and a mix
of dark and lit areas.
The final floor is the basement, made of black stone and brick. There are weak
red lights coming from bioluminescent creatures and red bulbs.

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Attic
The Attic is cluttered with old props, junk that
obstructs the subjects paths. The props include
furniture, mannequins, dolls, chests, boxes,
papers, jars, bear traps, lanterns, and antique
weapons. While most objects in the mansion are
pristine, with no dust and little wear and tear, the
attic and basement are exceptions, with the attic
being dusty.
The attic will use desaturated and darkened
blues and greys, with pale moonlight from
windows and small yellow glows from lanterns.
The gothic style is carried by the extremely
pointed roof shape, the window, and some of
the props.

Second Floor
The halls of the second floor are pristine, golden
with a red carpet. This floor is fully decorated
with gothic pillars, arches, rails, chair rails, and
pockets in the walls. Furthermore, there are
paintings, furniture pieces, statues, armors,
displays, and gothic doors and chandeliers.
The floor overall is brightly lit, showing off the
floors luxurious detail. The separete rooms will
be more varied in color, and some may have
pockets of darkness. Second floor rooms include
a bedroom, a study, and a game room.

Ground Floor
The ground floor is initially inaccessible due to
the main foyer stairs being raised, its gilded gears
turned locked. There are many vast adjacent
rooms, with few hallways; the spaces and gothic
elements will be much more spacious than the
previous floor. While there will still be color
present in each room, there will generally be
more black and white contrast, with a
checkerboard floor, large black walls covered
with decor, and a balance of very dark and well lit
areas.
Ground floor rooms may include a foyer, kitchen,
ballroom, parlor, and dining room.

Ground Floor

Basement
The basement is the darkest floor, partially built
from brick, partially excavated from caves. The
lighting here comes from weak and flickering
lights and bioluminescent creatures. Here, there
is a dungeon room, a medical and chemical
room, and a ritual room. It is accessed by an old
elevator.

Characters
The characters are fully proporti oned, but drawn
in a simplistic style, each major edge illustrate
with one line. The NPC characters are extremely
pale and their eyes are blurred, resembling skulls;
the player ghost character is unable to directly
interact with the NPC characters.
A major focus in the design of the characters was
identifiable silhouettes, each character having
something to break their figures.
Each character was given a color, saturated to be
identifiable, but darkened so as not to offend the
eyes. The characters did draw from the board
game Clue, with the exception of the new
addition of the grey Sociopath.

Characters
The player character, the ghost teacher, is the
most normal looking character, since we are
seeing the world through her eyes.

Traps
The traps pulled from several sources of
inspiration.The Nintendo DS game Theresia had
traps that could be detected; the player would
have to look before they touched, searching for
anything with wires or sharp edges to avoid, lest
an arrow be shot at the player. The Saw film
series had great ingenuity and beauty in flawless
mechanism, with gears, wires, and
counterweights working together to make
extravagant rube goldberg machines.The
Playstation 2 game Haunting Ground gave
insight in a mechanized mansion with moving
parts and hazards built into its gothic and
rennaissance props.