karyogenesys
Project Overview
Karyogenesys (stylized all lowercase) is a short, atmospheric walking sim with light puzzle elements. Players step into the role of an android awakening a spaceship long in stasis, and realizing their own truth as the ship comes to life.
I initially joined the project as a secondary producer to help kickstart completion. However, I saw a UI deficit and volunteered my efforts there, as well. It had been quite some time since I worked in pixel resolution, so I was eager to keep my skills there sharp.
What I Did
When I got to work, the game's visual style was already quite strong, and a few core UI elements had been given rough blockouts. To conform to that style, I had to research UI from the era our game was inspired by — specifically, '90s shooters such as Quake and Doom. Capturing the essence of these heavily diegetic, cluttered interfaces while discarding what didn't quite land about them made for a satisfying challenge.
As with all things, my work began with a mockup. I took a screenshot of the game and drew over it, focusing on the scale and placement of elements more than a polished style. With a project like this, my time was better spent polishing the final assets than the mockups.
With the mockup approved, I set to crafting the assets. With most UI projects, I break down the mockup into unique pieces that I illustrate on separate canvases. However, since the UI for Karyogenesys is one "piece" visually and quite low-resolution, I did it all on one canvas, holding separate assets in layer folders.
To begin, I blocked in the basic shapes — a metal frame with embedded screens. The screen content block-ins came next, each with a number of variations that appear as the player progresses. After that, I added layers of dithered texture and light, and finished it off with blinking lights and exposed wires.
Of course, no strong game UI is complete without movement. To that end, I exported frames of each lit component so the light could flicker subtly. The team's engineer set the elements to flicker between frames every 50 to 150 miliseconds, and the results look fantastic.
Naturally, if the game was made in something like Unity, Unreal, or Godot, I could have implemented that myself! But the Quake engine is new to me... for now.
Postmortem
Karyogenesys is a beautiful project that I'm proud to have contributed to! I really gave the UI redesign my all, and I think it shows. I'm grateful for the work put in by my friends to bring the project so close to completion, and I hope to share it with players soon.
It was wonderful to get back into pixel art, too! It's relaxing, and the potential is just about limitless. I'll have to see about making more!