As the process of our game began, the immediate discussion was What is the game about? Why does the player want to play it? We all knew we wanted to create something in the horror genre that could be played by one or two people at the same time. Having two of our team members from Sweden, the topic of how horrific the Swedish folklore tales are was brought up, and it became our centerpiece for the game. The Nordic styled games, especially indie ones, are few, and we felt that this would give our game a great nish and a different take on a horror game. For the design part of this project, Michaela Gripenstam is the Creative Director and Lead Designer, and took much inspiration from John Bauer (1882-1918) a Swedish illustrator and painter praised for his works of landscapes and mythology. The cover image for this post is his painting "Princess Tuvstarr gazing down into the dark waters of the forest tarn." , 1913. The idea of giving our game texture in form of paintings came from these works of Bauer, as well as much of the color palette. 

In the photos attached is some of the progress in Design. The young boy is the main character, Patrik, called Putte in the game. He is a farmers son and spends all his days working and helping his family. One day, he gets called by the corrupted forest to find the missing elven princess. While the main character, Putte, was easy to come up with design wise, the other character, Liten, was a bit more complicated. Liten had to be very special and look different from anything else in the game, since she is the missing princess turned into another creature. The original idea was that she should be based on a Rose hip (called Nypon in Swedish), and so the designs began with her looking a bit creepy. Though the original idea was for her to be creepy and look a bit like the trolls, once the final design of her came together it made more sense for her to just be adorable. Her color is a deep orange with strange dark legs and arms and a hidden face. This is the only character, other than the Troll King, that you can see the eyes. Her name, Liten, means "small" or "tiny" in Swedish, and if you put both characters names together "Putte" and "Liten" it turns into another word in Swedish which is "Pytteliten" which means that something is teeny tiny. We wanted the characters to be very tiny, also inspired by the Swedish folklore stories as well as the game Little Nightmares, as it gives another dimension to the horror part of the game: feeling small and vulnerable. The idea of removing the eyes was inspired by Little Nightmares as it provides an addition element of the unknown. Michaela added the eyes to Liten because she is the "hidden" main character, and her colors steals the attention from the rest of the game as a sort of hint that she does not belong there. 

For the level design, Michaela based it on the Swedish forests and landscapes with landmarks such as the dandelion, tall green grass, and deep forests full of life and mystery. The first level called Chapter 1 is the tutorial level where the player gets used to the movements and mechanics, and is also introduced to both characters separately. The level starts off as very bright and beautiful without any scary elements, but as the player progresses into the forest, the music and environment changes. Michaela based this on her childhood: "When I was a kid, I was terrified of the forest. My parents and many of the stories we had told me that the forest is full of evil trolls and beings who will steal you away! I truly believed this to be true and was terrified of going into the forest alone until I was around 13 years old. Me and my friend would even make bets about who could go the furthest into the forest alone, which was never very far.".