My Process for "Princesa do Coração"
In early 2023, I was looking for a pixel artist to help with the UI assets in Starlight Express. After a fair bit of searching (I wanted to find someone from Brazil), I came across Bárbara's work, contacted her and she immediately hit it off with the rest of Team Croissant.
She mentioned it might be a cool idea to make a game as part of her undergraduate thesis as she studied painting at university so we all agreed to help her. She acts as creative & art director and writer while I take over game design duties while mentoring the newest Team Croissant member, Luis; who is working on the game's narrative design (I also give him English lessons and translate for him during meetings).
Princesa do Coração is a deeply personal visual novel which borrows heavily from Wadanohara and The Great Blue Sea, a cult freeware RPG Maker game from 2013, in both style and form. It ambitiously blends delicate pixel art with traditional non-digital paintings (works Bárbara will be graded on), as well as digital illustrations and animation.
My role has been to design a game around the story Bárbara wants to tell and manage the project in a way that we can meet her university’s deadline.
My goal as lead designer and our "creative promises" going in, has been to make sure Bárbara's story finds its voice in the medium videogames, and to showcase her art. Interactive storytelling fascinates me and this has been a wonderful opportunity to explore my passion for it!
One of the biggest challenges for me on this project has been to try and adapt a huge, epic and deeply personal story, which has been years in the making by its creator, into a game. It is also my favorite part of the process.
For example, using level design to turn Bárbara's environment concept art into an actual playable part of the game world, and working with Theo (Team Croissant's other resident illustrator and asset designer) to bring that area to life so a player can explore it is a feeling I can only get in game design and is one of the reasons I have chosen to do this.
The next step was planning the layout, resolution and spacing of the level with Theo. We even tried as isometric perspective, just to see what would happen.
I truly beleave that as a leader in any kind of project, it is of the utmost importance to create a safe space for people to experiment, be creative and even ultimately fail. I have a background in education so interpersonal growth and learning is extremely important to me and I make room for it whenever I can.