Visual Development for Stage Wars
Stage Wars is a fictional mobile game where two bands of fantastical musicians battle it out to conquer the stage. It’s a MOBA with a twist: alongside sound towers and a stage nexus, it features rhythm game mechanics. To unleash abilities, players need to hit buttons to the exact beat of the music. The art style draws heavy inspiration from 80s heavy metal, dark fantasy, and classic cartoons.
I developed this project during the "Art and Design for Mobile Games" course at ICS Art School, under the mentorship of William Chamorro. Throughout the classes, we dove into the mobile game industry, art direction, and production pipelines while creating our own original IPs. To organize and bring this project to life, I used tools like Miro, Trello, GDD, Photoshop, and Blender. In the classes, we also did reverse-engineering art from existing games.
Character Design
Players can build their bands by choosing from five distinct classes: the Guitarist (Assassin), the Vocalist (Mage), the Bassist (Controller), the Drummer (Tank), and the Synth/DJ (Ranger). The goal is to offer a diverse roster of characters for each role, allowing players to collect and customize their ultimate lineup.
Below is the development of Eddie Van Slaylen, an Assassin who wields a guitar-axe hybrid. He doesn't just play killer riffs, he uses it to chop through enemies with style.
Character Skins
I explored several design iterations to see how far the character's theme could go. From those explorations, I selected two skins to polish as visual targets, establishing the final look and quality standard for the game's cosmetics. One version focuses on keeping the character's core identity recognizable, while the other is a Premium Skin featuring unique additions like a different hairstyle and a custom guitar.
Eddie Van Slaylen & Tarja Spellumen. A quick look at the Assassin and Mage classes, demonstrating the unified art direction across different roles in the band
Discarded Style
Before settling on the final art direction, I explored a more complex silhouette. This earlier iteration featured a "triple-threat" weapon: a guitar that combined an axe, a musical instrument, and a built-in flamethrower.
During the process, my mentor helped me realize that this direction was becoming over-designed for a mobile platform. I decided to pivot to a cleaner style, prioritizing visual clarity and a stronger silhouette to ensure the character remains readable even on smaller screens.
Environment Design
The first map for Stage Wars is a festival stage set deep within a dark forest and an ancient cemetery. I started by sketching a top-down map to define the layout and gameplay flow.
To ensure perspective accuracy, I built a 3D blockout in Blender, which served as the foundation for the final visual target painted in Photoshop. This hybrid workflow allowed me to maintain a consistent isometric view while focusing on lighting, mood, and storytelling details.
Prop Design: The Stage Nexus
Following a "blue sky" exploration phase, I designed the Stage Nexus as a massive crow perched on a treble clef sculpture. In-game, this structure comes to life to unleash flames on approaching enemies.
To ensure consistency for the 3D pipeline, I used Blender to establish the isometric visual target and generate precise orthographic views (front, side, and back). Additionally, I developed a VFX sheet to illustrate the crow’s fire-breathing mechanics, providing clear direction for the technical artists.
Splash Illustration
To wrap up the project, I developed a splash illustration featuring two characters in the forest cemetery setting. The process began with thumbnail explorations to find the most dynamic pose and composition.
Following industry best practices for mobile development, I designed the background to be modular. This allowed the environment art to be reused as the character selection screen, maximizing asset efficiency without compromising the game’s dark fantasy atmosphere.
