Penthos is a collaborative visual novel effort between myself and Sem Roolvink, under the collective banner of Cruelhouse. The project was released on October 16, 2021 and can be downloaded here. Below, you will find an assortment of art assets I created for the project!
Forewarning: spoilers ahead!
Character Sprites
Each character was to be drawn with a standard pose and a "special" pose. Each day in-story, the characters were to change their outfits. Some of them only cycle through a select few, while others have a unique outfit for each day. This allowed for them to be grounded and allowed for more of their personalities to shine through in subtle ways.
Illustrations
Certain points in the story were chosen to have a unique drawing made to emphasize them.
Backgrounds
What are these characters to do without somewhere to exist, right? With the story taking place in the small town of Walpole in late autumn, warm and earthy tones dominate most of the color palettes of the backdrops. There are, of course, exceptions...
Animation
Don't watch this one if you haven't played the game or if you're sensitive to flashing colors! This shot was chosen to be fully animated, an usual inclusion in a visual novel. With Penthos being a horror story and a chance for both Sem and I to illustrate our skills, we wanted something to set our project apart from others we share the space with, in addition to making this particular scene pack a bigger punch.
Concept Art
Some concept drawings made early in production to develop the characters. Once characters were roughly developed, I was tasked with sketching up a variety of roughs, from there which Sem and I picked our favorites to proceed with further. Some characters hardly changed from inception to final product while others went through many different iterations.
