A cozy game about finding your lost ducklings and helping the community after a storm.
The Quiver Game Incubator is a program that brings teams together to foster game start-ups, offering an opportunity to collaborate; get weekly feedback from testing and mentors; and seek out advice.
There was no theme for this jam, so the team picked this concept based on shared interests.
Ponder uses 2D graphics as billboards, to populate a 3D environment.
The biggest challenges for our team was finding a style and game-play that could use the skills of the team we had. Since Quiver organizes the teams, we had myself (a 2D illustrator) and Aaron (a 3D artist). Although I've applied 2D graphics to simple shapes on other projects ((((link to Tall Order)))), we needed to integrate more complex shapes that Aaron created.
In Ponder, you swim around a pond that has been covered in items and debris, after a storm. Your job is to help beavers and other creatures in your community find objects they request. The 2D billboards and floating objects act as walls and obstructions to moving around the map and finding your quest items.
We focused on three pillars to the game
1) cozy aesthetic
2) low tension
3) intuitive design
I laid out moodboards to pitch different illustration styles for the game, based on the concept of a lonely duck after a storm. We went with a patchwork-inspired style, which leaned into simple shapes overlaid with textures and patterns, often featured in paper cut illustrations. I applied the simple shapes to the character designs, which were later overlaid with texture I produced with acrylic paint.
After deciding on our concept, I quickly illustrated what the opening screen of the game would look like, including 3D assets that Aaron would create. At the time, we were imagining large, parallax background objects, like the bridge pictured.
I created three moodboards to explore visual directions to my team. Each moodboard style varied between levels of detail and texture, but each also relied on layers and parallax. Ultimately, we went with a "patchwork" and paper-cut style, which had the simplest shape language and geometry while necessitating a breadth of texture and colour. This effect was great for this month long project, because final work could had more flexibility in its presentation, while still looking lovely.
process co-development
We wanted to write the reasoning behind the big storm. If we were to expand the game, I was thinking it could turn out that there was more and more flooding, so that more environments and situations could be explored. For this iteration, we needed to justify the multitude of objects found on screen.
As we didn't have a dedicated writer, I focused on writing iterations of scenarios and their smattering of objects for the game. We produced three "areas" for the demo, including
* an interrupted picnic
* an interrupted picnic
* lost groceries
* an abandoned backpack
These mini-stories became categories for brainstorming items. The goal was for the objects to form a cohesive story within the level design and NPC dialogue.
I created sheets of potential duck designs and pitched them to the team. My sketches focused on interesting angles and shapes to form the silhouette. We eventually added a duckling character, which was selected from the sketches I'd already created.
The final design of the hero duck was animated at each angle to create a line-boil effect.
Working with Aaron, our 3D modeller, I produced textures that he used to wrap the props, to create a cohesion between the 2D and 3D elements of the game. I contributed by writing the world of man-made objects and scenarios found in the game, after the flood.
I studied the shadows of multiple paper-cut style games, including Paper Mario, Book of Travels, Kirby's Epic Yarn and Snipperclips. Some, like Book of Travels, have integrated 3D objects and shadows, which were a huge insight. With these examples, I was able to clearly communicate and focus a shared look with the team.
key art
***scan page of key art thumbnails from sketchbook for this page
***scan page of key art thumbnails from sketchbook for this page
promotion: We presented the game at multiple venues, including the Gameslink 2025 conference, so we had some stickers printed. I used existing assets in the game to mock-up a few designs for a 2" sticker.