We have plenty of areas which can use an artistic touch.
Looking to contribute non-art content? Look here
To send us a contribution, there's two main ways
Join our discord or matrix Art Design channel and post your contribution there, and the thing that you're targeting
If you know how to code, you can always straight up add the art yourself, and send us a PR. However unlike gameplay content, this is typically not a big deal to leave to the devs as it's a very quick task.
When you contribute any art for the first time, you should also let us know two things
- The artist name which we'll show when the card is hovered and in our credits. This can be anything from your real name to your discord alias. Your choice.
- A webpage or link to put in the credits. Something to help people find more of your work. Typically an artstation or deviantart profile, or a personal portfolio site. Up to you.
In this early design period of the game, we're not so demanding of the quality of the art. In fact we're more keen on having any piece available on a card, simply for the visual separation of the cards. As such, even if you're beginner to art, you can probably make something we can use.
If you plan to work on card illustrations, a good practice is to ping us on the chat and let us know which card you are planning to work on. This way anyone else thinking of doing the same can avoid the conflict. However even if such a conflict arises, it's no biggie, we can almost always either find another card that fits the same art, or make a new one!
A good way to find what to work on us ti open the game and go to the Card Library, and switch to Grid view with the switch on the bottom right. Any card with the baseline "moon" image, is available for a new illustration.
A good practice to keep yourself consistent, might be to lock yourself to one specific card pool archetype. In the card library, you can use the filters on the top, to limit the view to specific archetypes, such as the Flyer. It's not a requirements, but having cards within an archetype match in art-style is always a plus.
The primary style of what we're going for is Surrealism. The actions you see on the cards repressents how a dreamer would see them acting within a dream, so the borders of what is possible stretch quite a bit. However it's not a hard requirement to draw like Salvadore Dali. Just keep in mind that abstract and funky drawings are encounraged. The secondary style we going for, let's call: Disturbing. It's not quite "Horror", but more like "Uncanny Valley". In short, if something would fit in a nightmare, it would fit in this game.
Keep in mind that we try to avoid an explicitly violent theme. It's not that we forbid it, but it's an overused trope in games.
That said, we will pretty much accept all styles as long as they fit the concept of the art. The above are just the preferred guidelines.
We have no hard theme enforcement. If a concept fits, you can draw it as fantasy, sci-fi, modern, stearmpunk or whatever. The dream world is fluid and you might be a cowboy in one dream, or a mad scientist in the next. As long as the concept of the card fits the illustration, we can use it.
As mentioned before, Hypnagonia leans heavy on surrealism, but we also dabble a lot into psychological and neurodivergent topics. Because of this varied prism of emotions and concepts, we aim to make the tone of the game equaly as varied. As such there is space for both comedy and drama in our art. There's a reason why the "Rubber Chicken" and the "Abusive Relationship" were two of our initial card pool archetypes.
It's generally a good idea to match the mood of the archetype a card belongs to. Therefore a rubber chicken card would probably fit better to a humorous illustration as opposed to a horror one. But naturally, we also celebrate art that deconstructs the tropes.
Currently the card illustrations are roughtly in landscape ratio. roughtly 1.8:1. But the decoration elements of the current design, eat a bit more on the middle top and bottom. It's best if you aim for art that looks best in a 2:1 ratio
You can use whatever palette you want. For the initial alpha art we're looking for, even rough scetches are allowed.
Aim for .jpg files and at no more than 1 MB in size. Card illustrations are typically not very large on the monitor, so 4K pieces will anyway be scaled down to save on download times.
These are the representations one sees of the various Torments during Ordeals. Their concept is typically explained by their name and in the blurb introducing them so use that for guideline. Or surprise us with your own imagination.
Eventually we're aiming for animated Torments, but it's not a requirement early in our process.
Thematically, the purpose of the character art it to immerse the player in the world more. Technically it is to give them something to aim for with their cards. ;)
Like with cards, go for surrealism with some light horror elements sprinkled in. A lot of our torment concepts are abstract, such a whispers in the wind, or they might be non-traditional, such as a location instead of a person. In those cases, some more creativity might be needed. Surprise us ;)
As always, we have no hard theme.
Torments tend to be more scary affairs for the dreamer, since their aim is to raise their anxiety. However the way they do so is not by stereotypically scaring them. Some might stress them psychologically, whereas some just inflict Ennui. Try to imagine the Torment in your own dreams and what would stress you about it, and draw them likewise.
Torments should be drawn roughtly rectangular. Having them taller is not a big deal, but wider might be. However some torments which are typically found on their own, like Bosses or the Labyrinth might be ok to be very wide. Play the game or consult with us and we'll tell you.
As Torments will be placed against a coloured background, you probably want them to be able to stand out against any colour palette.
Same as for cards illustrations. .jpg files and <= 1MB in size.