City of No Sun Game Concept (2022)
This is a collection of concept sketches, illustrations, and character sheets pertaining to a game design project I created in 2022. You play as Cielo Geraci, a rebel spy going undercover as a bartender in the upper levels of a layered city. The environment design premise is that the wealthy upper class have monopolized the sunlight by building their homes and city on platforms above the lower levels, blocking out their view of the sky.
Logo Design
This logo design was inspired by contemporary signs of rebellion as well as the architecture from the game. However, I wanted the classic fist to be a hand outstretched as if reaching for the sun, since that is a main symbol of the class division. The rose window design has somewhat of a sun motif, while still being far from it.
I also tied this in with the name Cielo, which means “sky” or “heaven”. I imagine his parents, who were involved with the rebellion, named him this to remind him of the goal.
Concept Sketches
Here are a few of the concept sketches for assets and structures in the game. The architectural sketch is a concept for the center tower in the layered city. The top half in the upper levels would contain the town hall, court rooms, and gala locations. The lower half in the under levels contains the prisons and police centers.
This set of prop sketches is nautical in mind of the shipping district on the lowest level (Level 1). The rock spires protrude from a mid sea location in between two other nations. In the later chapters of the story mode, you sneak onto a ship and travel with an upper class ally to meet a foreign ally at the coordinates featured on a slip of paper in the locket in the character concept sheet.
Environment Art
This is a grunge style drawing of one street in the undercity layers. This would be on the second layer from the bottom. The city has four layers. I was very inspired by the grunge versions of some steampunk architecture and style, as well as a lot of the shape language and colors from Dishonored. Each level was once a higher class level, so I wanted there to be elements of past grandeur even on the lower levels.
City of No Sun is an open world game concept with many side quest opportunities to run while building connections, recruiting for the rebellion, and amassing supplies and information. Cielo is a community minded person who was raised by a collection of townsfolk after his father was executed for stealing supplies and his mother fell ill and passed away shortly after. A major player mechanic is to give back to the community and gain allies and information this way. Later in the game, you can also make allies undercover.
Level 2 Map
The City of No Sun is suspended on platforms build around sharp spires and steep rock formations. The lower level passages and platforms are narrow due to how much wider the spires are at the base, while the higher levels are much more spacious and open, with far more gaps for the lower of the upper class levels to get natural light.
This map is for Level 2, which is where much of the game would take place. The main rebel front is a bar/inn on level 2, closer to the center of town. There are many manufacturing districts on the outskirts of town that are mainly owned by the rich but staffed by workers from levels 1 and 2.
City of No Sun Key Art
For the key art for this project I wanted to highlight the main character and keep an air of intrigue. The background shows the dichotomy of the class disparity.