Stellar Bounties
RESPONSIBILITIES
Art Direction
Concept Art
Game Design
PLATFORM
Mobile
TEAM
2 Artists - Vega Castaneda, Tamara Gargantiel
1 Tech Artist - Ruby Loudin
1 Developer - David Brett
YEAR
2023
Challenge
Create an entirely new igaming experience using existing slot math but feeling like a mobile/arcade game. The target audience was sports betters who could play in their down time. This required balancing familiar casino systems with engaging moment-to-moment gameplay.
Early Exploration
I created these ships early on to explore art styles. After these renders I focused more on gameplay and had my art team expand from here and eventually convert these designs to pixel art.
Prototyping
There were about 150-200 prototypes made to test different bullet speeds, enemy behaviors and ship controls. I explored some possible layouts for enemies and bosses that were ultimately scrapped because we wanted our first game to be easily accessible to the widest audience possible.
Base Gameplay
The UI is mostly standardized, but we opted to remove the PLAY button due to the touch controls of the game.
This game required a BOUNTIES/REWARDS bar just above the meters to show the player what loot can be found during gameplay and then the loot they won in their previous round of play.
I wanted the warp speed bet screen to transition seamlessly into levels, dropping you off in visually diverse places each round. There are 4 different background colors, each with:
2 mid-ground variations
matching UI tint color
Boss Fights
For added replayability we made bonuses! Boss fights were designed as low-frequency, big reward moments. Their appearances are random after a certain win threshold which helps maintain excitement while providing memorable spikes in pacing that break up the normal gameplay loop.
Key Takeaways
This project marked my transition from Senior Artist into Creative Leadership. Beyond directing the visual style, I was responsible for defining gameplay concepts, coordinating a multidisciplinary team, and aligning production around a shared vision.