I worked on Neo Cab for about 2.5 years. I was the Art Director for the project and got to really push myself throughout the project. The above image started life as a visual target but captured so much of the mood of the game that we kept it as o
I made this alternate visual target to show how dramatically the mood could shift with a different lighting setup. The biggest thing I wanted to work on during the project was lighting design. It was not my strong suit before this project, so I rea
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This was the first image I did for the project. I worked up this mood piece to capture the vibe of the story that Patrick Ewing ( our Creative Director) and I had been discussing. The city was meant to be a futuristic haven but it turned into a ve
Another mood study. I was initially thinking the style of the game would be more simplified, but through development the style got more complex to match the depth of the writing.
Environment Visual Target
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This was a screenshot release to announce the game. At this point we were about a year and half into development. We still had a lot more characters and environments to build but the core visual design was locked in. Most of the game takes place i
I studied a lot of films during development to get a better sense of typical camera angles are used for driving scenes. Our game is essentially a visual novel but I wanted to push what the player expected from that kind of game. I didn’t want to h
Jim Jarmusch’s “ A Night on Earth ” was a huge inspiration to me. The film is a series of vignettes featuring 4 different taxi rides and the conversation between driver and rider(s). The stories are a great mix of quirky, sad and thoughtful.
I also took my own photography throughout the project. I would snap reference in the back of ride-shares, or down the lonely streets of Downtown LA. I also staged a number of shoots to better design the inside of Lina’s car. Game Designer Tiff C
From the above research, I designed a limited number of camera shots that we could use to direct any ride. This would help each ride feel dynamic and different (in as efficient a way as possible.) Due to our limited team size I could only afford to
I then used these thumbnails to storyboard out some of our early rides to test out my shot designs.
Dash Cam
Lina POV Shot
Windshield Cam
Closeups
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Lighting plays a huge role in our game’s style. It was a long process figuring out how we could replicate the style of the concepts in our game engine using 2D assets. The first step was figuring out all the lightning moves I would need to manage t
Here is more detail about the various layers I used for my lighting prototype. This breakdown was then used by our engineer Joel Davis to create a custom shader where I could control and animate each layer to create our lighting effects. The bloo
Sprite Texture Breakdown
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Early Characters Exploration
Radix Biker Concepts
I wanted each of their looks to be unique and customized the way Latinx youth trick out their fixie bikes (here in LA.) The emissive details here are also functional, allowing them to be easily spotted on the dark streets of Los Ojos. To me it also
Style Ranges
These duotone explorations were a real turning point for the style of the project. I was trying to capture the moody drama I was reading in our early sample stories.
I then expanded the duotone style into full color. It was really important that the character’s expressions could be read cleanly so players could know how the conversation was going. This style allowed for a lot of clean readability in the faces.
Lina Concept Explorations
Expression Explorations
Lina Final Models
Lina is Mexican-American but her family has lived in the states for generations. I designed her to be a bit ambiguous regarding her racial identity. This was drawn from my own life. Most of my life people have asked me “Where are you from?” which
Lina gets to exit the car at select points in the game. There are only a few locations but it was an interesting challenge trying to reuse our character rigs in different settings. This usually meant designing a new lighting setup and body for them
Savy’s design evolution.
Background Design by Brianne Neumann Warning this is bit of a spoiler: Eventually Lina finds where Savy is hiding out. For this location we had to build a Holographic laptop for her to be messing with. The laptop HUD is a fully animated seq
Fiona Pak
Azul
Gideon
A collection of additional character designs. From Left to Right: Oona the Quantum Witch, Liam a photographer visiting Los Ojos, and Carlos the black market medic.
LOPD Officers
I wanted their visor to serve two purposes. First to serve as an internal and external HUD. I imagined that the inside of their visor displayed all sorts of pertinent information on the person they were questioning. In addition they could display c
They were looking a bit too much like a space soldier. So we redesigned their visors to better resemble riot helmets and shields. This way they maintained their connection to modern police.
3D Model by Lisa Fleck
In game they have holographic badges and their visors display information to Lina about her traffic stop. They intimidate and hassle Lina during her journey through Los Ojos as they search for Savy.
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Capra Car Designs
The sweeping shape of the back lights was inspired by goats horns, a nod to the inspiration for the company name, Capricorn. The windows are always blacked out allowing for total privacy, this also helped differentiate them from Lina’s car. A self
Final Model
Lina’s Car
Lina’s Car Art Direction Notes
Lina's Car - Final 3D
Lina’s Interior - FrontSeat
Lina’s Interior - Backseat
Lina’s Phone Concepts
Phone Concepts by Vincent Perea. (Right) 3D model by Lisa Fleck. To further emphasize this being the early days of handheld technology I wanted all the in world graphics to be vector based. You can see this in the HUD displays some characters so
HUD Design by Laura Sly. 3D Models by Lisa Fleck. The Phone as it appears in the game. After each ride Lina picks up the phone and activates the Holo UI which transitions seamlessly to our menus.
Menu Design by Laura Sly
All the pieces together. A ton of work went into the look of the game and I am really proud of what our team accomplished. There is so much more artwork I could share, but really you should go play the game :)
One final Lina for the road. Made to mark the anniversary of the game’s launch.
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