Revisiting the Art and Design of Asterigos: Curse of the Stars

Greetings, brave warriors of the Northwind Legion!

We are excited to participate in this year’s ‘Art of Indies’ showcase. As it follows from the event's name, today, we’d like to revisit some of the artwork and designs we created when developing Asterigos: Curse of the Stars.

Level and movement design

In Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, you explore the complex City of Aphes, featuring numerous unique districts inhabited by various vile creatures. It was essential to us to make your city exploration seamless and exciting. That's why we've approached the level design with extra attention.

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In the early design phase, we brainstormed many possibilities for how our character could move through the level. How fast should she be, can she dash or not, what kind of obstacles will there be and which of them can be interactable? It's a fun yet not-so-easy process.

The best way to determine all of this is to test how it feels in-game, including flips through the walls, climbing, sliding, or wading through water. Even jumping was a hot topic within the team! Here are a couple of sketches we did during our brainstorming.

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The world of Asterigos is full of dangers, so you must tread carefully. Or not.

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Examples of different mechanisms, blockages and other obstacles and the ways to interact with them.

The creation of Hilda from concept to Hero

When you first enter the City of Aphes, you’ll quickly realise that you’re an outsider. Everything Hilda identifies with, from her clothes to weapons, differs from the sophisticated technology and society of Aphes.

Originally, Hilda was going to be a blonde-haired protagonist. In the end, to emphasize the contrast between herself and the people of Aphes, Hilda’s hair was made red, and her wardrobe inspired by Celtic designs.

Hilda has gone through several phases of transformation to become the red-haired warrior you see today in Asterigos: Curse of the Stars.

If you’re a cosplay aficionado, you can check out our official Hilda Cosplay Guide here to recreate her iconic look.

Designing the enemies

When we decided to draw inspiration from the culture and history of ancient Rome and classical Greece, we delved into the myths and legends of both periods.

There are many fabled and epic creatures in folklore that we wanted to add to the game. However, it was extremely important to us that these creatures fit into our story and were truly part of the world and not just copied from other settings. We wanted players to see familiar-looking monsters when they encountered them while at the same time providing a unique experience.

Each creature is placed into a common background of the 'cult' they belong to. From this, the art team formed the art style of the creatures that fit with the scenes and other characters. Our artists have added magical runes and tattoos to cultists' bodies so that these characters better fit the overall image of the faction they represent and the narrative.

We love the world we created, from brainstorming to story writing, concepts, modelling, texturing, adding animations and VFX, and eventually AI and skill designing. Each of these elements cultivates the hard work of many artists and departments.

We hope that you enjoyed exploring the world of Asterigos: Curse of the Stars as much as we enjoyed designing it!