Chibo: Journey of Fate is a narrative-driven, third-person adventure set in the mystical world of Raad, where players guide Chibo – a reluctant young mystic who is on a quest to unravel their destiny.
I was responsible for establishing and maintaining a cohesive visual style that matched the game’s narrative tone. Visuals of the game embraced a stylized look with bold outlines, exaggerated shapes and a vibrant, contrasting color palette. Early in the project, I significantly overhauled the visual style to better fit the evolving narrative and gameplay. The result was visually clearer and easier to build assets for, which helped us hit deadlines without sacrificing quality.
For characters I chose complementary warm and cool colors – mainly yellows and dark blues – to differentiate characters from the environment. Additionally, individual masks were intentionally distinct, using pink and red mix to bring a pop of color with unique shapes to support each character’s identity.
I designed two distinct biomes – Darwan and Eagre – with clearly contrasting visual languages. Darwan’s friendly and rounded forms were built to feel inviting and warm, whereas Eagre used sharp and jagged shapes to signal danger and unease. Environment scale also played a crucial role, aiming to create a sense of awe for the player.
I designed a minimal and clean UI, primarily dialogue interfaces, inspired by games like Sable and Breath of the Wild. The UI was intentionally minimalist, letting players focus fully on narrative interactions and exploration. I also iterated on various UI designs to ensure clarity without disrupting immersion.
Initially, the visuals leaned heavily toward fantasy-inspired moodiness. Realizing it didn’t align clearly enough with the narrative, I decided to completely overhaul the visuals midway through development. This shift created stronger visual coherence, simplified asset creation, and ultimately improved the game’s overall aesthetic identity.
