Video: The Art and Design of Diggs Nightcrawler

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Video: The Art and Design of Diggs Nightcrawler

Hello again everyone! In this latest development diary we’re taking a look at some of the art and design in Diggs Nightcrawler.

Our starting point for the game was Wonderbook itself, and it was from here that we arrived at a bookworm hero, a city made of books and cast of characters from fiction. We also knew from day one that we wanted Wonderbook to be the key method of interaction, and so the physical nature of the book was intrinsic to the design of the game.

We wanted the experience to be intuitive, so we imagined every scene as if it were a real physical object on the book that would respond in the way the player would expect. Early on, we have a scene where Diggs is looking for clues, but it’s dark and he needs light. Overhead is a lamp on a chain which will swing if the player picks up the book and tilts it.

All scenes, including this one, were initially prototyped as foam models. Using these we could test interactions, experiment with scale and move scenery around. Given that the player is in full control of the book, we took inspiration from theatre in the round.

When it came to animating the experience, we knew we needed very high quality animation to engage the player with the characters and story. We decided to create bespoke animation for every scene, and approached production much like an animated feature film. Everything was storyboarded throughout, with storyboard artists attending all design discussions to visualise the experience in development. As in film, the actors’ performances were recorded before animation production began, and often the animators would bring elements of the actors’ physical performances to our Library City heroes.

Diggs Nightcrawler will be released exclusively on Wonderbook for PlayStation 3 this holiday.

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7 Comments

  • OK.

  • I think this looks really cool. Like a cross between Insecticide and an Oddworld title, maybe? Diggs Nightcrawler is now officially on my radar. ^_^

  • Dear sony and playstation. i know this has nothing to do with digss nightcrawler, but this place might be the best place to say this. today i downloaded pinball arcade from the psn, the ps3 downloads both versions so i decided to install the vita version using the usb cable, but the game took 38 minutes to install.

    now this is a 160mb game, i could have downloaded the game from my vita and have it running in 2 minutes. Why does it take 38 minutes to install the game using the usb cable with the ps3?

  • Why was there a post about this a few days ago, that was quickly removed?

  • Ps4 comes with a PS EYE, Plzzz make a PS4 version of this and Wonderbook!

  • That looked like a really big step up in technology from Book of Spells. The characters showed real movements, if the video is truly representational of the product. I love Harry Potter so I really enjoyed the Book of Spells. I will probably get Diggs, too.

    I guess from now on you just get the game like a regular game and you use the same large book peripheral that we used for Book of Spells?

  • BossmanCCrowder1

    I didn’t really care for Book of Spells at all, but this is really cool. I’m interested in this.

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