DT—25
Cathy Xiao
I am a concept artist and illustrator specializing in character design and narrative illustration. While my designs are imaginative and fantastical, I ground them in a realistic drawing style, making them feel as if they could exist in the real world. Inspired by the rich characters and environments found in games and anime, I tailor my work for AAA game studios, with the ultimate goal of contributing to one in the future.
Shattered Recall
This is a character concept art project for an RPG game called Shattered Recall. In a dystopian future where memory manipulation technology exists, the protagonist wakes up in a landfill accused of assassinating a CEO who sought to expose government corruption surrounding memory farming (harvesting and implanting the memories of others to learn new skills). Fleeing law enforcement, the protagonist discovers conspiracy notes and turns to the black-market memory trade to recover fragments of their erased memories.
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In a dystopian future where memories can be harvested and implanted, Marcus wakes up in a landfill, accused of assassinating a CEO who aimed to expose government corruption. On the run, he uncovers fragmented memories and learns he was framed for the murder to silence his whistleblowing.
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A skilled hacker raised by his tech-savvy uncle, Marcus discovers his late parents’ notes on the government’s inhumane experiments, leading him to their former allies, Victor and Erica Langford. Just as they prepare to expose the truth, they are attacked, and Marcus’s memory of the event is erased.
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Erica Langford, a devoted mother and wife, was captured during a government ambush that killed her husband and left Marcus with a wiped memory. Imprisoned and coerced under threats to her daughter’s life, she was infected with Strain V-27, a parasitic weapon that erodes her humanity the more she uses it. Now, controlled by the government and desperate to keep her daughter safe, Erica is unwillingly sent to hunt down her former friend, Marcus.
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General Strake, a ruthless and manipulative military leader, runs a horrific memory farming operation, extracting skills from lab-grown humans and tortured prisoners. He orchestrated the ambush on Victor Langford and, upon learning of Erica’s betrayal, murdered her daughter Olivia, turning her severed head into a grotesque weapon. In the final confrontation, Strake wields stolen skills through implanted memory chips, showcasing his cruelty and power.
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Throughout the game, Marcus collects memory shards by completing missions and continues his personal investigation into the true culprit behind Victor’s assassination and the government’s inhumane memory farms. As Marcus flees from the law, he’s shadowed by a mysterious figure—Erica, long thought dead. Reunited, they plan a daring rescue of Olivia from the Tidal Accord. But their mission is betrayed when V-27(Erica’s parasite) alerts Strake. In a grim twist, Strake kills Olivia and secretly forges her body into a weapon, revealing the horror only during the climactic final battle to break Marcus’s resolve.Land of Jhoram
A worldbuilding concept art project that can be used for film or games. This land named Jhoram was a fertile flatland in Asia where the Drokpa thrived, sustained by a plant called tsemaize, which they believed was a blessing from dragons.
Tsemaize was central to their culture and used for tools and art. When outsiders discovered its properties, greed led to war, and the Drokpa were ultimately defeated, leaving their land ravaged and haunted by restless spirits known as Rigdral.
Buy the Sorcerer’s Saddle!
Narrative illustrations depict the before and after of a break-in into a high-end witch broom shop.
Wine Labels
Animated wine label illustrations based on prompts from the Jules Verne novels Around the World in Eighty Days and From the Earth to the Moon.
