DT—23
Madi Funk
With an undying love for all things silly and serious, Madi Funk is an illustrator who enjoys developing introspective and fun stories involving expressive characters and mystical settings. She has a passion for video games, storytelling, and digital mixed media. Besides drawing constantly, half of her time is spent playing games and eating PB&J.
Aster
Aster is a faux Metroidvania-style game demo about a top adventuring school graduate, Aster, setting off to a famously mysterious and enormous mountain of monsters. With a huge ego and something to prove, Aster smugly announces his incredible abilities and achievements before he finds out he’s bitten off way more than he can chew.
With this concept, we get a taste of a character who swings between a large ego and his insecurity, all within a playful but punishing fantastical world.
Special thanks to Daniel Teles for composing the soundtrack for this project
Aster’s design couldn’t be overly complicated that he couldn’t be drawn as a sprite without sacrificing readability, so I chose small details that pack a large punch. His swooping hairstyle is easier to read as a sprite and encompasses his character as someone who would spend a lot of time fussing with his hair to make it perfect and unique before he starts his day.
Concepts for low-level monsters that didn’t make it into the final demo, a flying moth dog and a hard-to-spot and fast aquatic cave mole.
Ospesjel
A short click-through story about the soul of a book making a five-year pact with a trickster god to turn her into a human. The five years are almost up, and as she slowly turns back into a book, she returns to the god to beg it to keep her human by any means necessary.
Play it here!
Fireball Honey
Fireball Honey is a proof-of-concept game project inspired by the ‘magical girl’ genre and classic high fantasy. The story follows Manami, a tired and overworked appointed chosen one from a long line of mages who needs to find a team she can train fast. The magic of their world is slowly starting to kill it. She fumbles with the magical items she’s been entrusted with her whole life, accidentally giving them to two people, Adam and Phaya, who are definitely not fit for the job, and upsettingly enthusiastic to try. With her new predicament, Manami is forced to play the terrible hand she’s been dealt and save her world no matter what.
Fireball Honey Artbook
Interspersed through gameplay, fun transformation sequences heavily inspired by magical girl media would play when the player transforms a character from human to their mage form. This is a finished concept for Manami’s transformation sequence.
