Holly Hudson


3D and environment artist working towards roles in art direction

About Me

Artstation

LinkedIn

Twitter

CV

hollyjadehudson.itch.io/snowy-springs

Snowy Springs
(2022)



My roles: Art director, 3D character and environment artist, level designer, Unity implementation, UI artist

 I directed this game visually, taking inspiration from the snow-covered environments of Roki, the low-poly flat style of Space Backyard, and the ambiguous character design from Journey. We used pre-made assets for set-dressing the environment which I manipulated to fit with our clean, soft style. I first blocked the environment out in Unity, then exported to Maya where I built the snowy levels off of the terrain. 

Below is the character that I designed, modelled and rigged in Maya. I studied the character design in Journey when creating this character, as we wanted our player’s to perceive the character’s identity as ambiguously as possible because the themes of anxiety we’re exploring in this game are applicable to anyone. I also wanted to emphasise the lightness and almost floating nature of the character in order to highlight the weight of the anxiety that they face in the game and how this impacts their movement physcially.
 


Both Harvey (my co-developer) and myself have personal experience with struggling to manage our own and others’ mental health. At its core, Snowy Springs is a game about taking too much on without thinking about your own mental wellbeing. It's meant as a twist on the cosy quest genre such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing that sees you carrying out chores with little thought to the strain this puts on yourself.


We consulted with the UK charity, Gaming The Mind, an organisation of UK-based mental health professionals, when designing Snowy Springs. The charity aims to promote positive mental health within the gaming community and the games industry; and reduce the stigma surrounding these issues. Their input was valuable and critical. Snowy Springs promotes the idea of self-care in modern life, the importance of focusing on your own needs and radical empathy. We intended for the game to reduce stigma surrounding anxiety, depression and panic attacks; but also promote the self-care activities to self regulate and calm.

Snowy Springs has been specifically designed to promote the role of self-care for people who struggle with prioritising their own mental health. All of the gameplay mechanics, the story and world have been tailored to serve this purpose.