Development archive #1

Hey there.

I'm going to be using this space to post some development notes and share insights on the games I've designed these past few years.

I decided to start with Minoria, my latest release. The reason why, honestly, is because there's quite a number of interesting pictures I'm going to share. It's also the project I've drawn the most for in my life, so there's a lot of content to be posted.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: none of the pictures posted in this archive series has anything to do with current in-development Momodora game. These are not a sneak peak or concept art for that game. Most of these pictures are either from cancelled projects, or prototypes that never went anywhere, or from in-development states of Minoria.

Just to reiterate: the images I'm going to be posting are not related to the new Momodora in any way, shape or form.

Now, I feel like we can properly begin! The warnings above will make sense soon.

Well, perhaps it's no surprise that projectile files for Minoria were, originally, intended for a Momodora project. In 2016, after the completion of Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, I was excited to take the next step in the series. Foolishly, I thought making something different would be a smart decision.

The first thing I messed around was a sort of "2D HD" Momodora experiment. This didn't really go forward much, but I do have some pictures of it. Enjoy.

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Just... as a reminder. Because I don't want people getting the wrong idea about this. These pictures above, and any others I post in this series, are not of games that I'm working on right now. These are scrapped projects, prototypes, that sort of thing. It's no indication of what to expect of the new Momodora. Please understand.

So, that idea above came from a drawing I did of Cath (from Momodora RUTM). I thought a game drawn in a painted art style similar to Vanillaware titles could be a cool idea. Here are some other pictures and illustrations made for this project:

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One thing I do have to mention right now... Please excuse the poor anatomy in these drawings. I'm not exactly a great artist so there's going to be flaws and oddities everywhere. That last picture for example was never meant to be shared publically because it was a concept for a future promotional artwork. The skirt pattern was copied from some other image so I could visualize the sketch better, and when the time came to make the final illustration, I'd redraw the skirt and everything else to be original. Of course this game was never made so that final illustration never came to be.

I believe these are the most interesting things I can share about this one scrapped project. I had only drawn a few characters by this point. I'm sure some of you recognize Sister Fran and Princess Amelia above.

The truth is, most of the character designs I'd made for scrapped Momodora games ended up becoming Minoria characters (with edits to fit the new setting, of course). Sister Fran in the pictures above wears an attire similar to Momodora priestesses, with the red/white/black color schemes and even the hair fang ornament that Momo wears on her hair in Momodora 2 and 3.

I guess that's it for now. I hope this was an interesting read... Next up (if the time ever comes), more concepts for the follow up scrapped project!