https://leftout.itch.io/bonsaidle
Bonsaidle is a game I created on the team of Left Out Games for Summer Slow Jams 2023, for June. The theme was "Idle Games," with a creative theme of "mutation." The time span for this game jam was 2 weeks.
We explored a ton of ideas initially, and I created visual concept explorations for a few. We settled on Bonsaidle, a focus timer (an application that times periods of focusing and taking breaks to help structure work time) in which you grow your own bonsai tree that summons spirits. The tree would grow during a 25 minute day cycle of working, during which, no spirits would be present. Then, there would be a 5 minute night cycle, where the player can prune the tree to their liking and speak with the spirits they've summoned.
Originally, a randomizer was planned that would generate spirits from one master set of sprites. All spirits would have the same animation, but would appear very different due to the different combinations of traits. While this system was not able to implemented in time in Unity, I created all assets with this in mind, and created "randomized" characters manually through switching layers on and off in After Effects.
Along with creating concept art, I also created all 2D sprites for the spirits, the tree leaves, and a background for the play space.