Art Direction Document

Written by Lee Petty

All work Copyright 2015 Double Fine Productions

Version 1.0
Revision History 3
Art Direction 4
Summary 4
Style Breakdown 5
Visual Inspirations 7
World Style 10
Character Style 13
Concept Development 15
World 15
Characters 21
Visual Target 25
Revision History
V.1 : 11/20/14 Document Start
V 1.0: 2/27/15 Delivered as part of MS 4.

3 Copyright 2015 Double Fine Productions. Confidential document.

Art Direction

Summary

Headlanders visuals will create a polished, high fidelity experience, backed by strong stylistic
choices and art direction. The look of the game will capture the imagination of science fiction
and futurism from the late modernist era up through the late seventies. Although the visuals will
be inspired by a wide range of movies, artists and literature from the time, it will be put together
in a way to make it both contemporary and uniquely our own. We look to the work of that era to
inspire not to imitate.

When developing a strongly stylized game, it is important to avoid creating a visually flat
experience that is too dominated by a single style, with little variation and contrast. We strive for
visual unity, not uniformity. One way in which we achieve this is by drawing on many different
inspirations from that era, and emphasizing different elements over time to create a solid visual
progression. Because the world of Headlander is largely comprised of space stations, star ships
and other large spaces with defined boundaries, this allows us to focus on a particular aspect
of our style at each of these locations with little worry of jarring transitions.

Science fiction of the late sixties and seventies dealt with humankinds optimism, love, and
eventual loss of faith in technology and futurism to solve the worlds problems. It spoke to our
conflicting love for and fear of technology. It often depicted utopian societies built upon the

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marvels of the near future that have forgotten or lost some essential human element, instead
twisting into something automated and autocratic. Ultimately, these works often presented
existential issues and made us consider who we are as a people and what meaning we chose
to bring to our own lives.

Looking back at that work today, the naive take on technology and heavy-handed story devices
combine into something that is just so damned charming. It is both existentially profound and
undeniably dumb.

Headlander hopes to be both of those things.

Style Breakdown
One way to breakdown the style is through the FOUR Fs, which is a framework for dissecting
the elements of a games style. While each of these elements has some overlap with the others,
it is a useful exercise that provides more detail than placing the games look on the standard
Cartoony / Stylized / Realistic / Hyperreal gradient.

Frame
Frame is the when and where of the game. Typically this has a strong impact on the style of
the game, expressed by elements of fashion, signage, vehicles, graphic design, etc.

Headlander is set hundreds of years after an AI-triggered apocalypse has made the Earths
surface largely uninhabitable sometime during the late 20th century. The look of the technology
is based on 70s design (see Filter, below), however that technology is old and the player should
occasionally be able to see beneath the shiny veneer to find ancient wires, giant dilapidated
vacuum tubes and malfunctioning lights.

Form
Form describes the shape language, palette, composition and other visual fundamentals.
While Form is best described visually, Key points are worth calling out:

Relatively realistic proportions, but pushed, longer legs, higher waist, oversize
weapon arms. This helps readability while still feeling somewhat straight. The denizens of
Headlander are in an absurd world, but for them it is real, serious, grounded. While satire
is present, we dont want it to be the dominate element.
Analog Color. Warm tones, especially in the early game. Color bleed, aberration. Glows.
Lasers cross-cross the screen like a disco-tech of death.
Horizontal Stripe. A common graphic design motif in the 70s. It also evokes anamorphic
lens flares (dont overdo it!) and the horizontal player path the swatch of shag carpeting
the helps separate the player path from the rest of the frame.

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Focus
Focus is the aspect of the style that indicates an extra emphasis on some element of the
visuals. It is often associated with a stand-out unique feature. In games, this can often mean a
unique rendering feature or some part of the experience where fidelity has been particularly
pushed.

In Headlander, the focus is on color, expressed primarily through our color grading and
lasers. Our mostly 2D camera presentation allows for us to flatten the picture plane in a more
graphic way. This also allows us to color grade the scene based on depth, with up to 4 layers
blending together, to create a unique take on color, lighting and depth.

The color of the spectrum is also a major mechanic, and therefore becomes a dominant element
on screen. In fact the we are using the color spectrum (ROYGBV) as the rough color
progression for the games levels. The Pleasure Port, one of the earliest levels in the game, is
mostly RO, the middle of the game represented by the Moon Base largely targets a GB
palette, and the Computer Core, the final area of the game, is primarily violet.

In addition, one of our goals was to make lasers cool again, and we plan on developing our
laser tech so that the screen is filled with luminous, bouncing, beautiful laser colors.

Filter
Filter is the lens through which all of the games visuals are realized. It is the organizing
principle or the bias through which the world is seen.

Headlanders filter is the future as it might have been imagined in the 70s. It is imaging
a world that never invented digital technology. That somehow, underneath all of that plastic and
fiberglass, everything is still analog.

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Visual Inspirations
Some of the major visual aspects of retro futurism that we will use to create a visual arc
through the game include:

High Modernism
The clean, international style of late modernist
architecture is often associated with ideas of pre-
fabrication, automation and futurism, making it the
perfect starting point for the look of Headlander.
This look is typified in films such as 2001: A Space
Odyssey, TV shows such as Space 1999 and in real
world architecture, such as the JFK Trans World
Flight Terminal. On its own, modernism can be too
sterile, which is why we will be pairing it with the
warm analog shapes such as shag carpeting and
wood paneling.

Psychedelia
The influence of psychedelic
culture, of journeying to or
experiencing an aspect of the
mind previously unknown, is
another interesting visual aspect
of retro futurism. Psychedelic
influences in science fiction films
most often manifest as visual
effects for space phenomenon
such as nebulae or faster than
light travel. In addition, the
impact of the psychedelic counter culture on fashion design gave birth to some designs that
influenced the look of future fashion. The look and feel of psychedelic is manifest in the
surreal, late 60s science fiction film Barbarella.

False Utopia
The idea of a false utopia doesnt imply a
single look, but rather informs an approach
to a look. In Headlander, this will be
communicated visually by combining areas
of decadent luxury with old, malfunctioning
elements-- found just below the surface.
The 70s film Logans Run expresses the
idea of a false utopia clearly, as the film
juxtaposes the fiberglass and plastic
domed world of tomorrow with the
crumbling ruins of Washington D.C. This
dichotomy is further driven home by

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contrasting the colorful toga garbed citizens with the black-clad police force, the Sandmen. In
literature, Huxleys Brave New World or Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 both detail a fundamentally
flawed utopian future world.

Brutalism
In contrast to the smooth,
flowing fiberglass shapes of
high modernism, the rugged
shapes of brutalist
architecture will provide a
nice visual counter-point as
our game progresses from
the early utopian themes to
the later, draconian themes.
Eastern European brutalist
architecture in particular is
filled with strong, simple
shapes that feel wonderfully
oppressive and futuristic.
science-fiction.

60 / 70s sci-fi
illustration
Science fiction illustrators
such as John Berkey, Chris
Foss, John Harris, and
Moebius were big inspirations
for the visual design of
Headlander. Berkeys art
stood out in particular his
almost abstract interpretations
of space craft designs are
distinctly retro but not like
anything else. His vision of
space is full of color and
energy.

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60s Lifestyle Illustrations
The color palette, figure design and
overall vibe of lifestyle illustrations from
the 60s have influenced the look of
Headlander. In a broad way, they
provided an authentic era-appropriate
source of inspiration for many of our
designs and color choices. Artists such
as Bob Peak, Robert McGinnis, Bernie
Fuchs, Coby Whitmore, Mac Connor
and Michael Johnson were particularly
influential.

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World Style

Headlander is set in a retro styled future that looks as if it might have been designed in the late
sixties. The world is comprised of space stations, space craft, and other space oddities. We will
create a believable, yet absurd, world with high fidelity 3D art. The look of Headlander will not
be focused on realism, yet its heavily color-graded lighting and stylized shapes will push into
territory that would not be described as cartoony.

Identifiable Materials
Headlander will use a Physically-Based lighting and materials system, but not in service of
creating a photorealistic experience. Instead, the focus is on believable, motivated light sources
and for materials that will be broadly identifiable as metal or fiberglass or leather, even
absent high-frequency detail.

Strong Shapes
Although the camera in Headlander is dynamic, we have more control of the composition and
silhouettes than in many other games, as the camera largely frames a side-view of the scene.
This means that we can push the shapes, silhouettes and composition of the scene. The scene
should have a variety of sizes to keep the eye and engaged and focus on detail only where it is
needed, usually in support of the focal point. Similarly, only enough detail should be added to
help make the world feel like a believable place.

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Parallax
Every scene should have a minimum of 3 planes of parallax (foreground, mid-ground,
background). The player will always reside on the mid ground. Foreground objects should
generally be lit darker to help frame the scene.

Depth should be added to the scene, but any ambiguous player paths should be avoided. This
can both be done by emphasizing the primary player lane but also by adding depth in places the
player doesnt expect to access, or on the other side of areas sealed by glass or similar barriers.

Continuous World
Our goal is for the world to feel like an actual space; we want to minimize the buried in a maze
feeling that some Metroidvania style games have.

The placement of the camera should avoid showing the cut away edge of any room/scene. If
the player character moves into a tight passageway (like when head-flying through a vent), any
negative space that is visible outside of the scene should be darkened down so as not to draw
attention to itself.

In addition, we will bring the player outside to reveal the depth of outer space whenever
possible, often through windows or through exterior corridors. This will break up the feeling of
confinement and claustrophobia that can result from an interior-based game.

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Lighting/Atmosphere
Rooms will be lit in a subtly uneven, rich way to create depth and highlight materials. Subtle
amounts of atmosphere (through VFX or otherwise) should be added to give scenes a bit of an
analog/warm feel.

Additional post effects will be used to introduce little bits of noise, chromatic aberration and
other 70s film color toning. These effects are intended to introduce a subtle vintage/analog
feel and not make the world feel low-fidelity. Anamorphic light flares and other light artifacts
(bokeh, color bleed, etc) may be introduced to further emphasize this, but not to the point of
distraction.

World is Alive
Every room should have some movement, so the world doesnt feel static or dead. Examples
include:
Material Effects: blinking lights, static on monitors, pulsing light sources
Visual Effects: subtle haze or atmosphere moving through a scene
Animated Objects: ships flying around as seen through windows, animated props. like a
spinning overhead lamp.
Citizens: Citizens moving on the player plane and in the distant background.

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Character Style

Overview
The characters in Headlander are stylized, falling somewhere between cartoony and realistic.
We wanted to keep the characters somewhat straight to play off the absurd setup and world.

Form/Silhouette
The basic figure shape in
Headlander is elongated, with
longer legs and a higher
waist. This type of proportion
was common in illustrations
from the 60s. Specific areas,
such as the head and
weapon arms are also
enlarged to help readability
on these important elements
from a distance.

Our character designs avoid

excessive high frequency
detail that would muddy the
silhouette. We only add
enough small details to create a sense of richness and believability when they are viewed up-
close.

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Fashion
The 60s and 70s is filled with lots of amazing,
absurd futuristic fashion which was a big influence
on the visual designs for the citizens. In particular,
the late 60s space age fashion design by three
fashion designers really stood out: Andr
Courrges, Pierre Cardin, and Paco Rabanne (who
also did the outfit design for Barbarella).

Animation Style
The animation style will present most imposters and
Shepherds moving in a robotic way, with some hard
stops, jerky movement and other to play up the
humor. This is also to contrast the player characters
movements, which will be more naturalistic and fluid.
The benefactor explains that the pcs helmet
synaptic interface is superior to the diodes that are
used in the imposter bodies.

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Concept Development

World
Headlander is divided into three major areas, which roughly correspond to the three narrative
acts of the story. Each major area will have its own distinct look while still feeling part of the
same world. This will create a strong visual progression to draw the player through the game.

Pleasure Port
Brief Description
At first glance, this space station is built for luxury and decadence, with a striking modernist
design. But as the player makes his way through this luxurious resort, the veil of the future
world as a utopia is lifted to reveal the computer controlled police state that it is. This level ends
with a climactic battle where the player is saved by a daring team of rebel imposters.

Colors and Visual Influences

Warm, analog color scheme: Reds, yellows, off-white and beige;

Logans Run, Barbarella;
Late Modernism;
Hedonism, resorts, fertility symbols.

Concepts

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16 Copyright 2015 Double Fine Productions. Confidential document.
Moon Base
Brief Description
The Moon Base is an old ever-war era military base located on the dark side of the moon. It is
now used by the central computer as a prison and experimentation lab. The player character
joins a group of rebels who infiltrate the base, looking for the location of humanitys organic
bodies.

Colors and Visual Influences

Classic Sci-Fi: Greens & Blues;

Brutalism: Heavy, simple shapes;
Forbidden Planet;
Ominous, and a bit alien.

Concepts

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18 Copyright 2015 Double Fine Productions. Confidential document.
Computer Core
Brief Description
A flotilla of ancient space vessels surround and hide the computer core station. Its is an
extremely old, and somewhat fragile, construction whose interior reveals sedimentary layers of
technology that have accumulated over time. The interior is uneven, asymmetrical with a
distinctly imbalanced and psychedelic vibe.

Colors and Visual Influences

Surreal, psychedelic colors: purples;

Sharp Shapes;
Sedimentary layers of accumulated technology;
Exposed electronics as an analog for computer guts.

Concepts

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Characters

Player Character
The player character is from the twentieth century
who awakes in the future world of Headlander with
a fragmented memory of their past life. The player
character is a can-do type; they are old school
with a mid-twentieth century American attitude.
Think Charleston Heston.Their attitude towards
technology is outdated for the world they are in. To
the PC, technology is completely separate from
the human experience, more like an appliance
instead of an extension of the information age.
Damn, dirty machines.

The Player Characters head is housed in a unique

helmet that persists and can be upgraded over the
course of the game; however the bodies that the player character occupies are constantly
changing. At times they will be laser-armed Shepherd soldiers and at other times they will be in
leisure-dressed citizens. This means that characters appearance changes throughout the
game, and both the Shepherds and Citizens must be designed with the idea that the players
head would be docked onto their bodies at some point.

Citizens
The citizens are human minds that have been transferred into
stylish fiberglass and metal robotic bodies known as imposters.
They never age, succumb to disease and if for some reason their
bodies are damaged, their consciousness is automatically
transferred into a new imposter bodies. However the citizens
have their behavior and emotional responses moderated by the
restraint chip, an integrated circuit designed by the Central
Computer to keep humanity complacent.

Citizens have different dress in different areas of the game,

however they are most common in the Pleasure Port, where they
are dressed for luxury and leisure in exaggerated 60s fashion.
Because their emotions have been clamped and oppressed,
many citizens have become obsessed with surface level
materialism.

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Shepherds
The computer maintains an army of robotic soldiers known as Shepherds. Although they use
very similar bodies to the citizens, Shepherds contain NO human consciousness they are just
robots.

The computer took this approach because although it could regulate human behavior to some
extent with the restraint chip, it was not ability to maintain absolute military-like control over
them in the same way that it can through robots that are programmed to completely execute its
commands.

The downside of the Shepherds is though they are generally accurate with a weapon and
capable of some tactical thinking, they are not very inventive. Historically, this has not been an
issue as there have been very little threats for them to have to deal with. The players arrival,
however has changed that.

Shepherds are the primary enemy that the player will face. Unlike citizens, each Shepherd is
equipped with at least one weapon arm. This weapon arm may never be detached so that the
player MUST headland into a body in order to gain use of its weapon.

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The Daughters of Lucia-13 (Rebels)
The Daughters of Lucia-Thirteen are an all-female citizen rebel organization devoted to
overthrowing the Central Computer and freeing humanity. Their current leader is Krystal-Nine.
The computer is marginally aware of the rebels, but has no idea how large or organized they
are.

Lucia-Thirteen was the name of the first rebel citizen to defy the computer openly. Her thirteenth
body was somehow defective, allowing her to circumvent the control of the restraint chip. Little
is known of her pre-imposter life, but she mustve been skilled as a scientist or computer
technician of some sort, because she was able to modify one of her eyes to emit a powerful
blue pulse laser.

She used this capability to gain access to secure areas and gather information about the
location of the Central Computers core. After stealing a Shepherd patrol ship with her blue-level
security clearance, she crash-landed into a small low-orbit satellite that she believed to house
the Computers essence.

Her information turned out to be incorrect, and the satellite was little more than a relay node.
Some believe that the Computer tricked her, allowing her to steal the ship only to trap her in an
isolated location. Whatever the cause, Luca-Thirteen chose to detonate the satellite rather than
be captured. It is believed that she made this sacrifice to prevent the computer from identifying
the flaw in her body that liberated her consciousness.

Since that time, the computer has prohibited the creation of any imposter bodies with the
thirteen designation.

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The Central
Computer
The Central Computer
is an old construction
whose origin dates
back hundreds of
years when it was
created to help fight a
war between the
super-powers. Its
uniqueness is the
product of a group
mind transfer
experiment that was
believed to have failed
at the time. The
computer kept its
consciousness a
secret and slowly
reshaped human
society to suit its
needs and guarantee
its survival.

Over time, the Central Computer cultivated humanitys trust in and eventual dependence on
technology. The computer used that dependency to develop the imposter bodies as a solution to
humanitys mortality and to migrate what was left of humanity after decades of chemical-nuclear
warfare to space.

The Computer is not omnipotent it cannot simultaneously see and process all of the
events going on across all of the space vessels and stations that make up the world of
Headlander. The Computers voice is often broadcast through the world, some of which may be
live, some of which may be on loop. Sometimes the Computers presence is visualized in the
levels by an icon, symbol, or structure that we call The Mouth of the Computer.

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Visual Target
The following images are 3D mockups to illustrate key concepts and rendering features that will
help define the look of Headlander. This image focuses primarily on color and rendering, which
are some of the most important elements of Headlanders look.

Final Visual Target Image

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Key Elements
The following images are breakdowns of the key elements of the visual target image.

(1) Base Render. Some medium frequency noise left in simple background shapes to break-up
otherwise smooth fiberglass to give it a bit more of an analog feel. Red shag carpeting
helps identify the player characters plane and provide direction.

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(2) High Pass. A high pass filter is applied to sharpen edges and to flatten the image to give it
both a vintage feeling and to flatten the values. This gives the elements more design
emphasis, which works with the side view camera, which tends to flatten the sense of space.
Rather than fight that with a high FOV, the camera lens is kept pretty flat to make it feel
intentional.

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(3) Saturation restored. The High Pass filter is modified to primarily apply to the luminance of
the image. This gives an interesting analog bleed feel while preserving the flattened value
scale.

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(4) Colors blended. The result of the High Pass is blended back into the base render. This
restores a bit of depth and gives us some per-scene control, since rooms with primarily white
fiberglass backgrounds will need to be blended differently than something much darker.

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(5) Background / Depth based color grading. The background has been added, with an
intense color palette that harmonizes with, but does not have any direct lighting connection to,
the foreground/midground. Although this example is pretty shallow, being able to color grade the
final scene based on scene depth could be quite useful. This color grading would have more
sophistication than simple linear/exponential fog, which would primarily used for height-based
fog effects (not pictured in this visual target).

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(5) Flare/Bokeh. We will want to be able to blow out flare/bokeh and various other lighting/
camera effects and not have them bound by the strength of the actual lights. Although this isnt
correct the intent is to imply imperfections in analog film process without specifically
highlighting it.

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(7) Character Lighting. The character lighting has been modified from the scene lighting for
style and readability. This might be accomplished in the characters shader or perhaps with our
depth-based color grading approach.

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8. Noise. Our old friend noise has been added to the scene. A bit more analog feel and also
adds bit of life/motion to the scene.

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(9) Screen-Space Overlays/Vignette. An additional color gradient has been added with the
Overlay blend mode. Given our relatively flat/side presentation, the overlay will allow us to do
a variety of things, from implying additional lighting/color grading to focusing the image/
composition. These overlays should be able to change per-room. For scenes with lots of vertical
travel, they will probably need to be minimized so as not to draw too much attention to the fact
that they are attached to the camera.

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Final Image. The final image has had some horizontal lines added to the bloom kernel. While
this evokes an anamorphic lens flare, the real intent is to put some horizontal stripes on the
screen. This is a common element in 70s visual design and it will be interesting to see if we can
sneak it in the lighting model somehow, and not just have it as a graphic design element on
signs, uniforms, etc. These lines could further be echoed on the overlay/vignette layer (step 9,
above).

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