How Kingdom Hearts, Spanish culture and Unreal Engine 5 shaped Duskfade’s stunning art
It used to be that saying a new game looks like a PS2 game, or any platform several generations past, was derogatory. But whether it’s a case of rose-tinted nostalgia or disillusionment with the current state of gaming, comparisons to older games aren’t just a compliment but something many modern developers are consciously leaning into.
“PlayStation 2 graphics are timeless, they still look amazing, and that’s something we wanted to do for our game’s graphical style,” says Diego Redondo Gonzalez, the art director of Duskfade, a 3D action-platformer that is very much a tribute to the PS2 era of cartoonish 3D action platformers like Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper, the kind of games that Sony‘s first party studios no longer make, in other words.
Yet when it came to developing Duskfade’s visual style, the most important reference was Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix’s action RPG crossover with Disney characters. You can see that very clearly with protagonist Zirian, who wields a large sword much like a Keyblade from that series. In this case, it’s actually a large clock hand.
“Because a clock hand is very mechanical, it allows us to make transformations for the blade,” Gonzalez explains. “So when you roll, dash and attack, it turns into a smaller clock hand, like a stinger, then it turns into a pendulum. And that’s where it snowballed and started.”
Works like clockwork
The clock hand was then the seed for the game’s overall clockwork aesthetic, including mechanical gears and time, which is reflected in the setting of Tick Town and in Zirian’s mechanical Cuckoo companion. “The gameplay was also very clear from the beginning, referencing PS2 platformers, so we always wanted the grapple, the rail grinding and all that stuff. And then the sword and clockpunk stuff was added on top of it, and it worked very well. And from that came the story. So the aesthetic definitely came first.”
As a studio based in Spain, with almost the entire team made up of staff from all around the country, Gonzales says there were also many influences taken from their own roots, even though it may not be as overt as the very French Belle Epoque influence of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, for example.
“It’s not directly based on Spain, or even a fantasy Spain, but we did try to get a little bit of our culture in there,” Gonzales explains, having started on the project just when he had moved to the north part of Spain in Galicia, just when it was in the middle of a festival, so some of that vibrant carnival atmosphere certainly made its way there. The Canary Islands were also used as a source of inspiration, from an early level based on a coastal town to a boss named Guayota, itself based on a mythical deity originating from Tenerife and said to reside inside the Teide volcano, which will probably give you an idea of how that fight will take place.
“We’re from all different parts of Spain, so the artists have put a little bit of what they see in their everyday life into the art too. In every travel trip we’ve done, one of our artists always has a camera and takes references of everything she sees, sometimes just the little references, like a window, so we always have a lot of real references.”
Duskfade is also a contrast to the studio’s last project, a darker more realistic-looking top-down shooter called Clid the Snail, whereas this is has a much more colourful game that harks back to a sense of magic and wonder that matches the vibe of classic PS2 games. “After two or three years working on a very grim dark game, we really just wanted a change,” says Gonzales.
Whereas the last game was made in Unity, this is also the studio’s first game made with Unreal 5, a decision that Gonzales had personally pushed for. “It’s just more powerful. It gave me more artistic possibilities and tools, including analytic tools and visual shaders, which were very helpful.” Considering that the likes of Jak & Daxter and Kingdom Hearts 1 were made by what would have been the big-budget AAA studios of the PS2’s era, it’s a testament to Unreal’s tools that similar results, if not better, can now be achieved by smaller indie teams. Whether Duskfade will also stand the test of time, at least there’s confidence that its visual style will age just as well.
(Image credit: Weird Beluga)
Duskfade releases on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on 13 August, and a demo is available on PS5 and Steam.
