A large collection of concept art for Defend the Cake,
http://defendthecake.com/
game available on steam, itch.io and gamejolt.
Above is the promotional artwork for the Ant Queen.
This post is all the concept art and 2d art for Defend the Cake that I could track down which @Drachis had a hand in creating. It is a collection of sketches, watercolor drawings and rough animations of ideas that came up during the production.
This is an idea of the carrot launcher transforming into a robot piloted by an eggbird.
The strawberry shortcake slice was one of the alpha walls we had in game
Picking colors for the frosting upgrades involved some glacial ice reference and non local colors.
These are the breakouts of the 3/4 ant queen perspectives for animation to help simplify from the promo art and ensure the important details came through.
This was a wine opening carrot launcher combo idea, where the spiral screw was used to harvest the carrots.
This animation rough sold us on the idea of the look and feel for the rocket snails.
The coconut palm was a potential rolling pin alternative, we deemed it too much plant and not enough kitchen-punk for the game
Spiiiice worm, with a little cleanup this ended up in game
Howe do eggbirds repair a cake we asked? With staples and tape, just kinda... putting the pieces back where ever. Not the smartest of biurbs.
A rough fat grasshopper animation on paper because Drachis left his computer behind one day.
Some of the early concepts for beetles, segways ants and bees, with a little glimpse at the death animation for ants in the top right.
This is a quick animation of how the carrot launcher that is in game could activate, we started in this direction on the model but didn’t get it completed.
One of the alternative ideas for the watermelon was this seed launcher, which spit an arc of watermelon seeds out.
This is the rough animation for the carrot launcher, we used it in game for a short while in alpha to help with prototyping.
A quick guide on how to make a nine-slice texture paired with ideatiaon on how to build blocks of walls.
One of the early potential strawberry shooter upgrades
Before there were flowers and leaves in the areas outside. the play space there was talk of filling it with brambles. They ended up looking too busy when used in game.
Strawberry tower rough animation, was top down to allow for simple 2d rotation.
Early strawberry shooter idea, too much seed, not enough gear.
The snail iteration that really hit their personality, thanks to @war-anth for encouragement to push it farther.
One early watermelon prototype, a trying pan... we decided it might evoke fried eggs in the player’s mind which wasn’t the goal.
The rough Defend the Cake Logo
One of the animation roughs for the watermelon tower.
“I’m still rather fond of this design, it does something really different and reads very well” - @drachis
Logo exploration for Defend the Cake, this was too much Defend and not enough Cake
When the watermelon slingshot was a cannon.
Exploration of the play space and cake designs, asking “how do we show the grid without always having to put a grid up?“ and “does the cake live on the grass or a tray?“
Watermelon slingshot animation rough, this was used in game during alpha.
Cupcake ideas, how much cute and what elements are most important. The proportion of the design on the left helped inspire the cupcake in game today.
This delicious Strawberry Volcano Brick Toast inspired the walls that you see in Defend the Cake. We tried a couple other baked goods but they didn’t quite hit that same same visual weight.It was sooo good, such delicious research.
Tried out the idea of wall-nut toast, it looked a bit too tiled in game and didn’t evoke that ‘put a thing on me’ feeling
A wee baby cupcake with a frosting beret, it was cute but those cheeks sorta make me die inside.
What if waffle wall? waffled on this idea and it fell out of favor.
Eggbird personality rough sketches, that smirking on in the top center was a big hit and that frame lives on in the game.
Cleaver rough, exploration of the cleaver shape and how it would look on toast.
toast. Toast. TOAST! This was a super satisfying animation that sold the idea of toast popping out of the ground.
Some exploration of what if the eggbirds were more like the babies from angry birds, didn’t quite stick.
Eggbird icon for the UI
Exploring how eggbirds look when we push it some, maybe giant eye highlights.
Making cheesy puns, this bone and cheese knife was the basic idea for the cheese cleaver in game
early cheese cleaver idea, exploration of shapes
The alpha watermark, stuck around until mid beta
A grasshopper all hopped up on 40k ideas ready to get cake for the Empara , er I mean Queen.
bee drone just wants you to remember to....
Building a backronym for the TROJAN EGG, and exploring how the rolling pin might pop out.
Rough ideas for the carrot animation and launcher.
color exploration for the watercolor launcher, banditapple notebooke and windsor and newton mini watercolor set.
Ant queen chair back at the animator’s request, this wasn’t designed until that request came in.
Exploration of the walls, what if they were a fruit tart?
A bread study, to try and figure out what even is bread.
Looking at tart shells and exploring the idea of walls.
Early website promo art sketch, sleeping eggbird getting ready to make a cake.
Toasty explorations, what shapes? Maybe pancakes?
Trying out the idea of braided bread to help give the bread a rather different look.
exploring more braided bread weave patterns
Pushing the eggbirds far past where I initially felt comfortable, what should the carton look like?
Exploring eyes and emotions for eggbirds.
What even is an eggbird, can I draw it in one line?
“Eggbirds always wear a hat” - Namtopia , here are eggbirds with tall chef’s hats.
strawberry shooter particle exploration, this looked too much like blood and was rejected.
happy little cake with raspberries, crayola watercolors
how do the ants die? rough idea of their souls making sad hungry faces and wafting away.
spiral shell rocket snail, when the snail was more jet engine than snail.
rocket snail with goggles, gotta go fast, so fast you hover.
trying to get that moar snailery life going.
Some rough colors on the rocket snail to solidify that pure horror
UI ideas, all the ingredients and recipes on a giant cutting board.
tower sketches , thinking about the rolling pin and how does it roll out dough and what that looks like.
beetle and ants, proportions didn’t quite work at game scale.
Watermelon launcher concept.
mail-egg for the newsletter, animated him walking as a promo for game before alpha during the search for more newsletter signups.
Tried out an idea where the cake was always screaming through the hole in the A.... didn’t go through for reasons.
The logo in full sketch and watercolor form.
This cupcake didn’t make it into the game, the chocolate eyes and overcooked body didn’t quite have the right appeal.
I’m hiding and sad says this cupcake, defend me.
You got this!
Eggbird and cake slice exploration, can they get tired and flop over? I think so.
Cleaver design, really close to final.
the eggbirds go on cooldown, how should that look?
Winter egg promo, standing on an icingy piece of cake
What if the alpha logo was an egg on a runaway eggbeater? too dark I guess.
More alpha logo exploration, some notes from working at a yoga studio.
The logo for Alpha, used as a watermark
beedrone sketch, determined to bee a little too much drone in the face and bee fur is a little creepy.
playing with grasshopper proportions
trying to get the grasshopper to be realistic and super squishable.
Crab apple, crab apple, better than glad apple. Exploring the shapes and progression of the crab apple.
Cake booth sketch for Otakon. It ended up fairly close to this.
Some alternative cake booth ideas.
Looking at plants and zombies towers and thinking about an eggbird cannon.
Exploring the cheese knife hole patterns
trying to figure out the eggbird integration with the cheese knife.
happy birthday egg, for the cake team and company anniversary
happy little watermelon, ready to fly
giddy watermelon just loves their aerial future.
scared cake as a potential logo.
rocket snail as a pod racer, rocket snail with a jet engine on its shoulder.
snail riding a jet engine, snail with an actual rocket.
At which point I determined that maybe there was an optimal engine to snail ratio.
Thinking about stacks of bread.
For a while wheat was delivered each day by a bread cart, we nixed the idea because for an animation you saw every day it just wasn’t cool enough.
Reasons I can never own a house as a millennial, all the eggs might be secretly avocados painted white.
exploring eye and feet shapes for the eggbirds.
fiddling with eggbird gesture.
happy egg bird gestures.
exploring which eggbird faces are the best,
tried putting faces on all the towers, it kinda worked but pushed the game a little too close to PvZ.
Exploring what ants look like and how dough should roll out.
I am an eggbird short and stout.
Watermelon baller, did a good job breaking visual tradition with other watermelon towers. A bit harder to understand it’s damage and function.
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