One By One - Concept Art Book 2024

"One By One" is an action-adventure game set in a Sci-Fi city in 2559, focused on the story of the main characters Axel and A.R.I.A., who get trapped in an alternate plane of reality.

Axels' reckless determination to find his wife alive in an alternate reality resulted in a special machine called the "Warp Gun" to malfunction, trapping the characters inside a dangerous plane of reality that they must escape from. They must travel the corrupt land, defend against threats and use their unique skill sets to reach the heart of the city called “The Core”. There lies the remaining stabalised energy in the city, providing them their last chance to get home with the damaged Warp Gun.

Characters - AXEL

Axel is a highly respected inventor who's yearn to see his dead wife again leads him into making reckless decisions. He believes in problem solving through trial and error, and has an unwilling dedication to finding solutions, but this later proves a tragedy for him.

I wanted to give the impression that Axel had been through a lot, and that he is a man who doesn't settle for less. His skill set is slow and heavy, but powerful yielding his Warp Gun. While the gun is on call down, he can swing the gun around threats in defense. 

With a cold colour scheme for the tech and his outer coat conveying his cold reality and shell in life, Axel has a warm tone in his inner jacket and a red t-shirt to show his organic human side, as a way to contrast against the next robotic character.

Characters - A.R.I.A.

A.R.I.A. (Automatic. Responsive. Intellegent. Assistant.) is a sentient robot built by Mia (who was also an inventor) to care for and protect Axel when she no longer could. She wears a red ribbon on the back of her hair which once belonged to Mia, the last remnant of her.

I wanted A.R.I.A. to have a gentil and caring appearance, whist also keeping the metallic plate aesthetic from her materials and components. To do this, I kept all of her humanoid parts (e.g. her head and hair) soft and bright, whist keeping her mechanical parts hard edged and dark grey. She has a humanoid face for a human touch and for showing compassion for Axel.

Her unique skill sets are speed, agility and a kicking defense style. She isn't an aggressive character, but she will step in to be defensive for Axel if he is ever in danger. 

Weapon - WARP GUN

The "Warp Gun" was a project initially worked on by both Axel and Mia. However, after Mia passed, Axel converted the machine from a gravity opposing object lifter for construction, to a machine that can open a pathway to alternate planes of realities called a "Warp".

During game play, the Warp Guns' gravity opposing mechanic can still be used to interact with parts of the environment to progress to new areas.

I wanted to clearly show the Warp Gun and A.R.I.A. ran off of the same energy source, and to do this I gave them both the same core glowing energy piece called the C.C.U. (Central. Converter. Unit.) which keeps the special glowing energy stable within its system.

Additionally, I wanted to show they were built in the same place and that they were constructed by hand, so they share similar materials, being metallic plates and extruded parts that were assembled together, rather than simply pre-made.

Despite showing they were made of similar materials, I still wanted them to be distinctive and unique from each other.

Environments - REALITIES

Axel's home city was built inside a meteor crater to allow easier access to a unique extractable energy that was disbursed into the ground by a meteor from its impact thousands of years ago. A giant machine called "The Core" collects, stores and stabilises this energy to then be used around the city.

In the alternate reality, "The Core" combusted due to the energy inside becoming over reactive, causing a devastating explosion leaving the city desolate and ridden with corrupt energy and mutated threats. The only usable energy left to get home is right at the centre of "The Core".

Whist exploring colour schemes to differentiate the two different realities, I decided to keep the sky a warm colour and the energy a cold colour in Axel's original reality, but have the sky cold and the energy warm in the alternate reality, as polar opposites.

Environments - THE "CORE"

The Central Energy Extractor, also known as "The Core", is a gigantic extracting and storage machine sitting in the heart of the city and meteor crater for the extractable energy mentioned above. Since the birth of the city thousands of years after the meteors impact, it has remained the cities' main energy source. The reactivity of the energy can be charged up to deliver different levels of power, depending on its specific use.

This is the same energy that powers A.R.I.A. and the Warp Gun, which is important later on in the story.

Additional sketches

My favorite stories are ones that have deeper meanings and messages in them. In the story of One By One, I wanted to show the main idea that you should appreciate and focus on the things you do have, rather than what you don't have.

During the last attempt to travel home after reaching "The Core", A.R.I.A. sacrifices her C.C.U. heart to stabalise and prevent the Warp Gun from combusting due to extreme energy reactivity. Axel makes it through the last Warp, but in turn A.R.I.A. wasn't able to get through, and is left trapped in the alternate reality.

While Axel tried to get his wife back, he ended up losing the last thing he had from her - which was A.R.I.A. 

Thank you for having a look!

I really hope you enjoyed scrolling or reading through,

If you'd like to see more work or contact me, check out my ArtStation, X/Twitter or LinkedIn!

Thank you so much to all my friends who supported me during this project.