Last month I momentarily surfaced from my dungeon to share that work on Garrison had officially begun. Some of my nearest and dearest were quick to point out that I’d made an egregious, world-shattering mistake.
No logo, bro.
Without a logo to stamp on some merch, we don’t really have a video game studio. Or a game. It’s still just an idea.
I was crushed. Inconsolable. I thought the tears would never end.
Then I remembered I’ve always wanted a reason to buy a t-shirt cannon, so I used that as motivation to finally get the logo sorted out.
Logo design inspiration
Although not quite worthy of the community Q&A section, a few people in my circles have said they like the studio name – which is great because I do, too. At the core of Garrison as a game is sending characters out on missions (more on that later).
They are very literally venturing forth across the world, so it felt like a neat fit. Not a lot of thought went into it.
Coming up with a cool logo was pretty much the opposite process. I had an idea I liked but could not for the life of me get it to work in a way that I was happy with. It was my problem child.
Let’s start with a look at the original concept:
If it’s not immediately apparent, the treasure map trail in the above images are meant to double visually as the wire for a video game controller, leading to an ‘x marks the spot’ symbol which, aha I’m so clever, is also the d-pad of a video game controller.
The issue I have with both versions is clarity at scale. As soon as you start shrinking this image you won’t be able to tell what’s going on. I’d essentially been annoyed by this for months until, in a very time capsule-esque moment, we were blessed with the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Team Cherry – developers of Silksong – have a very simple negative space logo with, I assume, no clarity at scale issues.
With a little nip/tuck I took the essence of the original idea and cooked up this:
There’s only so much that I can do by myself, so it’s at this point I realised I had to bring in someone that actually knew what they were doing. Enter the talented hand of one James Feakins (who goes by Bleached Ink online).
We went back and forth for a while, trying out different ideas and concepts until we settled on this:
I’m beyond happy with it. We’ve got the little compass which ties the quite blocky font together with the janky angles of the map.
No plans for company swag in the immediate future but, armed with this swanky new logo, I’ll be ready if or when the time comes.
Creating a journal aesthetic
In my first conversation with Sophie (artist), we talked at length about how we wanted the game to feel. I’ve always wanted Garrison to play as though you are discovering and documenting every aspect of the world – including making sketches of everyone and everything you come across.
Originally my plan was for the game to be played within a journal, complete with turning pages, which unfortunately doesn’t translate that well onto a mobile phone screen.
Forced to move on, we kept the ‘journal aesthetic’ as our visual anchor and then experimented with how we could best present that in a digital medium.
I’ll go into more depth in another devblog, but for now here’s what you all came for:
Pretty cool, right? Oh buddy boy, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Community Q & A
Next up we have my darling mother who has been and continues to be one of the main cheerleaders in my life. She had this to say after reading last month’s post:
“Is the game supposed to be a secret?”
After replying to her message with a series of question marks, she pointed out what some may be considered a glaring omission: I didn’t actually explain anything about the game.
I’ll be honest, I’ve wrestled with this a lot. How much of this game should I share at such an early stage? After finding a mentor to help me with a lot of the ‘big picture’ decisions, I’ve already signed two different NDA’s.
Although I don’t play as many games as I used to, I’ve been a consumer of this medium for long enough to know that developers are trying constantly to balance generating hype around their projects with protecting their ideas and managing player expectations.
All I want to do is talk about this game but, at the same time, I don’t want to jump the gun. We’re still figuring out exactly what Garrison is, so I know I’d regret painting myself into a corner by talking about aspects of the game in great detail that aren’t set in stone.
With that being said, here’s what I know will never change.
An introduction to Garrison
You play as the newly appointed commander of a garrison called the Astarian Hold – a long-established military outpost of a powerful kingdom laying claim to new territory.
Your task is to fortify the garrison which fell into disrepair after the previous commander… became a little too comfortable in their position.
The world around the garrison is almost entirely hostile – both monsters and the environment are doing everything they can to make your life difficult. As the commander of the garrison, you must recruit adventurers and send them out on missions to secure resources and neutralise threats.
Along the way there are countless stories to discover, items to find and enemies to defeat. Our goal is to give players a complete fantasy RPG experience without having to invest hours upon hours each and every day to progress.
Yes, it’s a mobile game. No, there aren’t any adverts.
Sound good? I’d love to know what you think! Check out our discord channel and let me know what question(s) you’d like me to answer next month. Make sure you sign up to the newsletter so you don’t miss my next set of ramblings in October!
Cheers, Andrew