Behind the Scenes: How We Create the Art in our Game
- lua113
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
We love talking about new features and the latest updates in Adventures of Neko, but today… We aim to share something closer to our roots and to our hearts. Which is, how the art in our game actually comes to life.
Through a lot of experimentation, iteration, and a lot of human decision-making. Here’s a look at what that process really looks like inside our studio.
The exploration phase, to the final product:
It usually begins with a lot of rough sketches, notes in the margins, shapes that don’t quite work yet. We move things around. We erase. We try again. Sometimes the first version is not quite right but that’s the beauty of the process.
We spend a lot of time just looking at how it feels and how we want the player to feel.
Does this character feel right?
Is the mood too heavy? Too flat?
Does the color carry the emotion we want?
Does it still feel good when it’s small on a phone screen?
There’s a lot of back and forth. A lot of “almost.” A lot of tiny adjustments that add up over time and that’s what marks a final product - a final designed piece, a final game.
We explore references and gather inspiration from all kinds of places. Sometimes that includes modern creative tools, but only the same way we might use photography, films, art books, or mood boards. Inspiration is only the starting point. The actual design work, the shaping, refining, and final decisions, that happens within our team.
Did you know that, in the first drafts, our designer used a mouse to draw our cat Neko? Slowly we built up our tools to get better results.
What ends up in the game, the final work is the result of iteration, but let’s break it down a little bit.
Designing
When we design characters, environments, or UI, the process usually looks like this:
Rough sketches and loose ideas
Testing silhouettes and proportions
Exploring different moods and color directions
Reviewing everything at actual mobile size
Iterating, sometimes many times, before locking it in
We often create multiple versions before making a final choice. Small changes in shape, color balance, or contrast can completely shift how something feels. A lot of our time is spent refining the final look, simplifying where needed, adding detail where it matters, and making sure everything feels cohesive inside the game world.
Animation
Animation begins with intention. Before anything moves, we ask:
What is this character feeling?
How heavy or light should the motion be?
What kind of personality should come through?
From there, the process usually includes:
Blocking out rough key poses
Setting basic timing and spacing
Refining transitions and exaggeration
Adjusting weight and movement arcs
Reviewing in-game and polishing
Tiny timing adjustments can completely change how an animation reads. Sometimes we redo entire sections just to make a motion feel more natural or expressive. What looks simple on screen is often the result of many small passes.
Building a visual world isn’t about a single moment of creation. It’s about progress. Revisiting. Rethinking. Improving. Letting something sit for a day and coming back with clearer eyes.
We’re proud of the care that goes into Adventures of Neko. And as we keep building, we’re excited to share more of that journey with you, the early sketches, the in-between stages, the evolution from rough idea to final piece.
Thanks for being here while we create it.
— JGonzalez Team
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