Enemy concepts

Kaai

Friendly Kaai concepts, based on Luke's initial drawing:

The large black eyes were designed with both the idea of the Kaai living in darkness, and also make the creature appear more cutesy, signifying its more harmless nature. The shape of the face, eyes and body were inspired by animals like frogs and toads.

The idea was that it could move via hopping like a frog, as the original concept specified. However, the idea of the short arms also brought to mind visions of it walking like a kangaroo.

Next, some concept drawings for the more aggressive Kaai were produced. This version would be larger, with more spiked protrusions on its body. The different colours of bioluminescence could help the player distinguish the types of Kaai at a distance.

For inspiration for the body, horned toads were the first animal to come to mind, adding a more lizard like appearance than an aquatic one.

Shiik

For inspiration for the Shiik, I looked at a number of different animals. The rest of the team had already done more aquatic based designs, so I decided to explore options that more resembled bats. Fox bats were the species I picked to focus on, as their wings reminded me of stylised fins.

I also looked at sharks and manta rays for ideas; the former for the creature's streamlined head and teeth, and the latter for the fins that could become wings.

In the end, these are the concepts I came up with. I took inspiration for the patches of light on the back from Alexei's concepts.

-Chloe