Wavetale
Timeline
6 weeks
Year
2023
Role
Lead Designer
Disciplines
Graphic Design
Packaging
Social Media Content
Physical preservation to the rescue
As an online-only Google Stadia Exclusive Original game, Wavetale was a brilliant fit as Super Rare Games’ next physical. With the closure of Google Stadia just four months prior, this core example of the importance of physical game preservation raised very high expectations. I was the Lead Designer on this limited print physical release and its SteelBook®.
KeyArt and SteelBook Design
Wavetale’s KeyArt is a layered beautifully coloured piece of art, which gave us a lot to play and balance as it takes centre stage. SteelBook® features the use of UV Mapping, White Blocking & 3D Embossing to create a layered 3D reflective effect carefully designed with the design. During its design development, while Embossing was very straightforward, with the two most important characters in front - the UV Light & White Blocking was much harder. The solution was to have four layers of consistency, made of innumerable gradients, to balance the KeyArt’s colour gradients, layers and transparency layers. The ocean had crystal-clear lines that showed the beautiful metal underneath, as the sky matched its gradient, the main characters were shown in full colour.
The 20-page manual filled with art, concept art and character descriptions, was proposed and with the help from Wavetale’s team, it incorporated more of the in-game style as a further continuation of Sigrid’s in-game journal.
Wavetale Switch Physical sold 2000 limited printed edition copies and consisted of the design for the Title Sheet, Switch Cartdrige, the 20-page accompanying Manual, Stickers, Trading Cards, SteelBook®, cardboard sleeve, Store Assets, Social media content and Teaser.
