How Nicktoons and the Cube of Future’s Artwork Model Unites Its Characters

The upcoming Nicktoons and the Cube of Future have simply unveiled a brand new trailer, one which showcases a number of new characters—all of whom show extra facets of the sport’s artwork type. Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny is using a mess of IPs, and its artwork type successfully preserves a touch of every collection’ identification.

The lengthy history of Nicktoons crossover games dates again to the early 2000s. From normal crossover fare (corresponding to kart racers and platform fighters) to the extra individually distinctive Nicktoons Unite! collection, there’s all kinds of licensed video games representing the corporate’s iconic cartoons. This has culminated in Nicktoons and the Cube of Future—an RPG that can transport Nickelodeon’s characters right into a medieval-fantasy world. Recreation Rant sat down with recreation and narrative designer Rennan Spinola, who mentioned how the crew blended all these disparate characters into one artwork type, together with the newly revealed Flame Fatales.

How Nicktoons and the Cube of Future’s Artwork Model Carry Its Characters Collectively

Nicktoons and The Dice of Destiny boss villains trailer screenshot

Nicktoons and the Cube of Future’s Distinctive Model Defined

In earlier crossover titles, characters have principally retained their unique aesthetics, other than some tweaks owing to the transition to 3D. The Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny art style goes one step additional, nonetheless, translating all of its characters right into a bite-sized, chibi-adjacent format. What’s attention-grabbing concerning the artwork in-game is that, regardless of giving all of the characters the same peak—main characters like Ember or Azula to have totally completely different proportions—each character retains one thing from their unique collection’ design philosophy.

That is distinctly evident with the newly revealed Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny Flame Fatales villains, a trio consisting of Angelica Pickles, Azula, and Ember (characters from Rugrats, Avatar: The Final Airbender, and Danny Phantom, respectively). Angelica demonstrates the variations in path probably the most acutely, with define width, define shade, and eye form all paying homage to the unique Rugrats. Azula and Ember share extra in frequent, together with a pupil form, however there are additionally clear distinctions, corresponding to a unique eyeball form. Evidently Angelica has one of many extra distinctive designs total, which solely is sensible; the extra simplified pupil design is vital to the look of Rugrats‘ characters, and Angelica would lose a whole lot of her identification if she conformed extra.

Nicktoons and The Dice of Destiny boss villains Ember McClain freeze frame bard attack

Many of those factors have been echoed by Spinola, who went into element about Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny’s character design and path. Spinola mentioned the unifying components of this artwork type and the way it’s mirrored within the Flame Fatales:

“Sure, the completely different character artwork kinds throughout the respective exhibits offered a fantastic alternative for us when bringing them collectively inside this recreation. When it got here to the Flame Fatales, we determined to make use of a constant artwork type for all of the characters as a option to actually unify the three characters, particularly in our cutscenes. Mixing them collectively makes each our villains and the world really feel rather more related to one another.”

Using magic as SpongeBob in Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny

The mixing of artwork kinds relating to Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny‘s characters is vital to sustaining visible cohesion throughout the crossover venture. Given the acute variations in head design and form, the our bodies of characters present probably the most conformity, all of which display comparable proportions and line weight. There are exceptions, naturally, with characters like SpongeBob sporting extra specialised silhouettes—one thing Spinola touched on, discussing the balancing act of mixing foolish and severe properties into one venture:

“This distinction is crucial to conserving the texture of the NatDoD world: an especially enjoyable world the place the search for the Cube of Energy raises the stakes, and any slip-up may be doubtlessly disastrous for the characters. The Flame Fatales seize this steadiness nicely, representing an actual risk to the heroes (given how highly effective they’re) whereas additionally bringing that contact of humor that makes it really feel like we’re in an exquisite Nickelodeon cartoon world on the finish of the day.”