The Wanderhome Style Guide

Wanderhome has reached 550+ followers, a full 2 and a half weeks before launch! I promised on Twitter that I'd post the Wanderhome style guide for everyone's enjoyment, should we make it to 550. And thus, here it is! I hope it is a useful tool for anyone interested in or involved in a large-scale project where you're working with a large number of artists.

For those of you who don't know, a Style Guide is a text for artists and designers to get the emotional feeling of the game without forcing them to read the whole damn game. I wrote this with Ruby Lavin, my art director and better half, and I'm really proud of it as a comprehensive introduction into the aesthetic of Wanderhome. I've also included our Art folder, a series of image sets we used to articulate the aesthetic of Wanderhome, attached as a .zip file below. We attempted to credit where we could, but these images weren't used for the direct creation of art in any way - just for articulating the general style and aesthetic of Wanderhome. 

Reminder that if you want to check out the Wanderhome Free Playkit, you can do that at the link here, and please subscribe to the Kickstarter page to get notified the moment the game is available to back!

Wanderhome Style Guide

Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy tabletop RPG about traveling animal-folk and the places they visit along the way. It tells the story of a group of wanderers (including a dancer who dances with the soul of the world, a caretaker of small and forgotten gods, a shepherd with a herd of bumblebees, a young kid with a heart of gold, and a soldier who has sworn to never draw their blade again) and the people they meet over the course of many seasons and places.

General Project Specs

• All illustrations should be in CMYK space, and at least 300 DPI.
• Page Illustration. A page illustration is a 9” square. Don’t include any important details in a 0.75” margin all the way around the illustration, as bleed and margins will put that in danger.
• Spread Illustration. A spread illustration is a 9”x17.5” landscape. Don’t include any important details in a 0.75” margin all the way around the illustration, as bleed and margins will put that in danger. Also avoid detail in the middle 1.5” of the illustration, as that’s where the interior margin of the book will be.
• Playbook Illustration. A playbook illustration is a full-body black and white drawing of an animal-folk, 4” wide x 8” tall. Each one goes with a specific playbook.
• Margin Illustration. A margin illustration is a black and white, less than 2.5” square. These will be put throughout the book.

The World of Wanderhome

Wanderhome is set in a pastoral fantasy landscape that was once at war (although it is no longer) and is full of beautiful vistas, small villages, shrines to small and forgotten gods, and incredible landscapes. Here’s some important notes about the setting of Wanderhome:

• Animal-folk live throughout Wanderhome. Think Redwall or Disney’s Robin Hood. These animal people are mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. (see the Animal-Folk folder) While there might be a slight correspondence in what kind of animals live where based on environment (more frogs in a swamp, more otters by the water, etc.) there isn’t a strict rule. Animal-folk wear clothes inspired by Mori fashion (see the Fashion folder). Animal-folk are human-sized in relationship to their surroundings (tragically, no acorn-hats)
• The livestock of Wanderhome are big insects. I go into more detail about the buggy creatures down below, but whenever you want to include livestock, pets, or wild animals, think about what sort of bugs might take their place. This is mainly going to impact landscapes when you want to do scale birds, as you’re going to have to do scale butterflies instead. (see the Bug folder)
• Wanderhome is a world of gods, both big and small. There are small shrines across the land, in a variety of shapes, styles, and designs. The most common look for them is as cairns, which are found along paths with little offerings around them. (see the Gods folder)
• Wanderhome is about the journey. Whenever you make a landscape, try to show (or suggest) where the path is coming from and where it’s going next. This doesn’t need to be heavy handed. Give a sense that there’s a world outside the immediate picture - have distant mountains, things on the horizon, etc.
• There’s no violence in Wanderhome, and similarly, there’s no violence in the illustrations. No running, no chasing, no fighting, no actual peril. There can be moments of melancholy or pensiveness, but it should always keep a gentle tone.
• Wanderhome isn’t high fantasy. Avoid knights in shining armor, wizards in purple robes, or anything Dungeons & Dragons-ish. Wanderhome explicitly isn’t drawing from any one particular historical culture. Be mindful of appropriation and stereotypes of other cultures, but if you are comfortable with incorporating historical styles of dress from your own cultures or communities, please feel free to go ahead. 
• There is an abundance of diversity in Wanderhome. Show animals of all different body types and ages. Show animals with physical disabilities. Show queercoded (and queer!) animals. Don’t be afraid to have unconventional animals. Star-nosed moles, toads, and orangutans deserve love too. There’s no such thing as a fundamentally evil species of animal - portray even classically-maligned animals like snakes or rats in a positive way.

Features of the Landscape

This is a list of common sights you might see in the landscapes of Wanderhome.

• Floating rock formations. Include the occasional floating rock. These range in shape based on the environment. Round, moss-covered boulders are more common in fields and forests, while thin spikes of stone are more likely in deserts or steppes.
• Ruins. There are ruins of previous civilizations periodically. These are mainly overgrown and worn down, but feel free to have them poking through occasionally. 
• Cairns. Often used as shrines for small and forgotten gods. Will often have small offerings, candles, or statues placed on top.
• Stone Houses. Similar to cairns. A stone house about 1 foot tall, often with small offerings, candles, or statues within.
• Paths. Paths and roads are everywhere for people to journey on.
• Campsites. Where many travelers will stop and rest.
• Small villages. Houses in Wanderhome tend to be only 1 story, and naturally incorporate into the landscape. The exact materials of the houses will be different based on the environment.

Small And Forgotten Gods

The Small and Forgotten Gods of Wanderhome are tiny nature spirits that get overlooked or forgotten. They take on a wide variety of forms based on where they live, and range in size from a mote of dust to ~6”. You can sprinkle them throughout your illustrations if you want to give the sense of a magical world, but if they’re not the focus of the art then they should blend into their surroundings.

Here are some of the forms the gods can take:

• Floating petroglyphs
• Dust motes
• Seashells
• Bundles of yarn
• Candle light
• Floating lantern
• Snowflakes
• Toadstools
• Bones
• Pages from a book
• Buttons, Nails, or other household objects
• Pieces of coal
• Basically anything else you can imagine

Buggy Creatures

As mentioned above, livestock, pets, and wild beasts in Wanderhome are all big insects. Try to make these bugs cute whenever possible. Give them big eyes and make them fuzzy (when appropriate). Try to avoid distinctly creepy or spindly bugs, like ants or mosquitoes. Here are some common animals you might want to include in illustrations. 

Bumble

herd animal (sheep, goats)

Chubby bumblebees. Generally around 2-3 feet, and stick close to the ground.

Antdog

watchdog, companion

Ants used as service dogs, guards, and hounds. 

Spidercat

housecats, big cats

Spiders with short legs that act like cats. Larger ones might be encountered in the forest, in a role similar to jaguars or tigers. Even then, try to keep them looking cute

Butterfly

daytime birds

Butterflies the size of birds. Feel free to have a diversity of sizes - from normal-sized butterflies to ones the size of eagles (or bigger?)

Moth

nighttime birds, carrier pigeons

Moths the size of birds, that sometimes carry mail from place to place like carrier pigeons. Only seen at night.

Wasp

predator birds (falcons, vultures)

One of the creepier/more intimidating bugs on the list, they might be spotted nesting on cliff faces

Hopper

horses

Grasshoppers the size of horses, with saddles and stirrups. Often have some packs on them.

Strider

“what if horses were for water”

Water striders the size of horses, with saddles and stirrups. Because their legs are so spindly, they can’t carry much.

Dragonflies

“what if horses flied”

Dragonflies the size of horses, that can fit 2-3 people at a time. Very rare.

Beetle

pack animals

Generally encompasses scarabs, smaller beetles, stinkbugs, etc. Used to carry tons of heavy supplies and objects. 

Stag Beetle

enormous pack animals

Stag beetles are very big and can fit an entire house on their back.

If there’s another ecological niche you want to fill, message me about it and we’ll figure out what would go there. 

Great Gods, Heroes, & Kings

NOTE: Do not include any of these elements unless we specifically ask you to. These are weird and outside the normal gamut of Wanderhome’s tone.

Wanderhome treats the mighty gods, heroes, and monarchs the same way. They are all distant, mythical figures, who are deeply disconnected from the comings-and-goings of daily life. If they show up at all, they are in the background - never focused on, and always with a slight sense of “this might be real / this might be imagined”.

Here are a few of the big names we might reference or ask for symbols tying things to:

• The King Of The Floating Mountain. A badger-king who lives in a palace located atop and within a floating mountain. Theoretically he rules all of this land, but he is rarely seen, and his soldiers just don’t listen to him. 
• The North Wind God. A huge blue figure with three heads (heron in the middle, orangutan on the right, ox on the left) and many arms, always emerging from and caught up in the clouds. The most powerful god in the setting. 
• The Rebellion. The rebel forces against the King Of The Floating Mountain. Aesthetically inspired by Italian Antifa partisans. Their symbol is the purple lily. The war has settled down with an unsteady truce, but there’s still a lot of tension.
• The Slobbering God. A white wolf the size of a mountain, with way way way too many teeth, countless weapons sticking out of its body, and drooling a small ocean of blood. Sometimes depicted as being wrapped in chains. Was slain with the Heavenblade, a magical Excalibur-style sword.
  • While all of this section feels disjointed, the Slobbering God feels the most. She’s a relic of a more violent time, who has since been destroyed. 

Landscape Concepts

Here are some sample landscape concepts, just to help you imagine the range of art that could exist for this. It’s fine if none of these speak to you - I would much rather work with you to find the soul of what you’re interested in.

• A campfire at dusk along a beach. There are countless shining stars overhead, and you can see the lines between them forming constellations. In the distance, against the last light from the sunset, is a cliff face with a couple of slivers of stone floating next to it.
• A few explorers, with a beetle laden with supplies, poke through an ancient ruin. Tall grass grows over the stone, and a huge Ozymandius-style animal head pokes up through the grass. 
• Two animal-folk hug after not seeing each other for a while at the small shrine indicating the entrance to a village. Behind them is farmland and the small community, with smoke rising from chimneys and some livestock. The village is surrounded by a very small stone wall that is clearly more ceremonial than anything else. The village is dwarfed by the mountain behind it, covered in forest and more terraces of farmland, the peak of which is lost in the clouds.
• A lonely bumble-shepherd walks through a barren steppe at sunset with their herd. The grass is scattered and minimal, but small flowers bloom in the cracks in the dry dirt. The sky is pink and yellow and blue, and the sun is huge against the horizon. 
• A couple of striders bearing animal-folk glide across a lake in a wetland. There are a few stilt-houses at the edge of the wetland, but the focus is on the mud and the algae. Behind the wetland is dense and thick forest, and the mountains in the distance seem heavy with mist.