Turning Concept Art into a world players want to get lost in
Turning concept art into a world players want to spend time in.
Published April 5th
Author Alex Owens
At its core, the world of Screwed is meant to feel lived-in— family-filled, imperfect, and shaped by time. The nostalgic tone isn’t just about looking back in time, but about evoking the feeling of growing up surrounded by objects, stories, and spaces that quietly hold meaning. The intentional clutter isn’t noise, but a showcase of memory and character, inviting players to slow down and look closer. Through exploration and puzzles, players aren’t just solving mechanics, they’re piecing together fragments of a place that is deeply human through the eyes of something as small as a screw. Worldbuilding and visual development became our way of telling that story without words, trusting players to connect the dots and make the world their own.
When designing the aesthetic and world for the game of Screwed, the team and I wanted the space to feel cluttered, nostalgic, and lived-in.
We designed the in-game house as though it had been built in the 1960s while the game is set in the early-mid 90s. Aspects and references found for the home extend between the two. It is home to a single mother, her two kids, and their beloved cat. We wanted the space to be filled with signs of life and the era, making it clear that the house has been a witness to its residents’ lives for decades. The distance from built to lived-in eras allows for older cabinetry, furniture, and knick-knacks to be the backdrop for newer appliances, foods, pantry items, and gadgets.
Designing our moodboard
Items everywhere set the stage for platforming and puzzles while also conveying that the residents’ lives are a little chaotic. Items could be knocked over in puzzling positions due to playful cat or child activities. Perhaps one of the kids is making an imaginary racetrack out of various kitchen tools and furniture, providing a balance of realistic and childishly curated puzzles to venture through.
When the team was coming up with the overall aesthetic and build of the kitchen in its layout, accessories, and color schemes, we did extensive mood boarding. Everyone on the art team collected photos from the era in appliances, furniture, cabinetry, and knick-knacks we liked and thought fit. We then compiled a massive digital mood board and picked out our favorites from there. We started with over a hundred photos separated into sections and picked out our favorites in shape, color, and their sense of family-fun whimsy. In the end, we tried out several color set-ups, going between color-drenched and more warm-nature tones. We wanted to indicate which items could be interacted with through their color schemes. We didn’t want to fully color-
drench everything but still have vague color indications. Cooler tones would invoke more of a set-piece that is not intractable while warmer tones would be interactable items. Warmer colors tend to be more eye-catching and inviting, so we wanted to play into that narrative. However, we also want to get that high contrast, high vibrancy that films and photography show the 60s-90s as. Our team also did a large amount of player testing before we got in-engine, testing to see what items players believed they should be able to screw into without much prompting. They followed along with the color-coding system but also added the idea of material. Where players believed they should be able to screw into plastic, wood, and some thin metals (namely cans) but not materials such as glass or thicker metals. This then allowed us to experiment with the idea of less color-drenching and more era-specific color trends.
You can see the more color-drenched, lower saturation concept on the left alongside our warmer color-scheme that reflects many of our favorite mood board reference colors.
There’s intended to be signs of life in every aspect of our set dressing. Drawings the children made hang on the fridge, held by magnets collected over time and alphabet letters spelling messages, wear and tear on utensils, pans, and appliances; toys left out from a day of play. Everything is set to remind the player that they are in a lived-in home, even if there are no human characters in the game.
Screwed’s overarching design pillars are as follows:
Light-hearted
Discoverability
Empowering
Nostalgic
Creative Problem Solving
Through the environment, we want the warmth of family life to come across and give the game a light-hearted feeling. The gameplay is explorative. The environment reflects this by being so full of opportunity that the player is never left feeling helpless. The game is forgiving in a way that allows for discoverability without frustration but also complex enough that it feels empowering to the player when they do complete a puzzle. Should they happen to fling a spoon across the map or skillfully balance their way over a large crevice. Every route could lead them to the same opportunities, inciting a sense of satisfaction through completion.
Turning concept art into a world players truly want to inhabit isn’t just about visual polish-it's about breathing life into every detail, no matter how small or unconventional. Even as a sentient screw, the magic lies in how the environment responds to you, how scale reshapes your perspective, and how purpose is woven into play. When art direction, mechanics, and atmosphere align, what starts as a simple idea becomes a place that feels worth exploring, lingering in, and returning to – because it doesn’t just look interesting; it feels alive.
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