I mainly focused on crating the UI for this game. The main idea would be to split it into various, smaller screens allowing the player to see the protagonist's appearance and a closeup of the magazines simultaneously. Initially, the cutscenes and title screen would also follow this format, but this was changed later into production.
  The each environment (the mirror, the convenience store, and the desk) were created by mixing hand-drawn 2D art with photobashed free textures and stock images.

Early on, we agreed on a palette of blues, grey-greens and pinks to use for the assets, in order to tie together all the busy visual elements.

To give the buttons some visual interest, I added an elaborate pattern around each one, to match with the area around the frame. Each of these is unique: I only copied half of a single pattern. The pattern I used was based on how mold grows in ring patterns, tieing in with the existing themes of organic decay and growth seen in the gameplay.

I also had barely enough time to make a magazine cover and spread for the game. The goal was to include two large sparkly eyes and an exaggerated pointy chin as the features, so I decided to make an article about a tropey vampire tv-drama. I wrote the text portion to include several reference to vampire media; as well as small hints drawing attention to the features of interest.

Some other things I made for this game are the clicking animation and font! The former is an edited video of my actual arm, while the latter is a cleaned-up version of my handwriting.

To keep the scope of Night Shift realistic for the jam, we quickly decided that it'd be set in a single office. I took inspiration from classic point-and-click games to present this as various static 2d screens, the idea being that the protagonist is spinning around a single point too see all of them.

I recieved the short character briefs seen in-game from our writer, and wanted to make sure each of their portraits not only included visual hints for their puzzle items, but also showed a snippet of their lives prior to the game, and highlight who they were before becoming ghosts.

For the props and desktop UI, I took a lot of inspiration from 90s tech. That said, don't think Night Shift takes place in a set time period. The only elements that aren't hand-drawn are a couple posters that I edited to fit better into the environment, as well as add a couple extra details. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to implement a more cohesive UI.

One of the challenges for this game jam was make all the art monochrome. I decided the face this by goint to the extreme: using only black and white in each asset. Using patterning and halftones I was still able to bring depth to the characters and background.

I wanted most to make sure the player character fit within its world of machinery within a puppet-theatre. This is why I went with the concept of a mechanical creature dressed with a ruff and cape. The cape gives the protagonist a clear silhouette and a visual aid for movement, and the head + ruffle give it a distinct profile. To communicate a quick and agile movement-style, i gave it skinny, pointed legs.

My aim for the boss was to design it as a foil to the protagonist. Where the protagonist has a small, upwards trianglar silhouette, the boss is large and shaped like a reverse triangle. Similarly, where the protagonist is bouncy and upright, the boss has more of a slouch. That said, I also wanted to make sure they had some similarities. For example, the construction of their legs are the same, and they share the same ruff.