One Hand Clapping
I worked as a concept artist, animator, and narrative designer on the 2018 demo version of One Hand Clapping, a USC Games project that involved a collaborative team of 15+ students in a variety of roles. In particular, I did almost all of the environmental art assets in the city level. The demo now has over 300K downloads on itch.io and has been played by famous youtubers, gotten into several festivals, and received the Audience Choice Award at IndieCade, among many other awards.
One Hand Clapping is a unique musical platformer that invites players to get comfortable with their voices by solving puzzles. Players hum or sing into their microphones to affect the world and traverse obstacles.
Working on this game was such an honor and a wonderful opportunity to learn! My involvement was primarily on the demo but I did have a small amount of involvement in the full game released in 2021. I was credited under the name Talia Olson.
Concept art for the "ego birth" part at the beginning of the game where the player sings their avatar into existence.
One of my drafts/variations of the key art.
Environmental design based on an early level design, with narrative annotations. (1/3)
Environmental design based on an early level design, with narrative annotations. There were some wild horror-esque story concepts going on before things went in a different direction.(2/3)
Another city iteration based on newer level design, annotated. (2/2)
Concept of the gate exiting the city level and storyboards of an opening sequence. (1/5)
Concept of the gate exiting the city level and storyboards of an opening sequence. (2/5)
Concept of the gate exiting the city level and storyboards of an opening sequence. (3/5)
Environmental design based on an early level design, with narrative annotations. (3/3)
Another city iteration based on newer level design, annotated. (1/2)
Concept of the gate exiting the city level and storyboards of an opening sequence. (4/5)
Concept of the gate exiting the city level and storyboards of an opening sequence. (5/5)
Final city environment iteration based on level design (1/5)
Final city environment iteration based on level design (2/5)
Final city environment iteration based on level design (3/5)
Final city environment iteration based on level design (4/5)
Final city environment iteration based on level design (5/5)
The "ego birth" animation, done in After Effects and used in-game when the player sings the character into existence. The character forms around a voice symbol I designed to resemble some sort of abstractified version of human vocal anatomy (the larynx and hyoid process). The voice in game is represented by glowy pink and green stuff.
The city level as a whole is about overcoming self-consciousness and finding the courage to sing even if you feel awkward or weird doing it. I designed the aesthetic and narrative events around this concept, to feel as stark as someone’s hesitation to raise their voice and be seen and heard. My voice particle concept art also became a reference for the team’s technical artist in creating the in-game voice particles. Originally the plan was for the crowds to gradually steal the player’s color away; in the final demo it all happened at once after the crowd confrontation scene. Getting the color back was the basis for the demo’s easter egg minigames.
Un-animated crowd; I pioneered the crowd concept that became such an iconic aspect of the city, aiming to capture that looming feeling of being an outsider to an amorphous crowd that personifies self-consciousness and the feeling of being watched.
Early concepts of the player character, based on the brightness-inverted-ghost-looking sprite from an even earlier demo.
Other variations of the key art
Rough early city concept
Design for a statue meant as an environmental storytelling device in an earlier iteration of the game's story
Melody Hermit/Desert Hermit concept art for the 2021 release; unused
Early character concepts for figuring out the "vibe" of characters in the game's universe
Concept art of a character that ended up not being in the final game
Rhythm Hermits/Mountain Hermits concept sketches and ideation for the 2021 release; iterations on what variation could look like between individual hermits, and on the idea of them being living instruments whose aesthetic features had musical functions; unused
Here’s one of my favorite Let’s Plays of the game: