Habbo Design Blog: Indian Palace

Habbo Design Blog: Indian Palace

Q1. HELLO DESIGNERS! AS SUMMER APPROACHES, HABBO IS TAKING A TRIP TO INDIA FOR THE INDIAN PALACE CAMPAIGN. AS WE ALL KNOW, INDIA IS A COUNTRY RICH WITH CULTURE, INTRICATE DESIGNS, GRAND ARCHITECTURE, AND EXOTIC WILDLIFE. HOW DID YOU FIND THE PROCESS OF PREPARING THE INDIAN PALACE CAMPAIGN?

Sparkaro: I enjoyed researching Indian culture and aesthetics - I love how vibrant and colourful a lot of the architecture and clothing is. We watched quite a few clips from Indian tv shows and movies which was fun!

Kukuyit: The designers all had a fun time in the creative sessions for this. In our research, we looked at various Indian film clips and listened to music for it, which helped set our mindset to what kind of world it is we’re trying to recreate in Habbo. We love the over the top special effects in Bollywood films!

DollsEyes: I love researching different cultures and environments (I do a little worldbuilding myself!) so this campaign was super fun to work on, especially since everything is so beautifully detailed and colourful!

Elementary_Kage: It was really great to dive in-depth into the various cultures, designs and arts of India whilst researching for this campaign. We tried to keep in mind lots of different sources as we gathered ideas and had a lot of fun learning new things. Hopefully, the ideas we came up with did India and its some of its beautiful designs justice.

sillimanite: Hi! I loved working on this campaign - we were working on it when it was still cold and dreary outside and escaping to a tropical Indian palace for a few weeks was just what I needed.

MrCroissant: The ideation and concept phases for Indian summer were really interesting. We learned lots about the culture and design in India. I hope you and the Habbo community agree that we managed to translate some of the intricate designs into our pixel art successfully.

Q2. WHICH ITEMS FROM THE INDIAN PALACE LINEUP ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR HABBOS TO GET THEIR HANDS ON AND WHY?

Sparkaro: The exotic tent because it has a pretty design with all the flowing drapery and it looks very cosy! I think it’s also quite a unique furni; we don’t have many items similar to it.

Kukuyit: I think the clothing stands out the most in this campaign, we’ve put a lot of effort into researching the culture and making sure we’re producing the clothes as accurately as can be in pixel form. It’s nice to see other cultures finally being represented in Habbo.

DollsEyes: The tiger! I love tigers and working on him was so fun, I hope you love him as much as I do!

Elementary_Kage: I always love Habbo background pieces. They help to set such a nice tone for the rooms in-game and are so helpful for making the marketing look really eye-catching. This one I particularly love because of the great colours and clouds.

sillimanite: I always love seeing how creative Habbos get with the furni and building pieces, so I'm most looking forward to seeing the amazing spaces that the Habbos design and how they reimagine the pieces we've made!

MrCroissant: I think the tiger and clothing items are going to be big hits. The clothing is quite different to what we have made in the past and I look forward to the different vibrant colour combinations the Habbo community comes up with.

Q3. THERE ARE MANY STEPS INVOLVED IN EACH HABBO CAMPAIGN BEFORE YOU REACH THE FINAL PRODUCT. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS? HOW DO YOU ORGANISE YOUR THOUGHTS AND IDEAS AT THE START OF EVERY CAMPAIGN?

Kukuyit: For the Indian Palace campaign we had no issues coming up with lots of ideas and we ended up with lots of good selections to choose from. From then on out it’s a matter of filtering and making a choice of what we think can be technically done as well as think about what the Habbo community would like to see too.

DollsEyes: We have a creative day where everyone gets together and brainstorm ideas and spends time looking for references and inspiration; it helps us get in the zone of the theme we’re working on. Then we go away and sketch all the ideas we come up with - it’s always cool to see how different people interpret the ideas differently in their sketch! After that, we choose what will make it to the final campaign and everyone takes turns picking furni/clothing to make, and then it’s off to pixelling!

Elementary_Kage: Although I work mostly on marketing assets well after the campaign products have been finished, I do also help with ideation at the very start. Before we begin designing or coming up with engagement ideas, all the designers sit down for a whole day and research the themes we have. We share images, mood boards, watch videos and list out all the possible things we can think of that would work or that we think Habbo's would like. It's a fun, creative time for us to work together as a team.

sillimanite: The beginning of every campaign is very exciting - the whole team gets together and spends time trying to come up with as many ideas as possible, drawing from mood boards and our imagination, and this time we did it all with classic Bollywood films playing in the background! Collaboration gets the creative energy flowing.

Mr Croissant: Everyone has already covered this so well ha.

Q4. IN THIS WHOLE PROCESS, YOU DIVIDE THE WORK BETWEEN YOURSELVES. HOW IS THE WORKLOAD DIVIDED BETWEEN EVERYONE AND WHICH ITEM DID YOU PERSONALLY ENJOY MAKING THE MOST?

Sparkaro: We estimate how long each item would take to make, and then allocate furnis between members of the design team. We decide amongst ourselves which items we think we’d have fun working on or want to challenge ourselves with. I enjoyed creating the fez monkey hat the most!

Kukuyit: We evenly distribute the final sketches to the designers so that everyone has a fair share of the workload, sometimes personal preference comes into play and we allow designers who have a strong desire to make a particular item the first take.

DollsEyes: We give each item a tag for how long it will take to pixel, then we take it in turns choosing items we want to make, keeping in mind how many days people have to work on things and making sure no-one is overburdened. This means people get to choose something they really want to work on, too! As I said above, I really enjoyed making the tiger, but I also had a lot of fun pixelling the new face! It was the first time I’ve made a face - it’s always exciting working on something new!

Elementary_Kage: I make all the marketing so I'm grateful to all the other designers for making such interesting and beautiful products every campaign. Out of my work, the things I like to make the most are the short animated videos and illustrations made for social media.

sillimanite: Once we've decided which sketches are going to be made into real furni and clothing we each take it in turns to pick which items we want to work on, so we can all work on the concepts that excite us the most. My favourite piece I did from this campaign was the sunset background - I loved having a chance to play with colour and set the mood.

Q5. NOW IS YOUR CHANCE TO SHOW US YOUR OWN PERSONAL STYLE! YOU WERE ASKED TO DRAW A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR US. TALK US THROUGH THAT. WHERE DID YOU DRAW INSPIRATION FROM FOR YOUR PIECE?

Clockwise from top left:

Sparkaro: I was inspired by the dancing scenes that you see in a lot of Bollywood movies! I also had Jasmine and Rajah from Aladdin in mind.

Kukuyit: I really like the clothing in this game so I dressed my avatar in the new sari and grand head jewel. Of course, the outfit is not complete without the pet cobra!

DollsEyes: I wanted to draw a badass lady riding a tiger! I wanted it to have a slightly magical feel to it, so I gave her the same bright green eyes the tiger has!

Elementary_Kage: I've been playing through the Uncharted games recently and they are my inspiration for my piece. Santini is off on an adventure with a local women but he keeps getting distracted by the wonderful sights causing her no end of problems.

sillimanite: In my non-Habbo work I'm very inspired by art history and portraiture, so I thought I'd channel Gustav Klimt - I think his work really suits all the gold and beautiful patterns in this campaign!

MrCroissant: Here's a quick sketch of the mischievous monkey on some poor chaps head.

Click to read the interview!