Falcata
Jane and I were commissioned following GDC 2026 to create assets for Falcata (Matthew Caminiti), a casual browser-built two-player fighting game revolving around claiming a crown through ritual combat. I am focusing on the art direction and visual development of the game, expanding on its thematic basis and assisting in its production.
The base-functionality demo of the game is playable in browser/Discord. This currently does not include our in-dev visual assets.
Devlog
4/4/2026 — Player Character Drafts
We started with establishing the directed tone and setting of the game. Its theme was drawn from the text The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion by James George Frazer; one of the mythologies it covers details the inheritance of the crown through ritual combat, involving severing a golden bough/branch linked to one’s opponent in order to claim victory and rule. As such, we decided on a base look for the player character resembling gladiatorial combatants and enslaved fighters — those with humble beginnings who, through might and will, rise to glory.
Direction: Some images around the vibe, given the theme is vaguely Latin times, and the term falcata is an actual Iberian sword (although likely originally Greek), lots of Mediterranean potential inspiration for the character. If the notion of the freed slave sticks, the plain tunic in the first image is interesting. Otherwise, some the classic gladiatorial elements with the sword arm should work; sleeve, roughspun, shinguards, etc.
Player character design by Jane.
Reference images.
Base-functionality demo appearance of the game in browser, before any of our visual assets (pictured assets used are open-source/public domain).
Reference images.
4/11/2026 — Player Character Animations & Environment Art
With the basis of the player character’s design, Jane began working on the animations while I started to establish the game’s environmental visual design.
Troubleshooting panel for technical development.
For the environment, I referenced the paintings associated with The Golden Bough as well as the works of Hubert Robert, a French Romantic painter known for his paintings of ruins often rooted in fantasy and mythology. The core tone to evoke was a warmly lit, forested mystical area backed by ancient ruins and landforms.
I worked keeping in mind the need for an infinite scroll/parallax seamless image for the final background, as well as the presence of platforms, obstacles, indicators, and other environmental factors that would be included in the game’s map. This seamless format also makes the image very flexible across different window resolutions.