Hey there Realmwalkers,

It's time for another Developer Spotlight! This time, we would love to introduce you to our amazing Senior Level Artist on Nightingale. Here is, Alyssa Duguay!

Q: What is your name and job title?
A: Alyssa Duguay, Senior Level Artist

Q: When did you join Inflexion Games?
A: October 2018

Q: What was your background before Inflexion?
A: Early in my career I had done a stint in mobile games, then moved into Oil and Gas simulations and e-learning, and right before Inflexion, I spent a few years at Beamdog working on Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Editions and expansions as well as Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition and Axis & Allies.

Q: Tell us what you do on Nightingale?
A: I’m primarily responsible for our Points of Interest content - where our Map-Gen team creates the Realms and biomes, my focus is within those areas we populate the world with both beautiful locations and exciting gameplay spaces, which is a combination of Art and systems work.

I work with our Environment Director and my Points of Interest team to build smaller chunks of content to support themes influenced by our Realm cards - like Fae Gardens that float in the air with hanging waterfalls and greenery, Human Airships that fill the sky with zeppelins and machinery, enormous Fae Shipwrecks buried in mud or sand depending on the biome, and much more. I also create some of the unique spots that our important Non Playable Characters inhabit.

Q: What excites you most about working on Nightingale?
A: The underlying tech we’ve built to create our Realms, content, and play spaces are the most exciting to me. The amount of power in our systems to generate maps and how we overlay content on top of them is immense. Our team has worked hard to think outside of the box by using new systems even if it means leaving our "comfort zones" in order to have more flexibility in creating great content.

Q: Can you give an example of something you’ve contributed to Nightingale that you’re most proud of?
A: Being able to see all of that hard work we put into our Map-Gen tools and content guidelines for ourselves and art design systems, translate to the Environment art seen in game, pays off in a big way. The beauty seen in game, reflects the dedication our team has to making all the nuts and bolts behind the systems work by doing things well and in a sustainable way.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your role working on Nightingale?
A: The biggest challenge at times is to think with new systems as opposed to falling back to more familiar and comfortable ways of doing things. For example, in Environment and Level Art we’ve spent a decent amount of time recreating the decisions we would normally make in a level. Then, we work with tech artists and programmers to break down those decisions into sets of rules that we then recreate with systems and tools. We give up some control at times by doing this, but what we gain is an amazing ability to make much more content, and ultimately, make a bigger, more engaging, experience for players.

‍Q: What are you going to be working on in the coming weeks/months for the game?
A: I’ll mostly be plugging away at fleshing out our Points of Interest and building more content that supports our gameplay, storytelling, and lore.

Q: Tell us an interesting experience you’ve had whilst playing the game.
A: I’m usually spending my time finding the perfect view for my structures and Estates. Sometimes I like putting my buildings right in the line of fire of all sorts of dangerous critters and enemies. I’ve definitely died repeatedly in pursuit of the best possible real estate location.

Q: What was the last game you played?
A: Baldur’s Gate 3 in multiplayer on the Steam Deck - it’s a delight.

‍Q: You're lost in the mystical Fae Realms...what's the one thing that's likely to kill you first?
A: Whatever the most basic creature in that biome is. I prioritize exploring over self-preservation until I find that perfect spot for my base, which means a lot of being shredded.

Q: What is the one thing that you need to survive being lost in the Fae Realms?
A: Gumption - you need plenty of it to overcome the challenges in your path.

Thanks for reading! For more news, click here. Join your fellow Realmwalkers and contribute to the conversation on our Community Page.
- Nightingale Team.