Video game title screen for "Gloom and Broom" by Team 3 Studios. Features options for New Game, Load Game, Settings, Credits, and Quit. Background includes a pink toy box with stars and blocks labeled "3," "A," and "B."

Gloom and Broom was a made with a team of four people. I was the assigned the role creative art director, enemy designer, character designer, UI artist, and animator.

Play now at: https://xorpheous.itch.io/gloom-and-broom

The Concept

The concept began with the desire to create a game that was light-hearted and child-friendly, but had an a fun twist on something usually considered boring.

After brainstorming with the group we came up with the idea of a witch who used her broomstick to clean things up, who was actually just a little girl playing pretend to help alleviate the boredom of having to clean her room.

We named our witchy main character Elaine. She went through a few design changes we tried to nail down the art style. We initially aimed for something akin to puppets, but changed it look more like something a child had drawn to give the sense that the game was taking place in a child’s imagination.

Elaine

Elaine (Final)

Cartoon broom illustration with a long handle and straw bristles.

Broomstick

Environments

Backgrounds

The team knew from the first moment that we wanted to create a 2d side scroller. One of the first orders of business was to get the backgrounds created. These would help tell the story of Elaine going from the real world to the imagined one in her head. Coming up with the story the she was defending her world from an invasion of monsters that wanted to cover the world in filth.

Illustration of a purple room with windows, a bookshelf, a pink flower, a ball, a chair, a pink vanity, a toy bunny, a pink bag, and a bed.
Illustration of an exaggeration of the underside of a child's bed. On the floor, there's a pink and purple sock, a colorful bracelet, and a rectangular box labeled 'Team Studios.' An exaggerated vent is on the back wall.
Cartoon illustration of a red backpack, colorful ball with a star, and orange basket next to a pink skirt.
Simple cartoon-style room with purple walls, brown floor, and a pink door to the right.
Colorful clothes hanging in a closet with a purple background and a pair of dirty socks on the floor.
Cartoon depicting a portal to a "gross dimension" with boxes labeled "Old Clothes" and "Old Toys" against a purple wall.
Abstract landscape with green, brown, and purple colors, featuring a volcano and cloud-like shapes.

Foreground

When creating the play area of the game we wanted to make something that would fit in the both the “real” and “imagined” worlds, but were also representative of things that need be to cleaned. On top of that the play area environment needed to be flexible to a accommodate changes in level design determined by the team members in charge of creating the layout of the levels.

To that end I created a variety of tile sets that could be mixed in matched to suit their needs.

Illustration of a gray stone platform.
Cartoon stone block in dark grey colors.

Rock Platform

Rock Tile

Cartoon stone block in neutral grey colors.
Illustration of a platform made of dust.

Rock Tile (Breakable)

Dust Platform

Illustration of a dark dust block.

Dust Tile

Illustration of a dust block.

Dust Tile (Breakable)

Green slime dripping illustration.

Goo Platform

Green slime on a darker green background.

Goo Tile

Green slime on a green background.

Goo Tile (Breakable)

Illustration of a stylized wooden platform.

Wood Platform

Illustration of stylized wooden block.

Wood Tile

Abstract purple swirl pattern background

Sticky Tile

Abstract blue and black pattern with zigzag waves

Bouncy Tile

Abstract orange and yellow swirl pattern

Burn Tile

Enemy Design

Normal Enemies

Enemy design was based on taking things like dust, mud, and trash and putting a fantasy spin on them like combining goo with goblins or puns on names like “dust bunnies” or “smellhound”.

Green cartoon monster with sharp teeth and claws standing upright

Gooblin

Purple cartoon-style skulls with bones on a mound

Skelegum

Illustration of a brown slime creature with red eyes and an ominous expression.

Mud Man

Illustration of a mythical creature with two heads and red eyes, resembling a hybrid animal.

Smellhound

Cartoon-style jackalope illustration with brown coloring and antlers.

Dust Bunny

Illustration of a purple mushroom with a brown stem and reddish spots on the cap.

Mushdoom

Bosses

Boss design was relatively simple with only two in the game. One is a puzzle boss and the other straightforward battle boss. One was a corrupted vacuum cleaner and the other was the final boss of the game and the leader of the evil filth forces.

Illustration of a monstrous vacuum cleaner with a modern, stylized design, featuring a long hose and a cylindrical body.

Vacuum Dragon V1

Illustration of a an evil vacuum cleaner with green body and flexible hose

Vacuum Dragon (Final)

Abstract drawing of a horned, humanoid figure with a purple cape and multicolored arms.

Final Boss

Illustration of a purple, tentacled creature with colorful, bulbous ends and sharp teeth.

Final Boss (Transformed)