I have recently come across some very interesting level and Character designs from Ikumi Nakamura who performed lead art design for both TEW titles. From a creepy experiment room, floating Keeper heads, and Leslie looking as a child. These were some great and odds designs that were scrapped from the final cut.
The first is a level of safes (the keepers head) floating in an abyss. this was just an idea that Ikumi Nakamura had but had a difficult time visualizing the concept and never left the paper. You can imagine the terror that this could have been, jumping on the wrong safe would open up and eat you.
The next design is another scrapped level of a experimental room. The long hallways with figures of people or creatures illuminating behind the curtains would be absolutely terrifying. You would never know if one of them were actually going to come after you or not. She proposed the idea but it never made it in.
The final design is the original concept art for Leslie looking very young and strange, as if he didn’t already. She wanted to give him a younger look was to make the player feel like that have to protect him because he is a child. But the final decision to make home look older was to show that he was really smart. This is the one idea that I’m glad didn’t make it into the final cut.
These were very interesting to see and wonder why were some cut? These levels could have been amazing and probably caused severe anxiety. It’s very interesting to see original ideas and to think about what could have been. I hope that Ikumi Nakamura will release some more with some interesting stories about the behind the scenes of TEW games.
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