I’m working on a real-time environment inspired by the Slavic forest spirit Leshy, reimagined as a bio-technological entity
At the moment, my main sources of inspiration are Horizon Zero Dawn, Inscryption, and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”.
They strongly influence the balance between organic forms, technology, and psychological unease in this project.
During production, I expect to discover and incorporate additional references and inspirations as the concept evolves.
Luck totally turned its back on me, I’ve been stuck without power for three days straight now. Big thanks to the neighbor for that
If you know, you know
I’ve already locked in the core concept in my head. Leshy, the pagan forest spirit, appears as an idol, but fused with modern tech. For some reason, I can’t stop thinking about Iron Man and that glowing reactor in his chest. He stands in a swampy landscape, wrapped in thick, mysterious fog. I might add holographic runes floating around him. From his body, cables grow out like roots, spreading through the ground and harvesting data about everything happening in the forest. In this version, Leshy is basically a massive data center, silently watching, collecting intel, and when needed, punishing anyone who dares to mess with his domain.
Mood → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YvGFsc0SYw
Been a while since I last posted here. Progress is happening, but right now it’s way more technical than artistic.
Main changes!
I completely revisited Leshy after an almost hour-long lecture from a historian (aka my grandma). Realized the previous look was totally off for what Leshy should actually be, so yeah… had to redo him from scratch.
Dropped Lumen from the scene. It was eating way too many resources for what it was giving back. Switched to baked lights (GPU Lightmass) scene performance jumped up literally tens of times! Once the level is actually finished I’ll do a proper side-by-side test: full Lumen version vs full Lightmass version, see which one runs better and whether the visual difference is even noticeable.
Wrote a little shader that makes ground-level creeping fog flow across the location. Right now I’ve tinted it brighter just so it’s more visible in screenshots will tone the color way down later.
Had to burn an entire workday just to remember how SpeedTree even works… Managed to finish only one tree so far and it’s still very early/WIP. Still need to polish it + make several different ones so the forest doesn’t look copy-pasted.
That’s it for now. Catch you next time there’s a really big update to the location!
I’m still working on the location, but apparently I’m dropping out of the race, because I misunderstood the rule related to texture restrictions
Or I’ll rework it to fit the framework if I have the energy
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to finish this contest had to step back
But in any case, I’m really grateful for the chance to participate, and I’m sure I’ll be back in the future!
Thank you so much for all the support you guys are amazing
Let’s keep in touch! Here are my links:
Remember to post your final results here before the deadline is up: 
