The Jolly Fortune is a pirate-themed game concept originally created as part of Hackabury, a two-day game development event where our team developed a prototype under the title Pension of the Caribbean in 24 hours.
Following the event, the project was expanded beyond its original scope and evolved into The Jolly Fortune, allowing us to further develop the world, characters, gameplay ideas, and visual identity.
My role on the project was as the lead 2D Artist. I was responsible for creating many of the game’s visual assets, including character designs, logos, title artwork, cosmetic items, currency, ship artwork, and animated assets. The project allowed me to explore a wide range of artistic disciplines while helping to establish a cohesive and recognisable visual style.
One of the first areas I worked on was the game’s branding. As the project moved away from its original Hackabury title, I designed new logos and title screens to better capture the adventurous pirate theme. I explored different typography, colour palettes, and layouts before arriving at the final designs that helped establish the identity of The Jolly Fortune.
After establishing the branding, I moved on to character design. One of my main responsibilities was creating the game’s cast of characters, each with their own distinct personality and purpose within the game world.
Captain Splash-Me-Cash serves as the main playable character. I wanted him to immediately communicate the playful and light-hearted nature of the game while still feeling like a capable pirate adventurer. Through several iterations, I refined his appearance to create a memorable protagonist that reflected the overall tone of the project.
I also created Captain Shannon, a quest-giving NPC within the game. Her design was inspired by the voice actor portraying the character, incorporating her blonde hair and blue eyes to strengthen the connection between the visual and performance aspects of the role. Developing Captain Shannon required balancing recognisable features with the stylised art direction of the game.
Another character I particularly enjoyed creating was Parrot Pete, the game’s shopkeeper. His design went through several stages before reaching the final version. I drew inspiration from Tyler from the television series My Hero, particularly his quirky personality and slightly awkward charm. I wanted Parrot Pete to feel instantly memorable, humorous, and approachable whenever players visited the in-game shop.
Alongside character creation, I designed The Jolly Fortune itself, the player’s ship and one of the central visual elements of the game. I explored different ship silhouettes and decorative details before creating the final design. The ship became an important part of the game’s identity and helped reinforce the adventurous pirate setting.
As development continued, I created a variety of supporting assets used throughout the game. These included cosmetic rewards such as hats and earrings, collectible gold coin currency, environmental assets, user interface elements, and other visual components needed to support gameplay.
One of the most valuable experiences I gained during this project was my first exploration into 2D animation. To bring the ships to life, I created animated sails that moved in the wind. This required me to think differently about artwork, breaking designs into individual layers and considering how each component would move from frame to frame. This was also done by trialling different things, the first animation I made by just distorting and warping both the sail and flag in Procreate after putting them onto seperate layers, however I quickly learned that I needed to draw the ship fully without the flag and sail on and the pole all the way through the middle so that the animations looked smoother when showing outside of the sail.
The process involved creating multiple sail positions, planning transitions between frames, and assembling the final animation. Although relatively simple, it taught me a great deal about movement, timing, and how animation can add life and personality to a game world.
I have also included the individual animation frames and component breakdowns below to demonstrate the development process behind the final animation.
GameBridge 2026 Submission
Artwork from The Jolly Fortune was submitted to the GameBridge Student Game Festival as part of the Individual Excellence Awards for 2D Art Excellence.
The submission showcased a collection of character designs, branding work, animation experiments, environmental concepts, cosmetic items, ship artwork, and supporting game assets. It highlighted both the breadth of artwork created for the project and the development of a cohesive visual identity across multiple areas of game production.
Closing Note
The Jolly Fortune has been one of my most enjoyable collaborative projects to date. It allowed me to contribute to every stage of a game’s visual development, from branding and character creation to asset production and animation.
I am particularly proud of the variety of artwork produced for the project and the opportunity to submit my work for consideration in the GameBridge 2026 2D Art Excellence category. The project pushed me outside my comfort zone, especially through my first experiences with animation, and helped me develop both my artistic and technical skills as a game artist.
Ally Dawson 