iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

We were really surprised that people asked about cosplay references even before the game was released. And it was so great to see how they created their own hoodies :) This is a reference sheet I made for that purpose: 8/9

Cosplay reference sheet of Via. From each side and a close up of her face, her staff, and the flowers for the staff.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Our animator (and cosplayer) Martina made a real version from scratch! (It’s really soft!) 7/9

Photo of the back of Martina with her self made Via hoodie

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

And she should wear the most comfortable oversized hoodie! We remade the first in game model with an improved design and a more defined hoodie shape: 6/9

Same image as the first post: Concept art of all sides of Via's character design.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

This background story and the game world influenced her design a lot. She should be the human reference point to the fantastical Calicorns and the world they explore together. 5/9

Screenshot of Herdling. Via and the herd walking through a rocky environment with orange light.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

We wrote a background story about Via’s past, how she ended up in the city, why she wants to leave and why she’s not too afraid to approach a Calicorn in the dark, three times her height. Here’s a rare portrait of her: (I’m bad at portraits..) 4/9

Portrait painting of Via with her hair and face visible

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

I really liked how it contrasted everything else in size, color and shape. We still tried other approaches, but eventually returned back to the original idea. (Conceptart by @timserafin.bsky.social ) 3/9

Conceptart of a character with a blue jumper and a phone. Another version with a staff and a hat.

Conceptart of many different version of Via and her hoodie. Color variations of red, blue, green and yellow

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Via, the player character in Herdling started out like most of our game’s characters: As a red basic shape. Here’s one of the first concept art pieces of Herdling: 2/9

Concept art of a street with a view towards a snow mountain. Simple shapes. In the center is a red bright triangular character and shapes of horned beasts.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

How we designed HERDLING’s Via (a thread) 1/9

Concept art of Via, the main character of herdling. From all sides. Some colorized, some only outlined. With a big colorful hoodie.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

This seems surreal. It feels like a great honor :)

Screenshot of a steam bundle key art with Herdling on the left and Firewatch on the right

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

HERDLING is out now! 🐏🦬 We had a lot of fun during the past years creating this game. I hope you'll have fun playing it, too :) It's out on Steam, Epic Game Store, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S or Game Pass, links below!

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

And as a highlight: this cool door (created by our 3d artist Sam and tech artist @halisavakis.com 11/12

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

In the end we had many types of structures with different purposes: Cairns to mark the path and as small memorials. Colorful windboards that react when you pass by, big arches that mark important milestones on the path and a variety of temples and buildings. (location spoilers) 10/12

In game screenshot of a tall stone temple ruin in the mountains

In game screenshot of a blue wooden wind board on a pile of rock pillars.

In game screenshot of the flower pot like building that surrounds dead trees.

In game screenshot of a cave with many rock pillars surrounding the walls and ceiling

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The idea was that the structures were built around trees and roots to protect or decorate them, so we made them look a little bit like (broken) flowerpots. The stones of the pillars have holes in them and are stacked on growing roots/trees, which gives them organic shapes and more stability. 9/12

Concept art. Big trees, surrounded by a flower pot like building out of white rock

Concept art. Building variations of 3 tall, flower pot like buildings and ruins

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

… while the structures are mostly built out of stacks and pillars of white and colorful stones. And we added more wooden elements. These allowed for more details and variety. 8/12

Concept art of stone pillars and arches, combined with wooden twig like elements

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The previous concepts kinda worked in isolation, but there wasn’t much room to show specific functions/purposes of the structures. To solve this, we designed the environment rocks to be more round and bulky… 7/12

Concept art of different sized rocks and stones. One version without snow and one with.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The reason was that we wanted to keep the mountainscape as uninhabited as possible, but also needed to have some contrast for certain points of interest. Here see some earlier concepts: 6/12

Concept art of a big rock with colorful boards and pillars on top of it

Concept art of two stone tower variations built from layers of wheel shaped rocks

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

These were some of our references and inspirations: 4/12

4 reference images. A stone arch/circle. A hut made out of twigs that looks like a nest. A surreal stone entrance to a forest and a painterly white church in the mountains.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The main idea was that they used the existing shapes of the surrounding rocks to build structures to decorate and protect the path. But over the centuries, they deteriorated and deformed. 3/12

Concept art of several pillars and calicorn structures and buildings. Organic shapes that are shaped around the rocks

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

For the Calicorn structures (which are the weird buildings in the mountain area) we wanted them to look as natural/organic as possible and also a bit spooky. 2/12

Screenshot of herdling from the mountain area with lots of pillars and stone bridges on the cliff side of the mountain.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Another Herdling thread, this time about a completely different topic: Calicorn architecture and rocks! (I really enjoy coming up with new architecture designs that tell stories and fit into the world) 1/12

Concept art of a big rock on a mountain cliff with several colorful pillars and shapes sticking out

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

And this is the final image again :) The amazing logo was designed by @mrgan.com Please wishlist Herdling on Steam, pre order or get it on August 21 :) herdling.game

The final version of the key art again. Now with a wider view.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Because of this process, the image lost a bit of the painterly look I liked about the earlier painting. So I tried to bring it back in some areas (9/10)

Closeup of a Calicorn. The paint strokes are visible and rougher on the darker parts of the fur and the horns.

Clouse up of the girl. The paint strokes are more visible on the grass and on some parts of her hoodie

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Then I painted over each screenshotted Calicorn/object using the previous painting as a base. Each on a different layer so I can move them to fit specific formats. (8/10)

The in engine calicorns and decorations put into the previous painting. Not painted over yet. Roughly arranged with outlines visible.

A more painted over version that almost resembles the final key art. Some unpolished areas are still visible on the foreground and background.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

For the next step, I placed some Calicorns and decoration assets in a fitting environment in Unity and took several high res screenshots that I used to make a collage. (7/10)

In engine screenshot of the Calicorns and the girl. Awkwardly staged to make screenshots.

In engine screenshot of cairns and flowers

In engine screenshot of the staff with flowers

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I worked on it until I felt confident enough to start with the “construction” (after this point, it doesn’t feel like painting anymore, for me) (6/10)

A more detailed version of the rough blockout. The background and the girl are now recognizable. The calicorns still resemble shapes with horns and red eyes.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

It also had to be very readable. So I went back a few steps and made this (this is a picture of my iPad screen xD, sorry) (5/10)

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

What really helped me this time was to look for photo references that fit the theme and have emotional impact. In this case this beautiful picture by B.K. Bangash. (4/10)

Photo of a young afghan child walking with a stick in front of a herd of sheep towards the camera.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Because I rarely have the chance to make a key art (once or twice per game) I put way too many hours into those. Here is one of the first sketches (2/10)

Very rough sketch of the key art in the first post, with a similar composition but nothing is rendered.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I’d like to talk a little bit about my process of creating the key art for Herdling (thread: 1/10)

Key art of herdling. A painting with a herd of fantastical mountain animals called calicorns in the center. A mountain behind them and a girl in a red hoodie in front of them.

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

To communicate the different states of the calicorns and if they “store” momentum, the calicorns have colorful stripes on their backs that can change color and intensity.

Screenshot from Herdling with many Calicorns running across a field. Colorful patterns visible on their backs

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Each of those also has variations in texture/fur, horns, size and traits. (Conceptart of different horn variations)

Conceptart of the 3 Calicorns with different types of horns and antlers

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

To create visual variety and to keep the scope “small”. We decided to create three main types (Big, medium and small) that use different models, rigs and animations.

Conceptart of all 3 Calicorn types together with Via

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

They are also quite tall! Which places Via, our main character, in a quite intimidating situation at the start.

Conceptart of a big Calicorn compared to via

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

We knew we wanted something other than sheep or goats to herd, to give the animals more connection to the fantastic lore of the world. (Conceptart by @timserafin.bsky.social )

Conceptart of several Calicorns with different sizes

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Some of the early references are the Kukeri costumes from Bulgaria and a combination of several mountain animals, like yaks and mountain goats.

4 images. Beatsteaks album cover with a yak. A furry kukeri costume. A mountain goat. A strange animal in the museum

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

With the release of Herdling getting closer, I want to talk about some things I helped design for the game: Starting with the Calicorns.

Screenshot from Herdling with a big Calicorn and Via the main character in the forest

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Had to paint it. Such a cool photo and bird!

Painting of crow with spiky wings on ground

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I‘m in London for @londongamesfest.bsky.social , showcasing Herdling! And very glad I met @jdwasabi.bsky.social this morning :)

Herdling game booth with person playing the game on a pc

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Don Schmocker @donschmocker.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

QRT with the piece you're proudest of for 2024 This is the key art I painted for our game "Herdling". I rarely bring paintings to this point of "completion", which usually takes me a lot of time and energy in the later stages, but I'm very happy I did :)