Dive or Die | Compost Creative

Compost Creative hand-crafted animation for all of the cinematics in ‘DIVE or DIE’, a wonderfully dark Lovecraftian survival game, created by Drop Rate Studio and published by Dear Villagers.

Virulent black rain has dismantled the world as we know it. If you are to survive, you must descend into the dark waters, narrowly evade Eldritch beasts and learn the mechanics of diving, scavenging and strategic sacrifice.

Working closely with Drop Rate studio, Compost’s animation team helped design the ‘DIVE or DIE’ apocalyptic world, as well as the key characters in the game – most notably, the colossal Rainmaker creature. The artists were thrilled to undertake this ambitious indie game’s animated cinematics, key art and branding. They made a limited budget go a long way by working efficiently with illustration and 2D animation techniques. Adobe After Effects was where everything came together with illustrations created in Procreate and Photoshop. A few more complex scenes were tackled in TV Paint.

Another challenge was adapting the artwork seen in the game and creating a style which could be maintained throughout the cinematics without going over budget! The team delivered six minutes of cinematics, so mission accomplished.

The trailer uses sections from the cinematics but to see the majority you will need to play the game! A free demo version of the game is currently available on Steam, while the full release is expected later this year.

Don’t let the rain touch you!

Credits:

Client: Drop Rate Studio
Animation & Motion Design: Compost Creative
Art Direction: Colin Thornton & Neil Wilson
Assistant Producer: Orla Smith
Animators: Sam Jewitt, Heiley Chiu, Chris MacDonald, Hokun Tsou

Instagram: @compostcreative