Overview + Role
KEKSPACE is a giant island city divided in 10 thematic blocks + CEMETERY zone surrounded by forests, reached via portal from Parque del Pozo frog wizard NPC. Main hub for spawn, shops, events and memes. Production spanned 18 months from 2024 to 2026.
I joined as Senior 2D & Pixel Artist and became Hands-on Art Director in 90 days. Led a team of 4 generalists with no prior pixel art experience. I defined the entire pipeline — from rough grid blockout to clean lines, B/W volume and final color — plus bases, palette locks, frontis system and a 47-page art bible in Notion. I do both direction and final assets.
City & Environment
Island logic is readability first. Central Tower at geometric center-bottom is spawn to orient the player immediately. From there the 10 blocks radiate by theme — diversion, commerce, beach, park, barrio. Forests close the silhouette. Parque del Pozo (2 blocks) works as narrative hinge: touch grass meme + well + frog wizard that portals you to Cemetery, the memetic crypto-dead zone.
Spawn, ATMs, Kekmart, INK stores
Amplexus discoteca, Arcade Saloon, Karaoke closed
Handshake towers
Classic museum, NFT paintings, conference party hall Pepe
Handshake towers, Kraken event, Pokek poker
Central Park
Gym
Hold Coal lab
Potion Store
Seed Store
Portal
Advebture Guild
Skins System
Modular system built in Aseprite. Base body split: head / body / arms / torso / legs / feet. Z-system for dynamic positioning per view. Slots: hat, glasses, shirt, outerwear, backpack, pants/skirt, socks, sneakers, grab objects, pets floating/walking, auras (flames, fart smell). Rarity: free / premium animated.
I designed the base for the whole team + large part of the skins library. Defined 24-color locked palette templates and grid measures, plus 47-page art bible in Notion with dimensions, palette rules and animation framerates. Pipeline: ref board (NDA) → rough grid → clean lines → B/W volume → color/details → animated final.
Furnitures
Same approach as skins: I designed grid and measures for variety within parameters, defined bases and supervised team. Created few hero pieces myself. Types: decorative, buildings, decorative NPC, interactive NPC, skins, furnitures.
Few animated — slot machine and giant magic 8 ball with phrases are mine, both with rarity logic. Anchor bottom-center, 16px grid.
