ŌKAMI
Custom Controller Art
This passion project was born from a deep reverence for the fighting game genre and the timeless artistry of Ōkami (2006). Designed for my first leverless controller, the Haute42 C16, this artwork seeks to capture the same sense of wonder the game sparked in my childhood.
Each line was drawn with deliberate care, each colour carefully chosen, serving as a quiet homage to the title that first ignited my interest in visual storytelling and art direction.
From the celestial brush to the leverless layout.
The process started with a rough sketch of Amaterasu, the sun goddess, focusing on the spatial relationship between the character and the controller’s 16-button layout. It was an interesting puzzle to solve early on; I wanted the composition to feel natively integrated with the hardware, following the ergonomic curves of the layout rather than just sitting on the surface.
I knew the flames had to be the visual anchor, so I leaned into fluid linework to capture the sense of kinetic energy and speed from the source material. Those organic strokes eventually evolved into sweeping plumes of mystical fire that gave scale and fullness to the composition, before I transitioned into Adobe Illustrator to refine the vectors and bring the final vision to life.
