A simple container-crate was one of the first objects I approached and did tests with to figure out the style and working approach for Caromble. It has stayed as this, although the game evolved to more of a line-art style over the next years. Time to bring this one up to date. First, here you can see the original texture I created back then. I tried pencils to draw the details, which gave a nice look in black and white.
The first texture, done with pencil on paper and scanned. But on the final object, when adding color, its actually a bit hard to see. Mostly you would not even get this close. Additionally (and this weighted even more in the decision), it was a lot of work. Its hard to get the inevitable digital fixes to look exactly like pencil. Imagine cutting and rotating a piece the parts would not have the same direction of the hatching anymore.
Screenshot from the game, with a color overlay on the texture.
For better comparison, Ive made a more up-to date real-time shot of the asset. As you can see with more effects like reflections and normal map shading, its even harder to notice the style. And here is the updated approach with just a black pen as base. There is a bit analogue detail in there, like irregularity in the lines, but its more subtle and easier to move around.
The new texture this time done with Substance Painter, with some tweaks. In an earlier posting, I described the procedural workflow for these 3D assets. A lot is automated and then I go over and do manual tweaks. Later the programs help me to create variations like different colors or damaged stages, often with just one or two clicks.
Here is the new version with a texture based on pen line-art. It does have an updated normal map, and the effects, but the line-art shows.
The damaged version its naturally even more noisy, but still reads as stylized.
Furthermore, I generate color variations. Currently as separate textures though we may switch to a shader that allows the programmers to change the color on the fly. All objects have this style, with old objects being updated. I have a series of asset-shots on the Caromble blog, to show them off.

• 24 levels divided over six chapters
  
• Each level has multiple playable areas
  
• Physics based destruction
  
• Medals for speed runs and highscores
  
• Numerous unlockable skill levels
  
• Powerups
  
• Explosions
  
• Powerups that cause explosions
  
• Explosions that release powerups
  
• Puzzles
  
• And yes... platforming elements (say what?!)
  
  
  
  The current state of the Early Access build is:
  
  • Buggy
    
  • Not fully optimized for performance
    
  • Contains the first 3 chapters with 12 areas
    
  • And 5 unlockable skill levels
    
  • Production quality equivalent to release quality
    
  • Very enjoyable
  
  
  Please help us improve Caromble! Report bugs. Play the game. Enjoy the mechanics. Don't like the mechanics? Tell us about it! Tell us why you think Caromble! is great. Tell us why you think it stinks. Know somebody who might enjoy Caromble!? Help us find them! We're forever in your debt.
  
  
  Thank you for playing Caromble!

• OS: 64bit
• Processor: 4 core intel i5/Ryzen 5Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: RX Vega 7 / Iris Pro
• Storage: 700 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: Requires RAW input

• OS: 64bit
• Processor: Steam Deck / Intel i5 / Ryzen 5Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Graphics: Discrete GPU with 2GB mem
• Storage: 700 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: Requires RAW input