Hey, everyone!
It's Shady Character... Two. Shocker, I know!
So today I decided to chime in and talk a bit about our girls and the way they change throughout the process of game development. I am predominantly a character artist, but before diving into the game, I had never worked on sprites. Is this important? Well, yes, it is, because before even starting to draw the whole game, what we needed was style cohesiveness. The sprites of the characters should look like they belong in one game, which is sometimes a problem in indie games where different artists are hired. But it's a problem not only when different artists are working on a collaborative project, but also when the particular art style is not set in stone. Lily's sprite was my first attempt at creating a finished version for the game, and you can see how the style changed since our very first sketch, going from more "Western" to more "anime," and then, after more sketches, to the final version we have right now. You can also follow how we worked on the uniform, creating a personal tartan for each House.
Whether the work goes smoothly depends on the particular girl too, so I can frequently divide them into easy to work on (like our Talahmdan girls) and "I redrew you 5 times already" ones. If you have followed us for long enough, you probably noticed the change in Aisling. Aisling's design was changed a few times before the general game style was decided on, and then I redrew her sprite face no less than 4 times. Why? Well, I guess it's just her unruly nature that prevented me from pinpointing her features exactly. You haven't met another Cairngorm girl yet, but surprisingly enough, she has already gotten her share of redrawing, even at the sketch stage. But that's a talk for next time.
Next week it will probably be Shady One here again.
Shady Character Two, out!