Dev Log - Pretty Pictures

It feels weird to step away from game design and focus on concept art. It's like I'm just going about my hobby, except there's real stakes involved now and I can't leave it unfinished for 8 months until I come across it again and go "oh yeah, that thing".

As one of the team's main artists, my job is to produce artwork and assets for the game. Last week we were mostly just doing housekeeping and migrating to Jira, but I did try to get a head start and tried my hand at an NPC concept.

This week, I was tasked with starting work on the main character of our game. As a team, we collectively had the vague idea that the main character would be a patient undergoing surgery at the anti-aging facility that the game takes place in. Running with that, I sat down and began my process. This consists of finding references, making sketches, then getting feedback and iterating until satisfied. Pretty straightforward.

Something I had pitched to the team a while ago that we all liked was the idea that the player controlled a different character every run, to represent the different kinds of people who would have different stories and reasons for why they were in the facility. However, this didn't really fit with the scope of the demo, so we had to cut it. My job now was to design what at least one of these characters would look like. I gravitated towards an older woman, since we felt that the demographic that anti-aging rhetoric targets the most is middle aged women.

I started by gathering pictures of faces that best matched what I had in mind and picking out details that I liked.



The next part was figuring out the clothing...or lack thereof, perhaps. A hospital gown isn't really what I would call clothes. I went with it not only because that was also what the rest of the team had in mind, but it also makes it more apparent to the player who the character is (a patient) and where they might be (a hospital). Blue gowns are the most common in media, so I went ahead with it as it would also both stand out against and compliment the whites of the facility.



The most important part of analyzing the hospital gown was making sure I learned the shapes and understood the logistics of how it worked (how it folds, where it pinches, etc.). Strong shapes help make a character feel comprehensive and realistic, and the logistics part really helps when it comes to modeling and texturing. I also made note of the IV pole, since that's going to serve as the player's weapon. I wanted to make note of its physics and behavior, since that will inform how the weapon is modeled (bulkier at the bottom to indicate weight) and the animation (swung around like an axe or a large club).

So, after all of that, here's what I ended up with:



The feedback I got was essentially "no notes", so I continued by sketching those two dynamic poses so I could better understand the gown and how it would behave, as well as exploring the IV pole weapon. Then I moved on to a more "finalized" illustration so I could get more used to the character design:


(I really didn't want to draw the other hand, so I set it on fire.)

(And check out all that detail that no one's gonna notice!)

Admittedly I got pretty tired halfway through, so there's a few mistakes.

Where I've left off is the beginnings of a reference sheet so I can start modeling the character. I'm trying to force myself to simplify my shapes, and leave out small details like wrinkles since they won't be needed until I'm texturing.

The weapon will also be part of this model sheet. I also need to start designing an NPC that will be present at the beginning of the game, which I'm excited about since I'll have the opportunity to exaggerate the shapes. >:)

The main takeaway for me this week is the importance of references and constantly being aware of how concepts will be translated further down the pipeline. It makes things a lot easier when you have all the information you need now rather than later, so you can avoid having to redo assets.