Arthur

                               Character Introduction

Arthur

Today we'll be taking a look at Arthur, the brave!

Arthur was one of the last characters to be designed, model-wise, but I knew I wanted someone like him in the game from the get-go. Despite the stigma characters like these get, I wrote Arthur to be more than just the comic relief, but to be someone who actually has a clue about what's going on, even if his knowledge comes from the 2D world.

 

His design was inspired by a character in Persona 3 known as the Gourmet King, Suemitsu Nozomi. Since most of the designs are inspired by eastern games, I didn't had a lot of references for overweight characters. Japanese games don't really feature them all that often, but Nozomi is the one that kept popping up in my head all the time. 

 

I found his early design really fun, and considered using him just like this, but it would clash with the rest of the game's artstyle, but I kept it for the game icon since it's so interesting.

Hadaward

                                    Character Introduction

Hadaward

 Today we'll be taking a look at Hadaward, the rich prick!

"Hada" for short, is a character I created to be that asshole kid you knew, whose parents had way too much money, and he himself didn't had the maturity yet to know what that meant for him. I also very intentionally made him be annoying to be around. Not enough that the character gets ouright hated, which has been proven time and time again to be a bad idea. "A shitty character is still shitty even if it's intentional", is something I've heard many times before, so I tried to write him in a way that his assholeness comes from a place of naiveté. An ignorance borne of immaturity. Even so, there's plenty of opportunities in the story to put him in his place for some sweet catharsis.

His initial design didn't change much aside from the overall art revision that was made halfway through development. I wanted to give him a man-bun, but thought it would be a little too feminine, coupled with the rest of the details in his design, so I toned it down a little bit, but kept most of everything else. Shame his coat is so long, you'll most likely not be able to see it in-game

 

 

Aurora

                                 Character Introduction

Aurora

 

 

Today, we're gonna be taking a look at one of my favorite characters, Aurora.

Aurora was, if I'm not mistaken, the third character to be created right after the protagonist. She was supposed to be the cheerful girl that gets just way too scared at everything, which serves the horror ambience of the game.  

  

 

 

Just between us, her design is very reminiscent of a character from my favorite anime of all time, Tatami Galaxy. I felt like putting a little something as a nod to it, which is the reason Aurora's hair is very similar to Akashi's. This is even more evident in her early model, back when most of the characters were gonna have very pale skin, much like that anime's artstyle.

Her design didn't actualy changed a whole lot from day one. Aside from her more mature version in the concept art, this is the first draft of her model, while below is Pezkoh's take on it. 

 
He did an amazing job cleaning up the model, which is why the final version is basically this model, but slightly tweaked and updated.

By the way, something that will become apparent as the character names come up, is that all of them have a specific meaning. It took a lot of time to come up with names that worked both in portuguese and english. Aurora's name, of course, comes from the phenomenon, and pairs up really well with her best friend, which you'll get to know next update!
 

Character Introduction: The protagonist

 Character Introduction

The protagonist 

   

 

 

Just look at this handsome young man! It's him the majority of the story will be following.The protagonist was not the first character that was created for the game, that was actually Solar, but his design went through several changes before I settled on this one.In the concept art, he looks a lot more mature. That's because originally I was going to have all the characters be college aged, but decided against it going forward because while I usually enjoy stories with more mature characters, I felt like the story would have more of an impact in them if they were just a bit younger, and they could also act sillier without everything feeling childish and out of place.

 

 

 

From the beginning, I wanted the main character to be this kid who hasn't really come to terms with the loss of his friend. You'll notice his expression only changed in the last version. That's because, while it serves the story for the protagonist to have a bored outlook on life, a bored main character usually makes for a bored player. If he looks at everything with indifference, so will the one reading his thoughts, so I had to compromise.The way I found to get that message across was to give him some really shaggy hair and messy clothes. The kind that you wake up, throws on and with a passing "whatever" before going out. We all had those days.

       

As far as his clothes go, every character wears some kind of coat, because of the climate in the island, which honestly is just an excuse to have them wearing additional layers so I can work on the clothes design with more freedom. I was never really good at minimalism, and they all needed to be wearing their uniforms, so the layers add to their individuality. For the main character, I gave him a detective-inspired long coat, since he's the one that'll be doing the deduction for most of the game, it felt only appropriate.

I also toyed with different colors for the coat and additional details. While the beige looks really good, I had spent so much time working with the green variation that I got way too attached to it, so I ended up going with that version. 

 

 

Also of note, is this version, made by the artist that was helping out in early development, Pezkoh. I love how clean his linework is, but ultimately I had to overhaul the design of every character, and I couldn't hope to end up with a version this clean myself, so I used one of my early designs as a starting point, but kept a couple of details like the belt, and coat fasteners.

And that's it for the protagonist-- oh, you might be wondering what's his name.

Well... that part is a secret!

Characters

 

One of the core aspects of this game is the character interaction. I want the player to slowly get to know everyone, what they like, dislike, and their maneirisms. Really create a link with them, and rather than go for something too obvious like the "amnesia" tool a lot of people like to go for these days so the protagonist can learn along with the audience, I went with something more appropriate and made him a transfer student. Any of you who had to change schools in the middle of the year, or in your senior year might remember how hard it (usually) is to catch up with everyone.

 

In the next few days, I'll be presenting each character individualy, and explaining a bit of what went into their design, but for now, here's a crash course of the friends that'll be joining you on the school trip:

 

The Protagonist:

 

He's the one you'll be following for most of the story, and seeing the game through the eyes of.
An introvert, who suffered a mysterious loss of his best friend, Lucia, and had to change schools to deal with the pain.

Solar: 

A weird girl who spends most of the time in her own world. This might make it seem like she's hard to approach if you're not in her particular wevelenght, but those who do, will find in her a girl that's particularly sensitive.

Aurora:

 

Solar's best friend, and at times, complete opposite. A cheerful, down to earth girl who dreams of being a photographer. Don't say this to her face, but she get's scared really easily.

Hadaward:
 

 

 

A transfer student, much like yourself. People get tired of saying such a long and hard name, so everyone calls him "Hada". He comes from a country that most people never heard of, but he assures you it's very wealthy, and he won't let you forget that.

Arthur:

 

 

A kid who consumes way too much for his own good. Both food and media. He acts silly most of the time, going off on tangents that most people can't follow, but a lot of it makes a lot of sense if you "get it, man".