Hello! And the Progress Thus Far (PART 2/2) [22/05/2023]

THIS IS PART 2 OF YOUR INTRODUCTION TO HOMOLUPUS!

In this post, I'll cover what I've got so far in terms of character design and environment design. The art direction of the game is one of the most important things for me to nail. I have boiled down the essential three components into; TONE, STYLE, and CHARACTER. If it doesn't serve these purposes, it's purposeless. Therefore, it's going to take a lot of trial and error to make my artwork feel right for this game.

CHARACTERS

Cliff is the protagonist of the game and the player character, so he is the most important asset to 100% nail design-wise. I first started loosely sketching him around this time last year, just to get a very basic idea of his face, hair, and personality.

These sketches helped me lock in the personality type I wanted to strive for in the character; a bit curious and naive, but also determined and emotional. Overall, I wanted him to be charming and charismatic, but still have a bit of an offputting weirdness to his expressions and looks, like making his hair eternally wiry and greasy and giving him a bit of a funny, lopsided smile. I then further developed these sketches to include his whole body.

Even with all this ideation, I still don't feel like I'm quite there yet with finding the spark in the character. That boils down to three things. 

1. Fashion; despite drawing from many different influences, I'm still trying to find the style that fits the characters best. Is it punk, grunge, goth or visual kei? Is it leather, denim, fur, mesh, or wool? Is it simple and cool or over-accessorized and decorated? Finding that balance is the next step for me, which will require going back to the drawing board and deciding, through rapid sketching and ideating, what fits best for Cliff.

2. Defining Features. Something's still off about Cliff's face. I want him to be recognizable and memorable, and that comes down to giving him something that makes him truly unique and interesting to look at. It could be a scar or tattoo, an item of clothing or accessory (which comes down to Fashion), or something else entirely. It's something that can't be forced though; it has to come naturally out of the story, character, and game.

3. Lycanthropy. This is one of the tougher things for me to decide; how much lycanthropy visually manifests in the character designs. Should characters have constant ears, tails, or claws? Should they be furry or hairy? Or is Lycanthropy less visual and more mental? Here's what I want for sure; short tails (small enough to hide under pants) made of skin and bone that extend from the base of the spine, perhaps a natural occurrence of atavism, and are a defining but secret feature of the werewolf. Also, I'm trying my best to design the characters with their hair intentionally covering their ears. Perhaps underneath, they are pointy or furry, but that's something we may or may not see as players. The real question is how much I want these traits to change with a high LH, as an outward representation of the inner state. Perhaps creating a transformation guide would help me understand that and how it would factor into gameplay.

I also started to model Cliff in Maya using a free model from Sketchfab as a base, but this didn't go very well and as such I would like to start over building the model from scratch. I would also like to switch to Blender if possible especially for character modelling.

Other characters I've started sketching, still unnamed NPCs like Cliffs Rescuer (currently nicknamed Lang), are also starting to take shape. I'm keeping them simple for now until core design tenants are set in stone with Cliff's design, but I'm still making sure I know roughly what they'll look like.

ENVIRONMENT

For my prototype, and thus for my opening 15 minutes, I need to figure out exactly what locations need modeling. I decided to start with Cliff's Apartment, where he would end up after escaping from the hospital. The process started with laying out the floor map/blueprints and deciding where Cinemachine Cameras would be placed inside the house. Then, I put together a mood board on Pinterest specifically for the style and decoration of the apartment.

I chose to model the design on the right, as I imagined it could look like a sort of NYC loft. Then I began to model the apartment in Maya. This started with a one-sided cube with the normals facing inwards for the interior, and then extruding faces to create inner walls. I then started furnishing the apartment with free models on Sketchfab before realizing that the apartment was absolutely huge and far too spacious to fill with enough detail and interest. 

So I went back to the drawing board and decided to go small. I started modeling the bottom left design as I liked its simplicity and modesty, and also because it was very similar to the apartment of someone I know, which meant I had a good sense of scale for the room in my head. Although, after beginning my furnishing process, I again have run into the same problem; the apartment is now too small to be interesting enough to explore and investigate, as well as being too tight and condensed to place Cinemachine Camers in good angles.

Therefore, my next step is to attempt to model the top left design; a perfect medium between both designs. I know now to go small enough that the apartment feels small, but not too small that it doesn't offer mystery and curiosity. Perhaps the best thing for me now would be to plan out the story of the apartment; how long Cliff has lived there, what he would fill it with, and whether someone else may have lived there before. The alternative is to change the location entirely, but I'd need a good reason to do so. The good thing about using Cliff's apartment for this particular scene, in which Lang explains Cliff's situation to him, is that it lets Cliff packs his things before leaving yet also lets the player have a taste of exploring locations and getting to know their player character more intimately by invading his private belongings and his living space. 

That's all for this part, see you in the next update!