Another blog takeover from Sally!

Our community manager Annie has been a little under the weather, so you’re stuck with me again writing for the blog this week. I wracked my brain on what I could show you or talk about for this blog and realised I could show you some sneaky behind the scenes stuff while there is no one here to stop me!

Some of you will have been following along with the journey of our newest NPC who we recently introduced on our socials. But, what you haven’t seen is the process I use to design characters and I thought I’d share all my secret (no so secret) tips on character design.

The way I started designing was a little different because the community chose what our character would look like. Thank you to everyone who filled in the survey you made some amazing choices and this gave me a great place to start from. Taking the results of the survey I used the features chosen to create an NPC mood board, this contained styles I liked, specific facial features that I wanted to reference and even just some aesthetic images to tie it all together.

Here is a quick snapshot of what I ended up with on my Pinterest board:

Then I began sketching out the base figure, staying very loose and rough not worrying about if the anatomy or form was correct but just getting a feel for the shapes, height and curves that would make up her figure. Then I coloured her in figure in and started sketching in her hair and clothing.

The community voted overwhelmingly for 90’s grunge inspired clothing so I tried to emulate that style but with a modern twist. The 90’s are iconic for the more about oversized clothing items but given you all voted for her to be mid-size/curvy I didn’t want her to look like she was covering herself up too much. The sleeves cut off an old cropped Nirvana tee and the fishnets showing through the rips the baggy low-rise jeans are to show how comfortable she is in her own skin. Because the characters in Spellbound: TMW change outfits to fit the occasion I always draw over the top of their bodies and use a different colour pen for each layer or item so that when I colour block in I can see where I want things to sit

When thinking about how to clothe her I knew she needed to be dressed for work given that in the game she spends most of her time on her feet running around making coffee at Ari’s café. She couldn’t be too dressed up but also Ari is pretty relaxed with what their staff wear to work as long as it’s comfortable to work in.

Lastly I worked on her poses and facial emotes, given that she is an NPC who doesn’t have a main story route I knew she didn’t need as many as some of the other characters. She did on the other hand need some that were unique to her. So I made sure she had one of her holding a tray of drinks a couple of tea’s, a coffee and a cup of cloudy apple juice made from apples freshly collected from near Theo’s house.

The best tip I can give when designing characters is don’t just think about the character in isolation, think about where they work and live. What they do for hobbies and what they enjoy. Think about the character and their full spectrum personality - what is their vibe? What do you want the viewer to know about them?

I hope you like her design, I was so excited to have the community involved in this character’s creation as your feedback has been so valuable in shaping the direction of the game. Be on the look out for her while playing Spellbound: The Magic Within.

Thanks for reading and stay ‘Wyrd’ - Sally x

Blog post written by Sally Sheppard Founder and Director at Wyrdren Games Ltd.