Still splitting work between character designs and writing the first act, and both are going fairly well at the moment. Character design is always an interesting challenge because some ideas just work instantly, while others I struggle with.
I pretty much knew what the giant woman and the lizard were going to look like instantly. The robot was a little more work because I know what she was going to be inspired by, but the first few designs weren’t exactly meshing with what I had in my head.
The real headache has been the giant ape character. Primates can be a real challenge to simplify because they already share so many human characteristics to begin with. Simplify it too much and it won’t look like an ape, just a person. Make it too ape-like and it stops being cute and starts being creepy. I think that’s one of the reasons why monkeys aren’t often used as moe girl mascot characters. The only one I can think of offhand is Pudding from Tokyo Mew Mew.
I think I finally struck the right balance for the style I want to implement, and now the romanceable characters are largely finished. I’ll be sketching them a few more times to get their expressions more natural and individualized, and then do character sheets and draw the sprites. Colors are still going to need to be tested, so just knowing what the characters are supposed to look like is only the first step.
In the meantime I think I’ll be working on the side characters that all appear in the first act and prologue, and continue writing the first act.
