Team Character Design Project

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Overview

I worked on a team of characters for a potential horror/turn-based game. The process involved a lot of research and sketching, but I am very happy with the final product and gained a lot of skills in pixel art that I did not have before.

For this project, I decided to make a team based on members of the clergy and/or religious figures. I wanted there to be a focus on religious themes, with heavy Catholic influence. The general idea is that these characters/classes would be fighting demons or "sins" that manifest in the world. They could work either in a multiplayer cooperative game, or as a single player squad/team that one player controls.

"Insketchstigation"

I spent a lot of time practicing drawing robes because I knew there would be a heavy emphasis on them pretty much regardless of what specific route I took. I started with some basic sketches of monk and nun robes, knowing that one of my characters would be a monk/nun.

When I first began thumbnailing, I was really just doing more sketching and trying to figure out how I wanted the robes to look, and which of the two kinds of "monk" I wanted to hone in on.

I did some practice for knight gear as well, because I had the idea of making the third member a crusader or a Knight of Columbus (why I have suits). All of this is a glimpse of the sketching I did, especially concerning robes, which I did a lot of.

Thumbnail Sketches

These took a lot of trial and error. I have only ever learned one body type, so I used references for poses and alternate body types. My initial thumbnails ended up being insketchstigation images as seen above, but after I did a lot of practice and started using references they came out a lot better.

I had a lot of fun trying different styles, especially for the crusader. As a Knight of Columbus myself, it was interesting to draw the official uniform. And for the last couple of thumbnails for the knight, I took some loose inspiration from Warhammer 40K.

The monk and nun drawings were the hardest to differentiate due to the common robes between them. Fortunately having the two different genders did help a lot.

As for the priest sketches, them having different kinds of robes did help a lot with the differentiation. I initially thought I would go for one with a cassock (the top row), but found it to be a bit too similar to the monk.

Detailed Renders

Once I had my thumbnails done, these were relatively easy to do. I draw digitally, so I am very used to iterating over my drawings as I slowly refine the details and lines.

For each of the sets, I wanted a clear differentiation between the drawings. For the priest, I wanted a more the more mysterious one wearing the cassock, the welcoming one, and then the more subdued one on the left.

For the knight, I had decided at this point to go with a medieval theme, so the crusader fit a lot more. Still, I added detail to one of the Knights of Columbus uniforms to balance it out a bit and give it one last try.

As for the monks/nuns the differences are really clear. Unfortunately, a child knight does not really fit with what I want them to do in the team, and a child priest isn't realistic. I was able to get a child monk, and a nun in the detailed sketches for this section, though.

Final Character Board

I am very happy with the final renders. I think the team looks linked but not identical, and the Catholic theme is definitely there. Since I had problems with coloring in PhotoShop before, I chose to use a more pixelated style, which is something I had been practicing more recently. Overall, I think it translated well and turned out clearer then it would have otherwise.

Each character provides something vital to the team, so they are all necessary to win/play. The idea of this reliance comes from a game called GTFO, which is designed and balanced around 4 players. In the same way, this team is designed around having all three of them, so it would probably be best to have a single player option if someone wants to run it by themselves and play all three characters at once.

Gameplay

As for gameplay, I imagine they would do well in a turn-based battler with level traversal between combats. The Bishop is necessary for damaging/killing spiritual/noncorporeal enemies (called sins), The Monk is necessary for lighting up the way and protecting The Bishop while he sets up prayers and attacks, and finally The Crusader can damage and kill physical/corporeal enemies (demons and heretics).

Story Background

Their background is shared, they all come from a small parish that has recently become plagued with possessions and rampant sin. The parish gets an anonymous message tipping them off about a cult that meets in a cave in the nearby forest. The Bishop, Peter, decides to investigate and tells The Monk, Jeremiah, about it. It is The Monk who suggests they call upon a retired crusader who lives in the village, and so The Crusader, Loken, joins them.

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