Industry Practice: Character Sprites

 Industry Practice: Character Sprites

For my final sprites, I wanted to see how we formatted the game and what the layout would look like within it - I did this because I wanted to be able to design my sprites accurately for the aspect ratio/ zoom etc.

Damian did some experimentation with how things would be placed in game with The Hound (Fayes character). After some discussion (and some adjustment to colours for each character to be seperated), the final layout was this.

With all this in mind, I began working with what I already had in terms of my character to match this aspect ratio as I moved towards the design phase. Before that though, I asked for feedback regarding this design from before.

So overall, I am going to try to lean more to a bluish colour palette to avoid sharing a primary colour with the other characters. This is a minor adjustment that I will do whilst completing my sprites.

For the list of sprites we settled on, we need:

Neutral Sprite (maybe variations)

Negative Sprite

Negative End sprite

Positive Sprite

Positive End sprite

I confirmed this with my group to make absolutely sure this is what was needed.

For my first versions, I focused on getting the initial expressions down before developing them. I wanted to do this so it would be less time consuming to change, whilst also being able to show the group my sprites for feedback.

These first two are the first versions of my neutral sprites. I opted for two variations, so the jester seems more lively in dialogue.

I also did two variations for the positive sprite, so they can alternate within the dialogue with the character for the same reason as the neutral variations.

Finally for the first versions, I made a separate negative sprite. I relied on body language within the sprite to come across negatively due to the mask obscuring the face.

After showing the sprites to the director, this is the feedback I received.

To respond to the feedback, I wanted to make maskless sprites for the good ending - before that, I wanted to create a sprite sheet, where I will label which one is which and change the line art to remove the sketchy look.

For the sprites here, I feel like I did a good job of removing the sketchy look of the sprites. They still have elements that persist with the arms for example having a different line art colour, but overall I think this adds to the look and art style here.

After this, I showed the director again for further feedback:

Overall, my goal now was to change the lineart again to match up better with the other sprites from my group, as well as properly format everything.

After changing everything that I set out to change, I showed the director again, who was happy with what I had.

From this point, I decided to slightly alter the sprites again, adding some extra lines and giving them a cleaner feel, especially when compared to the first versions.

From this point, now with myself and my group happy with the state of the sprites, I created the maskless sprites for the good ending using the same format. There were two versions should the team decide they like one over the other.

Overall I am really happy with these sprites, and with my team satisfied with them, I now move onto the additional assets, such as the characters room as a background.