Dev Blog #1: Designing the monster girls
Hey everyone! We hope everything’s well at your side and you’re safe and healthy. We want to let you know that we’re hard at work to bring you Nigate Tale as soon as possible – stay tuned, because we will have something to say about that very soon. But in the meantime, we want to give you a sneak peek at the “backstage” of the game, where the magic is made. We want you to be (and to feel) a part of our team, to understand where we and the game come from and what we’re doing at any moment (especially during the Early Access stage that will begin soon). That is why we’re starting today a series of Dev Diary Blogs where we will discuss how we came up with certain features, or how we designed some characters, or introduce you to the team behind Nigate Tale.
Our first guest in this series is the wonderful artist 摸鱼頔, Moyudi in pinyin (the Chinese language's phonetic transcription to the Latin alphabet). He’s the artist who designed the monster girls you will find in Nigate Tale: a special kind of character that will be central to your experience in the game. These monster girls are spirit-like creatures, capable of granting you amazing magical powers – if you get on their good side and manage to befriend them.
摸鱼頔 started his career as a comic book artist until he became a full-time member of Hermit Games, the indie studio behind Nigate Tale. This is his first game, but the processes of designing a character for a comic or a video game are kinda similar – at least in the beginning. 摸鱼頔 begins with a brief backstory of the character he’s got to draw: it doesn’t need to be super detailed, but at least giving them some depth. Explaining interesting features, what kind of person they are, their idiosyncrasies… In a nutshell, what makes them tick in general.
This is the process that happened with the monster girls too. Once he got their backstories, he began the creative process by thinking about what kind of wild animal would make sense for each of them, as they all are monster-human hybrids of a sort. Each “totem” animal had to match in some way the girl’s vibes, mood and personality. Luckily, 摸鱼頔 loves animals – wild animals, deep-sea animals, and even extinct ancient creatures; he daydreams a lot about how it was when these animals, like dinosaurs, were alive!
Once he picked the right animal, he also decided on a color palette for each of them. For some, it would be warm colors (red, yellow.. the kind of colors that imply strength, light, positive emotions, but also fury and rage); for others, cold colors made more sense (like blue or green, which usually mean calmness, thoughtfulness, but also sadness and despair). Only then he beings drawing the first sketches. Just this first stage of the process can take up to 3 or 4 days.
Let’s see an example: say hello to Chrissy, the Electric Ray Girl, who happens to be 摸鱼頔’s favorite character! She won’t be included in the first Early Access build, mind you – but expect to find her further down the road. Chrissy is a contradictory woman: she’s a lovable girl, funny and witty, but with a lousy temper that she cannot always control. Based on this description, 摸鱼頔 decided to combine her “human” aspect with two sleek and beautiful, but also dangerous, animals: the electric ray and the stingray.
This is an example of a character backstory treatment 摸鱼頔 got
Once the key aspects of a character’s outfit and design are more or less decided, 摸鱼頔 draws several rough sketches. Then he proceeds to send them to the rest of the team, who decide in a vote which one they’ll keep. Here’s an example of the first 4 drafts for Chrissy:
After the team has voted their favorite design, 摸鱼頔 begins to work in earnest, fleshing the design out, adjusting all the fine details, and coloring the art until it gets to its final form. You can see below these lines the process: from the thin blue lines of the sketch to the line art inking, then the first flat colors and finally the fine details, shadows and reflections of the light. Mind the tail, designed after rays’ tails, how the bubbles around the feet reflect Chrissy’s sea nature, and how the patterns in her cloak remind of the scales and patterns you can see in rays’ skins.
Throughout the whole process, 摸鱼頔 enjoys total creative freedom. He gets to imagine every monster girl and design them to their tiniest detail, without anyone perking on his shoulder, saying him what he has to do. So far he’s enjoying the process a lot; in his own words, “drawing and designing characters is a relaxing job. To make the character we need, I have to calm down and find the most relaxing way to do it”, he explains. We think this passion for the job shines through all his designs and characters in the game!
That’s all for today; we hope you like Chrissy’s design process and you enjoyed the read. If there’s something in particular you’d like to learn about the development of Nigate Tale, don’t hesitate to leave us your suggestions in the comments of this post, or in our Discord server or through our social media channels. Stay tuned for news about Nigate Tale, and have a great day!
Our first guest in this series is the wonderful artist 摸鱼頔, Moyudi in pinyin (the Chinese language's phonetic transcription to the Latin alphabet). He’s the artist who designed the monster girls you will find in Nigate Tale: a special kind of character that will be central to your experience in the game. These monster girls are spirit-like creatures, capable of granting you amazing magical powers – if you get on their good side and manage to befriend them.
摸鱼頔 started his career as a comic book artist until he became a full-time member of Hermit Games, the indie studio behind Nigate Tale. This is his first game, but the processes of designing a character for a comic or a video game are kinda similar – at least in the beginning. 摸鱼頔 begins with a brief backstory of the character he’s got to draw: it doesn’t need to be super detailed, but at least giving them some depth. Explaining interesting features, what kind of person they are, their idiosyncrasies… In a nutshell, what makes them tick in general.
This is the process that happened with the monster girls too. Once he got their backstories, he began the creative process by thinking about what kind of wild animal would make sense for each of them, as they all are monster-human hybrids of a sort. Each “totem” animal had to match in some way the girl’s vibes, mood and personality. Luckily, 摸鱼頔 loves animals – wild animals, deep-sea animals, and even extinct ancient creatures; he daydreams a lot about how it was when these animals, like dinosaurs, were alive!
Once he picked the right animal, he also decided on a color palette for each of them. For some, it would be warm colors (red, yellow.. the kind of colors that imply strength, light, positive emotions, but also fury and rage); for others, cold colors made more sense (like blue or green, which usually mean calmness, thoughtfulness, but also sadness and despair). Only then he beings drawing the first sketches. Just this first stage of the process can take up to 3 or 4 days.
Let’s see an example: say hello to Chrissy, the Electric Ray Girl, who happens to be 摸鱼頔’s favorite character! She won’t be included in the first Early Access build, mind you – but expect to find her further down the road. Chrissy is a contradictory woman: she’s a lovable girl, funny and witty, but with a lousy temper that she cannot always control. Based on this description, 摸鱼頔 decided to combine her “human” aspect with two sleek and beautiful, but also dangerous, animals: the electric ray and the stingray.
This is an example of a character backstory treatment 摸鱼頔 gotOnce the key aspects of a character’s outfit and design are more or less decided, 摸鱼頔 draws several rough sketches. Then he proceeds to send them to the rest of the team, who decide in a vote which one they’ll keep. Here’s an example of the first 4 drafts for Chrissy:
After the team has voted their favorite design, 摸鱼頔 begins to work in earnest, fleshing the design out, adjusting all the fine details, and coloring the art until it gets to its final form. You can see below these lines the process: from the thin blue lines of the sketch to the line art inking, then the first flat colors and finally the fine details, shadows and reflections of the light. Mind the tail, designed after rays’ tails, how the bubbles around the feet reflect Chrissy’s sea nature, and how the patterns in her cloak remind of the scales and patterns you can see in rays’ skins.
Throughout the whole process, 摸鱼頔 enjoys total creative freedom. He gets to imagine every monster girl and design them to their tiniest detail, without anyone perking on his shoulder, saying him what he has to do. So far he’s enjoying the process a lot; in his own words, “drawing and designing characters is a relaxing job. To make the character we need, I have to calm down and find the most relaxing way to do it”, he explains. We think this passion for the job shines through all his designs and characters in the game!
That’s all for today; we hope you like Chrissy’s design process and you enjoyed the read. If there’s something in particular you’d like to learn about the development of Nigate Tale, don’t hesitate to leave us your suggestions in the comments of this post, or in our Discord server or through our social media channels. Stay tuned for news about Nigate Tale, and have a great day!
