My Lovely Wife Devlog #4: Breaking Down the Character Design Process
Good day, everyone. Back again with me, Lasheli, in another devlog of My Lovely Wife! Previously, we've talked about the behind-the-scenes of the game's environmental design here. Now, I want to give you a close look at another artsy aspect of the game: character design.
For that, I invited Yosi (YozhMan), one of the artists of My Lovely Wife who has worked hard on bringing the characters alive. We're going to talk a lot about the succubi here, so don't miss this one out!
[h3]1. For starters, please tell us about yourself.[/h3]
Hello, I'm Yosi, My Lovely Wife's artist.
Originally, I'm a comic artist/freelance illustrator. There's where I get the experience of designing characters, actually.
GameChanger Studio is the first place where I get to experience being a full-time game developer. It wasn't easy at first. The tight deadlines and complex workflow were really unfamiliar to me, but I have to adapt as fast as I could. In game development, a design can go through several iterations, revisions, and needs to get broken down in detail in the art design document/model sheet.
(Jake's character sheet)
However, going through all those processes has made me a more detailed person. It's kind of amazing that I'm actually able to remember the characteristics of each character, starting from the costume, coloring, and even the thickness of the line art.
[h3]2. Have you been working on My Lovely Wife's character design since the beginning?[/h3]
Actually, I was working on revamping the UI first. Since I just joined the studio in 2019, right after the project was getting picked up again. There's a lot that has to be revamped/redesigned. It was my first time working on designing UI, to boot.
Some times after that, I was given the opportunity for polishing/designing the game's characters, which includes the 3 main characters and 20 succubi, each with their own unique characteristics.
(Left: Luna's polished design, right: the old design.)
[h3]3. Tell us the process of designing a character in My Lovely Wife.[/h3]
It always began from the character's concept written by the writer. From there, I begin my research and collect some references to help visualize the look of the character. I usually would make three designs (sketches) and I'd let the team choose their favorite. The chosen sketch would then get cleaned up and colored so that I can continue filling up the character sheet and break down the assets for animation purposes.
(Part of the character concept from the writer)
(Visual representation of the concept)
[h3]4. Did you design all the characters?[/h3]
No. It was Raswan and me. As for the succubi, each of us was assigned to design 10 of them, since there are a total of 20 of them. As for the NPCs, we have the interns work on them under our guidance.
Oh, and I also designed two secret characters that will be revealed in the main story, so make sure to play the game until the end when it's launched!
[h3]5. What do you find most enjoyable when designing a character? And what character is your favorite to design?[/h3]
For me, it's when I'm allowed to add various elements from my favorite genres like fantasy and sci-fi into the design to accentuate the character's personality. Take the Enyo, for example. She has this fantasy vibe in her design to help shape a "menacing" and "powerful" look to complement her small body. The Enyo is one of the characters I love to design because I took lots of references from my favorite franchises.
(Enyo's reference sheet. Can you name all the characters?)
[h3]6. What are the challenges you faced in designing My Lovely Wife's characters?[/h3]
The biggest challenge would be in how to fully depict the character's personality through the visual concept. There are lots of aspects that have to be considered, starting from the basic shapes, costumes, colors, to body posture.
After we have a fixed design, comes another challenge. Since the characters have to be animated, Raswan and I need to break down the parts of the body. The more complex the design is, the more the breaking down process takes time.
Among all the characters, I think the Lyst is the most difficult to break down. Lyst is one of the succubi that has been created before - two years ago when the game's prototype was still in progress. Since she has long and forked hair tentacles, I had to break down all of it and it took so much time.
(Left: Lyst's updated design, right: the old design)
(Lyst's animation breakdown)
[h3]7. Anything you want to say to the future players?[/h3]
I hope that people will like the characters that we designed so much that they can appear in other media, besides our game. I mean, it would be lovely if I could see fanarts of the characters in My Lovely Wife out there someday. It means that players really got attached to them.
---
It would be really exciting if in the future we can see players talking and even creating brand-new art out of the characters that we created! I hope Yosi's wish can come true. ☺
My Lovely Wife is planned to be released in early 2022 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox.
Follow us on twitter: @MLWthegame
Thank you for reading, and see you on the next devlog!
For that, I invited Yosi (YozhMan), one of the artists of My Lovely Wife who has worked hard on bringing the characters alive. We're going to talk a lot about the succubi here, so don't miss this one out!
[h3]1. For starters, please tell us about yourself.[/h3]
Hello, I'm Yosi, My Lovely Wife's artist.
Originally, I'm a comic artist/freelance illustrator. There's where I get the experience of designing characters, actually.
GameChanger Studio is the first place where I get to experience being a full-time game developer. It wasn't easy at first. The tight deadlines and complex workflow were really unfamiliar to me, but I have to adapt as fast as I could. In game development, a design can go through several iterations, revisions, and needs to get broken down in detail in the art design document/model sheet.
(Jake's character sheet)However, going through all those processes has made me a more detailed person. It's kind of amazing that I'm actually able to remember the characteristics of each character, starting from the costume, coloring, and even the thickness of the line art.
[h3]2. Have you been working on My Lovely Wife's character design since the beginning?[/h3]
Actually, I was working on revamping the UI first. Since I just joined the studio in 2019, right after the project was getting picked up again. There's a lot that has to be revamped/redesigned. It was my first time working on designing UI, to boot.
Some times after that, I was given the opportunity for polishing/designing the game's characters, which includes the 3 main characters and 20 succubi, each with their own unique characteristics.
(Left: Luna's polished design, right: the old design.)[h3]3. Tell us the process of designing a character in My Lovely Wife.[/h3]
It always began from the character's concept written by the writer. From there, I begin my research and collect some references to help visualize the look of the character. I usually would make three designs (sketches) and I'd let the team choose their favorite. The chosen sketch would then get cleaned up and colored so that I can continue filling up the character sheet and break down the assets for animation purposes.
(Part of the character concept from the writer)
(Visual representation of the concept)[h3]4. Did you design all the characters?[/h3]
No. It was Raswan and me. As for the succubi, each of us was assigned to design 10 of them, since there are a total of 20 of them. As for the NPCs, we have the interns work on them under our guidance.
Oh, and I also designed two secret characters that will be revealed in the main story, so make sure to play the game until the end when it's launched!
[h3]5. What do you find most enjoyable when designing a character? And what character is your favorite to design?[/h3]
For me, it's when I'm allowed to add various elements from my favorite genres like fantasy and sci-fi into the design to accentuate the character's personality. Take the Enyo, for example. She has this fantasy vibe in her design to help shape a "menacing" and "powerful" look to complement her small body. The Enyo is one of the characters I love to design because I took lots of references from my favorite franchises.
(Enyo's reference sheet. Can you name all the characters?)[h3]6. What are the challenges you faced in designing My Lovely Wife's characters?[/h3]
The biggest challenge would be in how to fully depict the character's personality through the visual concept. There are lots of aspects that have to be considered, starting from the basic shapes, costumes, colors, to body posture.
After we have a fixed design, comes another challenge. Since the characters have to be animated, Raswan and I need to break down the parts of the body. The more complex the design is, the more the breaking down process takes time.
Among all the characters, I think the Lyst is the most difficult to break down. Lyst is one of the succubi that has been created before - two years ago when the game's prototype was still in progress. Since she has long and forked hair tentacles, I had to break down all of it and it took so much time.
(Left: Lyst's updated design, right: the old design)
(Lyst's animation breakdown)
[h3]7. Anything you want to say to the future players?[/h3]
I hope that people will like the characters that we designed so much that they can appear in other media, besides our game. I mean, it would be lovely if I could see fanarts of the characters in My Lovely Wife out there someday. It means that players really got attached to them.
---
It would be really exciting if in the future we can see players talking and even creating brand-new art out of the characters that we created! I hope Yosi's wish can come true. ☺
My Lovely Wife is planned to be released in early 2022 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox.
Follow us on twitter: @MLWthegame
Thank you for reading, and see you on the next devlog!
(GameChanger team back in 2018. From left to right: Faiz, Raswan, Bonar, Riris, Dodick, Roderick, Daru)
(My Lovely Daughter's cityscape)
(My Lovely Wife's (prototype) cityscape)
(My Lovely Wife's current cityscape)
(The early prototype version of Jake's room)
(The prototype version of Jake's room)
(The current version of Jake's room)
(Might and Magic Heroes VII's cityscape)
(Bourges Cathedral, France)
(Left: The Hallowed Shrine, Right: Charm School)