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Hello everyone,
My name is Tobi and I am the lead developer of the team behind
Above Snakes. Today, I want to talk to you about the portrayal of our main character, Aiyana, and the exciting update we have given her! We wanted to take a moment to go in depth about why we chose certain design elements for this rework and why it was important to do so.
First and foremost, we want to say that we still love the original design of Aiyana. However, over the past two years, we have noticed that she is often mistaken as a fully native character when, in actuality, Aiyana is an individual that represents both the tribes of Above Snakes and its colonists. Aiyana's father descends from a tribe while her mother is a colonist from Corpse Creek (that’s all we can say without spoiling anything). As we are nearing the eventual full release of Above Snakes, it felt more important than ever to capture the essence of both in Aiyana’s design.
Additionally, we were made aware that the original art featured some historical inaccuracies in Aiyana’s portrayal. We aimed to correct those errors. Despite Above Snakes being a work of fiction and fantasy, some design choices broke the illusion of a believable world as it didn’t properly represent the whole of Aiyana’s character or background. We are happy to say that we did our very best to amend these concerns and to better portray Aiyana as she truly is.
For the new artwork, we worked closely with Native American fans and volunteers who were kind enough to offer insight about how to best express Aiyana’s background and how to tease the larger story of Above Snakes.
We want to offer a big thank you to the Native American gaming community for assisting and consulting with us during this exciting process! A lot of thought and hard work went into this new design. We also want to thank Lyubov Kolodeznikova for bringing this vision to life in such a beautiful way.
Full Artwork by Lyubov KolodeznikovaSince we collectively put a great deal of thought and research into this new design, we want to highlight some key elements. Please keep in mind that, despite Above Snakes being a fantasy world, the game borrows heavily from the history of the American Wild West.
Firstly, we decided to stay away from feathers. Originally, we utilized feathers on Aiyana’s tomahawk and her bow but, historically, eagle feathers were considered to be a man's item.
Aiyana's dress is now a basic two-hide dress. The cream white color - due to the lack of heavily smoking the leather - are typical for Native American dresses from that period. Additionally, the dress is not heavily fringed on the sleeves. This style of dress could be anything from the northwest, Great Basin, the Great Plains, Great Lakes, and even representative of southwest cultures like the Jicarilla and Lipan Apache.
Aiyana is wearing white shell earrings that were common among many men and women west of the Mississippi River. They could be whelk shell from the southeast, wampum from the northeast, clam from the northwest, or pink concho (which is mostly white). In the southwest, it was common for men to wear headbands, but this was not a common practice for women. Therefore, we removed the headband.
Another key element to Aiyana’s updated look is her belt which would usually feature three items: a knife, a fire steel striker, and an awl. These were commonly found in historical depictions of Native American characters. In the case of Aiyana, we chose to go with a tomahawk to showcase her survival abilities - both for daily necessity and for fighting, if needed. The tomahawk was widely used by Native American tribes and is a symbol of both strength and skill.
Selection of used references.Aiyana’s leather hat is an inheritance from her colonist mother. One of the most interesting details we’ve implemented into her new look is the change to Aiyana's initial black hair. Dark brown-black hair is a typical attribute for Native women, but since Aiyana’s mother is a colonist, we painted the tips of her hair a lighter color, almost blondish. The blonder tips typically appear in women of mixed backgrounds - yet another subtle nod to our protagonist’s heritage.
We decided against the more traditional Native American braid for Aiyana and instead went a slightly different route. Aiyana now wears her hair in some braids (not historically accurate) with looser hairs to again represent both sides of her family.
Aiyana's props were reworked to better reflect the materials available at the time, along with appropriate bead patterns. Even though backpacks were not exactly a thing, we imagined what a backpack could have looked like by taking inspiration from different handbags.
In summary, we put a great deal of thought and care into updating Aiyana’s design to better represent her background and show a greater respect to the inspirations that help breathe life into the world of Above Snakes. We hope you enjoy her new look as much as we all enjoyed creating it!
Steam Cover Art
Alternative ArtworkPlease note that we will not be removing the old design associated with the game. We love and celebrate our initial rendition of Aiyana and will simply refer to that design as "Alpha Artwork." We want to encourage content creators, media, and fans to use the new design going forward when showcasing Above Snakes content.
Let us know your thoughts below! As always, thank you for following along on this incredible journey.
Cheers,
Tobi
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1589120/Above_Snakes/
