HANSIANS: BEHIND THE SCENES
We just unlocked the Hansian species as one of our stretch goals for our Kickstarter. We have been working on developing the other species we want in the game for a long time now, and have always hoped to have eight in place. Eagle-eyed players spotted the appearance of a Hansian in our recently posted lore story “Interdicted.”
When we started out, we set in place some guidelines for player species:
We had to stick to relatively humanoid shapes, so that we can share all the clothing and other assets across all of them. For a small studio, having eight times the load on every player animation, piece of clothing, or hairstyle would be prohibitive. We knew that players would probably be a bit unhappy about this, because everyone loves variety, but it’s just a reality of development.
We also wanted each species to represent a bit of a personality archetype we could play with – something easy for players to identify with, but also something they could contradict and play against. For the Hansians, this is very much about being a free-spirited, go-with-the-flow people.Many of the concepts we worked on didn’t have that vibe: they instead came across as stern, or old, or threatening, none of which were the personality type we wanted.
Lastly, we also want all our player species to be cosplayable on a budget. There are designs that are just outright very hard to make work as costumes, and we want to think for the long term and plan for success.
For all of our species, we have been quietly running focus tests with small groups for years now. A lot of the images you see in this article are from those tests. We would provide a few alternates to the panels, we’d ask them to rank them against each other and also against other species, and so on. The written feedback would inform the directions we took.
Our earliest versions were very very fishlike, but feedback showed that relatively few people actually want to play as something quite that alien. The farther you go from human, the more important it is that the result be compellingly cute or appealing in some way.
The breakthrough came with the image above, what we ended up calling the “princess” take on the species. We had always wanted to reflect the colorful variety of tropical fish. In fact, we used cosplay reference where the cosplayer used glitter makeup applied through netting to create the illusion of scales. That ended up reflected in the speckled pattern on the forehead.
That first take was visually appealing and hit the marks we were aiming for, but it wasn’t really set up to work with character customization, which adds an additional layer of constraints. This is where you move from pure concept work unbound by restrictions and more in the direction of pre-production, where you have to make some compromises in order to achieve the feature set you want. So the next stage was all about iterating in ways that got us the features and still captured the spirit we wanted.
In the end, we are pretty happy with where we landed – including the ways in which we can push color, support diverse hairstyles, and support varied body shapes.
[h2]HOMEWORLD: BONSURF[/h2]
[h3]CULTURE[/h3]
Hansians learned to “go with the flow” from their nomadic ancestors. Once one large tribe, Ancient Hansians learned to live with the whim of their planet, whose weather patterns and currents left Hansians sailing in search of dry ground. The nature of change and “going where the water [i.e., life] takes you” is something Hansians appreciate, and everyone from philosophers to artists to scientists to pop singers have waxed poetic about it.
Hansians are also big on sharing, something else they learned from their ancestors. Because Ancient Hansians were often low on resources, if they did not make sure everybody had enough to eat or proper clothing, friends and family wouldn’t survive. While sharing is an important part of Hansian culture, there is a phenomenon dubbed “Hansian caring,” which is the equivalent to the Terran “Minnesota nice.” Sometimes, one just wants to be selfish, even though it’s taboo. Hansians are great at hiding their selfishness and willingness to not want to share.
Homeworld Bonsurf limited Hansians to mostly seafood, fruits, and vegetables. Going off-world exposed them to the wonders of other cuisines and ingredients, and many Hansians consider themselves foodies. Hansians have their own takes on the cuisines they’ve been introduced to. They find noodle and pasta dishes especially versatile and an excellent showcase for traditional Hansian ingredients. Hansian ramens are popular dishes across the Garden.
When we started out, we set in place some guidelines for player species:
We had to stick to relatively humanoid shapes, so that we can share all the clothing and other assets across all of them. For a small studio, having eight times the load on every player animation, piece of clothing, or hairstyle would be prohibitive. We knew that players would probably be a bit unhappy about this, because everyone loves variety, but it’s just a reality of development.
We also wanted each species to represent a bit of a personality archetype we could play with – something easy for players to identify with, but also something they could contradict and play against. For the Hansians, this is very much about being a free-spirited, go-with-the-flow people.Many of the concepts we worked on didn’t have that vibe: they instead came across as stern, or old, or threatening, none of which were the personality type we wanted.
Lastly, we also want all our player species to be cosplayable on a budget. There are designs that are just outright very hard to make work as costumes, and we want to think for the long term and plan for success.
For all of our species, we have been quietly running focus tests with small groups for years now. A lot of the images you see in this article are from those tests. We would provide a few alternates to the panels, we’d ask them to rank them against each other and also against other species, and so on. The written feedback would inform the directions we took.
Our earliest versions were very very fishlike, but feedback showed that relatively few people actually want to play as something quite that alien. The farther you go from human, the more important it is that the result be compellingly cute or appealing in some way.
The breakthrough came with the image above, what we ended up calling the “princess” take on the species. We had always wanted to reflect the colorful variety of tropical fish. In fact, we used cosplay reference where the cosplayer used glitter makeup applied through netting to create the illusion of scales. That ended up reflected in the speckled pattern on the forehead.
That first take was visually appealing and hit the marks we were aiming for, but it wasn’t really set up to work with character customization, which adds an additional layer of constraints. This is where you move from pure concept work unbound by restrictions and more in the direction of pre-production, where you have to make some compromises in order to achieve the feature set you want. So the next stage was all about iterating in ways that got us the features and still captured the spirit we wanted.
In the end, we are pretty happy with where we landed – including the ways in which we can push color, support diverse hairstyles, and support varied body shapes.
[h2]HOMEWORLD: BONSURF[/h2]
[h3]CULTURE[/h3]
Hansians learned to “go with the flow” from their nomadic ancestors. Once one large tribe, Ancient Hansians learned to live with the whim of their planet, whose weather patterns and currents left Hansians sailing in search of dry ground. The nature of change and “going where the water [i.e., life] takes you” is something Hansians appreciate, and everyone from philosophers to artists to scientists to pop singers have waxed poetic about it.
Hansians are also big on sharing, something else they learned from their ancestors. Because Ancient Hansians were often low on resources, if they did not make sure everybody had enough to eat or proper clothing, friends and family wouldn’t survive. While sharing is an important part of Hansian culture, there is a phenomenon dubbed “Hansian caring,” which is the equivalent to the Terran “Minnesota nice.” Sometimes, one just wants to be selfish, even though it’s taboo. Hansians are great at hiding their selfishness and willingness to not want to share.
Homeworld Bonsurf limited Hansians to mostly seafood, fruits, and vegetables. Going off-world exposed them to the wonders of other cuisines and ingredients, and many Hansians consider themselves foodies. Hansians have their own takes on the cuisines they’ve been introduced to. They find noodle and pasta dishes especially versatile and an excellent showcase for traditional Hansian ingredients. Hansian ramens are popular dishes across the Garden.