Posts tagged Sprites

This week has had moments where it was slow going. But, it also has had some moments where things went very very quickly. Overall, it’s been a very good week. We should be wrapping up on all the main model roughs by tomorrow. Painting them will start next week. But, thus far, here is a small sample of what you have to look forward to. We decided to share some of the Sprite model roughs with you. As we mentioned before, Sprites are a major NPC type. So, in addition to sharing the models, we also wanted to give you a bit of information on what to expect from them.

Pearly. A living non sequitur. Handle with oven mitts.

Pearly:

We worked on Pearly quite a bit. The thing about her is that she is a very aloof girl. Pearly is a Sprite who is reponsible for the Mark of Love. She will bestow this on players who marry within The Emerald Kingdom. Despite this, it will not be unusual to find her sleeping on a bench in town, or raving incoherently about spa’s and having her nails done. She may come to a wedding and offer advice about good divorce attorney’s. She’s just that kind of fun. Sometimes inappropriate, sometimes just over the line…but lovable nontheless.

Pearly is a Sprite we had a great deal of fun designing. While a lot of it was piecing together things from photos, and elements from other sources, it ultimately came down to trying to do justice to a person who yells “FACIAL SPA TREATMENT!” for no particular reason. (Pearly is based on a person we know.)

With that kind of in your face attitude, we did not want to diminish the real value of the character with less than a full effort. Pearly is one of our favorite Sprites.  We cannot wait to drop her into Emerald Kingdom.

We hope you come to enjoy her in the game as much as we enjoyed designing her.

Malleus. Mister Machine.

Malleus:

We had a great deal of trouble designing Malleus. But then, sometimes some of the more in depth characters give you the most trouble. You start to get afraid that you are not installing a good window of insight into what the character is about. We sometimes worry that we might fail to properly present a model. Not just to the public, but to ourselves. These concept models are what we use to create the gamesprites you will see. They will influence Emerald Kingdom for years to come. The models can set the tone.

Malleus is a complex Sprite. He has some issues, but he has a heart of gold. He’s a pretty central character, and he hands out the Mark of Mecha/Machine. (We have not decided on the exact mark name yet. Don’t want to be too cliche!). Malleus is a disciplined, and orderly fellow who started life in the old days as a soldier. He understands the nature of tools to get a job done, be it technological…or a group of men.

The writer called for a Kurt Russell type of character for Malleus. While we wanted some of the Kurt Russell seriousness, in designing Malleus, we had all sorts of problems. He kept looking too much like Guile for awhile, or an unholy mixture of Kurt Russell and Guile.  Eventually, he started to emerge.  Now he looks a bit stately, and as a General from the ancient times…he was a well versed combat man.

We definitely are looking forward to seeing this one get a coat of paint.

Thrynity. Poison is poison, no matter how you dress it up.

Thrynity.

Thrynity. We had very little doubt as to how she would eventually turn out. Thrynity is one of those women who have impeccable style, and have no problem letting others know this. Thrynity doles out the Mark of Poison. The important thing to remember here is poison is not always the kind you imbibe through your mouth, or your skin. It can be mental. The Mark of Poison will be useful for the deception and criminal class of character.

When we designed Thrynity, we knew she was going to be a very pretty woman. What we did not know was whether or not she was going to be the heavy type of woman, who swings hard…and dresses like a badass. We found her though..to be better treated as subtle. Poison is subtlety in one of it’s highest forms.

Thrynity is going to be a townie. You will see her, and she will be one of those Sprites who interacts quite a bit with the people. Just remember to ask yourself if what you are hearing might be a lie wrapped in truth. Thrynity will always love dropping little bombs on people. It will be up to the player to decide how much veracity to give her.

Tellerpen. Always check to see if the dice are loaded.

Tellerpen.

Tellerpen has an interesting history. Early in development, it was recognized that a “Trickster” was going to be needed. Loki has been done to death, and nobody wanted Rumpelstiltskin. In our development wiki, he started out with the name Loki, despite nobody wanting it. Time went on and as we started to develop Kerix, Tellerpen started to take shape.

Named after Penn and Teller, he is the pinnacle in now you see it, now you don’t. Thats why he is the bearer of the Mark of Trickery. It will be another useful mark for those people who enjoy criminality, or deception classes.  While Tellerpen will definitely been on the lookout for people to beguile, it’s important to realize that while he will be a pain, he is not stripped of Altruism. He just loves the thrill of the better mental mousetrap. He is the type to play with his food, but he may at least make it enjoyable for the prey as well.

Trickery with no soul, at the core of it is evil personified We have one of those. Kerix. Tellerpen is more concerned with simply having fun at the expense of others, or having fun playing one group against another and standing back to watch the outcome. He will be another Sprite to keep an eye out for…if only to be careful.

Beatrice. Note that she is still not a soccer mom.

Beatrice.

Now that we have thrown out some of the medium to heavy hitters in the Sprite category, I thought we might also throw out a finished model we did this week. We have always had an issue with the original Beatrice models. They were too happy, too buoyant. They never matched the style we had developed using Avatea.  We tried more than a few times from scratch with Beatrice. Each time, we wound up putting her aside to do other things.  That all changed this week. We finally managed to capture the mother of Confusia and Paranoia. We brought her out, and gave her a look that tells you what Beatrice is all about.

Now she looks like she has the experience of her many years. She looks like she has the mileage you would expect her too. Young looking. Her eyes look older than she does. That’s an important feature. Beatrice holds the Mark of Mind. She is more balanced than you might think. She sees things in ways nobody else does. While she has a great deal of concern for her children, she shelters them a bit too much. If you look into her eyes you can see why: she thinks by sheltering them she can avoid them having her eyes. Note also, we removed her broad belt, moved her keepsake to a necklace, and added some embroidery to her pants. All in all…a great new design we are satisfied with, and completely in love with.

We have to say, we have been enjoying this week of Concept Artwork. We are nearly at the point where we have everything we need for version 1. Once we get this week’s work done, it will be time to create gamesprites, textrures, etc from the models we have produced this week. In short, we still have a lot of work. But we are many steps closer now.

To celebrate the new Beatrice model, we are going to re-issue her wallpapers with the new artwork. Enjoy.

Wallpaper Promo 1

Wallpaper Promo 2