@EVF Thank you! As much as I enjoy working on characters, there is something special and relaxing about drawing rocks and trees, which are some of my favorite subjects.
@audi100 Thank you! But the references I had to go through to get the end result... lets just say I'm glad my desk is in the corner of the room (in the game studio) where nobody can see my monitors, haha.
Krivomjeri, these guys live in our creepy forest level as well. They turn invisible and like to stabby-stab any trespassers so make sure you dont forget your garlic for your next picnic there.
Ognik and his friends are enemies in our dark forest level. They are wandering souls that cannot leave this world after a lifetime of greed, wrongdoing and other unmentionable sins.
Farmer Dobromir, poor guy, he has everything a man could wish for, except a faithful wife, reason why he puts in more hours into his work. That doesn't go unnoticed since the other villagers look to him as if he was a rockstar of farming. I made that up but I would like to think that this is his backstory.
@marsilainen Thanks, it's kind of you to say so. I try to hint some volume in my work but sometimes I have the feeling that it's more 2D looking than it should. Maybe it's all in my head.
Old Baba Miroslawa, a widow that has a quest for our protagonist. Is he the lucky one to turn her frown upside down? Find out in a following episode of "Yaga"
Cluckzilla lays some huge a*s eggs. What would you do with one? Make an omelette for the whole village, make a huge a*s cake, or just throw it at your worst enemy? So many choices!
Here's another vodyanoy, this time with a bit more style. He may live deep in the swamp but he sure has a larger vocabulary than the rest of his neighbors. He's unique and may ask questions first and fight later, not the other way around like his friends.
Here are the concepts I made for the poor farmer, one of the NPC villagers. When deciding on the lucky winner, we liked one of the silhouettes but the head was too close to some of our other male characters, the beard + bald head combo. In the end we kept the body but replaced the head with one of the scytheweilding peasants (kept the bald head though)
@Olingova Thanks for the kind words but good advice/feedback/suggestions can come from anywhere. Sometimes I receive helpfull feedback from people that have nothing to do with art, maybe because they digest the work in a different way. Sometimes, just having an extra pair of eyes is enough to make a difference since they haven't been exposed to the work for multiple hours and some issues are more obvious to them. I sometimes comment on other people's work with "I would love to see some X or Y in the piece as well", no harm done. My point is that if you have anything to add, you should feel free to do so.
This is the village priest, an honorable fellow, loving and carring... or is he? Does he spread LIES or DIVINE TRUTH? To be honest, I would like to know the answer myself.
Absolutely love what you're doing. If I were to describe your design choices in word it would read very somber and horrifying yet this specific style in which you've rendered them makes them so bizarrely beautiful, almost like a fairytale for adults.
Seriously, your works are really inspiring! Thanks for sharing with us
@Doodlok Your comment is very moving and I would like to thank you for the kind words. You have described my work in a very interesting way because I would start describing the characters as being goofy with a layer of humor. I do agree with you though, for this project I have been constantly trying to balance design with creepiness and charm. One of my fears is that some characters might look too ridiculous, but if once in a while someone uses the word "horrifying", then I think I shouldn't worry too much. Thanks again and I will post more work when I am able to!
Time to dust off the cobweb on this thread! The game has just been announced and I'll be posting some of my work that went into it. I'll start off with this Douchebag Tree character. I swear, whenever I try to think up of hard wood jokes, nothing comes to mind. We'll do without this time.
Time for more concepts, this time Morozko, a frost lord from the Frozen Peaks level. It's always fun to integrate elements like ice, water, fire etc into characters, one of the reasons why I usually like these type of concepts in MMORPGs, because every one of these games has at least a few of these type of creatures. TERA is one favorite that comes to mind.
Striga is an annoying enemy from the game and she flies in bringing
semirandom reinforcements, if left alonge for too long she will flood
the room with all kind of enemies and some combinations can be a real
problem, but I think that's what makes her one of the most interesting
creatures in the game because there is always an element of freshness.
The Stuhac Pummeler is an enemy type from the Frozen Peaks, where the stuhac faction lives. The only piece of information I received before starting to work on these guys was that we wanted a level in the game called "Crystal Mountains", hence the crystal weapons. The strong old geezer look really appealed to me and I'm a big fan of Genryusai Yamamoto and Master Roshi, so it instantly clicked for me. I will be posting more stuhac concepts soon.
This is one of those annoying enemies that multiplies when you hit them. Before this was a fly but we recently decided update the visuals since the old were a bit dated and I made 4 different skins for 4 different environments. This creature is fairly small I didn't do anything crazy with the design for the sake of readability.
I post a lot of enemy concepts, but this time I have some human NPCs to show. They are made of modular pieces, easy to combine and make use of the same animations. A lot of the other human NPCs have the same type of structure but with even more pieces, and I'll be posting those pretty soon as well.
This Vodnik is a vodyanoi the player will encounter multiple times, healing and buffing enemy units and making things worse for our protagonist. His belly is green because he is literally full of heals and magic juices for his friends.
There's something fun and special about drawing animals. Mother nature has the best design and it's hard to argue otherwise.
These are some of the bears I made for Yaga, you can find them in certain quests or simply running around and getting lucky. Somebody toucha mah spaghette?
Spawns of Satan ready to feast on virgin blood and bring forth the darkest night ever to fall upon mankind...mwahaHA! ooooooor just some average goats that are part of a quest.
Yaga is finally out on Steam! To celebrate, here are some of the modular NPCs from the game. They have a ton of different bodyparts, clothing pieces, accessories, weapons, hairstyle, facial features, etc. This heps us to achieve a lot of variety. I will be posting more of this kind of work. Cheers! If a 2D roguelike RPG set in an Eastern European world sound interesting to you, try it out here
Koschei, one of my favorite characters from the game that I've worked on. Since he's a boss, we could do more with him visually compared to other enemies. Real fun for me at least!
Nightingale the Robber. The Yaga bosses are the the characters that received the most attention, not just from a visual perspective but also regarding the combat mechanics. I like many of the concepts from a design point of view, but as I progressed, the character began looking more like a boss and less like an insignificant minion, which was a good thing.
Replies
Krivomjeri, these guys live in our creepy forest level as well. They turn invisible and like to stabby-stab any trespassers so make sure you dont forget your garlic for your next picnic there.
I made that up but I would like to think that this is his backstory.
Old Baba Miroslawa, a widow that has a quest for our protagonist. Is he the lucky one to turn her frown upside down? Find out in a following episode of "Yaga"
Work work work... that's all this little farmer girl thinks about.
She is part of the village NPC pack, doing her thing like a busy little bee.
When deciding on the lucky winner, we liked one of the silhouettes but the head was too close to some of our other male characters, the beard + bald head combo.
In the end we kept the body but replaced the head with one of the scytheweilding peasants (kept the bald head though)
This is the village priest, an honorable fellow, loving and carring... or is he? Does he spread LIES or DIVINE TRUTH?
To be honest, I would like to know the answer myself.
Seriously, your works are really inspiring! Thanks for sharing with us
Your comment is very moving and I would like to thank you for the kind words.
You have described my work in a very interesting way because I would start describing the characters as being goofy with a layer of humor. I do agree with you though, for this project I have been constantly trying to balance design with creepiness and charm.
One of my fears is that some characters might look too ridiculous, but if once in a while someone uses the word "horrifying", then I think I shouldn't worry too much.
Thanks again and I will post more work when I am able to!
I'll start off with this Douchebag Tree character. I swear, whenever I try to think up of hard wood jokes, nothing comes to mind. We'll do without this time.
Meet the Poleviks, genetic jackpots that won't think twice about punching nonbelievers!
A few different weapon skins and heads for variety.
Striga is an annoying enemy from the game and she flies in bringing semirandom reinforcements, if left alonge for too long she will flood the room with all kind of enemies and some combinations can be a real problem, but I think that's what makes her one of the most interesting creatures in the game because there is always an element of freshness.
His belly is green because he is literally full of heals and magic juices for his friends.
Somebody toucha mah spaghette?
ooooooor just some average goats that are part of a quest.
To celebrate, here are some of the modular NPCs from the game. They have a ton of different bodyparts, clothing pieces, accessories, weapons, hairstyle, facial features, etc. This heps us to achieve a lot of variety. I will be posting more of this kind of work. Cheers!
If a 2D roguelike RPG set in an Eastern European world sound interesting to you, try it out here
I like many of the concepts from a design point of view, but as I progressed, the character began looking more like a boss and less like an insignificant minion, which was a good thing.