Character artwork: Mil #3
I showcased the new concept art for the female character (Mil).
I have always wanted to have my own pixel art characters. Now I'm making things reality thought the help of talented artists that I've found on the Internet. This first concept was extremely helpful in finding out what I want to achieve look wise. I realized that concept art is extremely important (if you have budget, iterate on that). It's much easier to find other talented artists when you already have a blueprint and know what you want from them.
The second concept has a very interesting perspective. I call it 2.5d - I'm pretty sure that is technically incorrect - it's actually more like top-down. I fell in love with it although it required a re-budgeting of the whole project.
I also learned that without a proper Game Design Document most of the artists are puzzled about the requirements. Having one in place is tedious in the beginning when you just want to test really fast your concepts. As the time goes by you need one. Imagine having invested in 50 assets and then you need 4-5 more in the same style BUT from a different artist.
In order to not repeat yourself and lose time with explanations like "use 2px wide stroke", "use warm colors", "light comes from this direction", etc, etc - you just create some GDDs and add explanations on those (more on this on a future post).
I asked people that visited the stream what they think about the new character.
Here is the full game dev log: