Character Overview:

Left reeling after the sudden loss of their mother in a tragic accident. Struggling to pick up the pieces of their life, they retreat into isolation, abandoning all life and personal connections. One night, they find themselves pulled into a dreamlike world known as Limbo, a manifestation of their own grief.

Trapped in a surreal world shaped by their emotions, their grief threatens to consume them. Weighed down by a sense of failure and self-recrimination. Despite their sorrow, they possess a quiet strength and a lingering spark of hope, buried beneath layers of guilt and despair. They must confront the manifestations of their loss and rediscover hope, or risk forever becoming a hollow husk—a warning to others of the cost of unhealed sorrow.

Design Process

To tie into this fantasy-esque world I didn’t want my protagonist to be some regular person, especially because loss is not a human process – this is univesal. I needed to tie it into the story in a way that wraps everything up. I wanted the character to be connected to Acceptance because she appears as a tree Goddess being. I had the idea of designing a treant (a sentient, humanoid tree being with bark-like skin). Essentially, my first idea was to create a tree person. The sturdy, tree bark serves as a reflection of resilience, durability and protection of the tree tunk which is frail and vulnerable within. The protagonist is much like a tree, on the outside, strong, sharp, tough however delicate and fragile on the inside, caused by their recent loss.

This was the first character I started working on and in the beginning I had no idea of what the overall art style I wanted either, but I wanted it to be as small and as simple as possible to get the idea right.

I doodled some small ideas but nothing really stuck, and I believe that was because of the lack of inspiration and solid art style.

Then I tried something with more detail, a little less cute and blocky. Starting with the face, with a focus on wooden masks as my research point.

I started to really like the direction I was headed in but again I wasn’t totally satisfied, I took a break from the protagonist and worked on the other character designs and found a real artistic inspiration: bold, dynamic and graphic, particularly the art style in Hades. I began to use Hades’ protagonist Zagreus as my foundation, especially because he conveyed resilience and strength – exactly what I wanted my protagonist’s qualities to be.

Concept Sketches

At this point (January) I was pretty determined and sure that I knew what I wanted so I didn’t waste any time – as soon as I found a pose I liked, I was just going to go with it.

The protagonist the epitome of a grieving person. The design features reflect this through sharper shapes, tattered clothes and bold sturdy armour. These choices represent the protagonist’s toughness, endurance and resilience. While the first thought of someone who is grieving is not of someone who is neccessarily strong, the fact is that they are, this is because regardless of their pain they must continue with everyday life and that is the strongest feat of all. The tattered cloak and tabard portray everything that the character has experienced (loss) to get to this point, highlighting the difficulty of the situation.

Final Concept Design

I think this is a very strong leading character design and one that will work well in my game’s world. The playable character is one of, if not the most important character in a game and I needed it to stand out and fit the role of a fighter, in all senses of the word. I believe the design portrays heroism and courage, allowing players to feel inspired to keep going despite their losses.