Clara is a trapezist and loves being high up in the air. She is quite reserved and quiet but as soon as she steps foot on stage, you can see the level of professionalism. She likes to keep to herself most of the time and appreciates the quiet once in a while. Because of this, she gets along with Bozo the clown very well. She also likes cute frilly costumes but as it’s a hazard to her health being so high up and doing dangerous tricks, she is prohibited from wearing anything that would get in the way of her performance. However, she still collects dresses and wears them inside of her trailer.
Finalised Design
For Clara, I initially used purple but it clashed with the pink hair too much and I didn’t like the look of it. As mentioned, Clara can’t wear skirts that are too long or anything that gets in the way as she performs, so I’ve designed a see through skirt that goes over her leotard, this showcases a bit of her personality.
Finch is a fire performer at the circus and one of the oldest at age 45. Finch is a loud and boisterous character, he loves talking to his crewmates and always checks up on them after their acts, offering them food that he personally makes. Finch has a family but can only see them once a week due to his line of work, he sees his circus crew as his secondary family.
Finalised Design
In comparison to the other characters, I kept Finch’s design relatively simple as when all the characters are displayed on screen, I don’t want to overload the player with too much design information. The one thing that separates Finch from the other characters is that he wears eye make up for his performance. To make him look like a fire performer, I added some fire patterns to his trousers and paired it with a red waist coat for some colour harmony.
Bozo the clown is part of the crew in Cirque du Pénombre, his act consists of making other people laugh at his health and dignity at stake. Although on stage he has a lively and joyful demeanour, there is nothing more in the world he wants more than to lock himself up in his trailer and watch his favourite TV show. His crewmates have no idea that he enjoys watching colourful ponies on screen fixing problems about friendship; if anyone were to find out, he would dig a hole 6 feet under and bury himself alive. Bozo has a very conflicting relationship with his occupation, he hates his job but appreciates the comfort his crewmates give him and doesn’t want to leave.
At this point of my design journey, I wanted to be more efficient with my time, so instead of making warm up sketches, I went straight into the action. I also chose images I was sure I was going to use for my design concepts, I chose images for my concept that I would use for certain and incorporate that into my design.
Finalised Design
This is my finalised design for Bozo, for his costume, I took inspiration from real clown costumes. I noted down that the clown costumes were large and loose, like it doesn’t fit the wearer. Finally, I added the stereotypical oversized clown shoes.
Nola is protagonist of No Entry After Midnight, the player is first introduced to her whilst she’s still on the streets. Nola although is a capable individual, doesn’t mean she wants to be alone again, especially after discovering a life after living on the streets for so long. For her aesthetics, I want to make her look unisex, whilst still keeping some feminine aspects to incorporate in her design. Out of all the NPCs in the game, she will have the most outfits; I want to make a pre-circus life design, her main circus costume and another costume that she borrows from Wendy (this can only be achieved when she reaches a certain friendship threshold with her).
Initial Plan
Starting off with the main costume, I want to incorporate really fluffy materials, whilst making it look tomboyish. I started collecting some images that I think may be useful for my design journey, from what I can gather here, I want to make a costume where Nola is able to move freely but still look part of the circus.
Design Warm-ups
Here, I did a few more design warm ups, as we can see, I have incorporated shorts / bloomers in my iterations. When I look to making my finalised design, I want to design Nola in gender neutral clothes.
Finalised Design
This is the design I worked hard on, I used some images from my mood board and went on Pinterest to find new images to help me with my vision. In regards to Nola’s colour palette, I wanted to use primary colours, later on I felt that the red top / blouse made her look like an “angry” character, so I changed it.
Finally, I came up with this. I like this colour palette more as it uses primary colours and it makes her character appear more soft.
It’s a well known fact that humans are social creatures, but why are we? To answer this question simply, it’s because humans from an early age- cavemen -have realised that you are more likely to survive in larger groups than being alone, especially when faced by a predator. But now that humans are facing the modern era, there are a plethora of reasons why someone would want company from another. In this post, I will be delving into the topic of why as humans, do we need connection?
I have looked at this video on why humans need connection and taken notes:
The cruelest thing about mental illness is that it has the ability to strip us of the belief that someone can suffer the same path we do. It isn’t egotistical, we are bound to a feeling that we are all condemned to uniquely awful scenario. When the thoughts of feeling unacceptable, useless and alone start to flood out minds, we start to isolate ourselves and run away from the people that we love the most. Plans become impossible to attend as we gradually develop the dear of being judged by our peers. A simple task such as talking to someone becomes out of the question because, how are we meant to focus on what the other person is talking about when all consuming thoughts take over our minds? An intrusive whisper would come tell us to die. Telling a friend would be another tortuous task as what would they think of the friend that was once lively and energetic? The assumption of no one on Earth can possibly understand what it’s like to be someone like us.
This way of thinking is particularly cruel, as the only antidote for mental illness is company. A mental illness can prevent access to what someone that needs a connection needs the most.
The Disappointed Souls – Ferdinand Hodler 1891
This painting depicts 5 figures in various states of depression. Although Hodler doesn’t outright say why the figures are feeling this way, his painting invites the viewer to come down to their own conclusions. Even though the men are sitting only centimetres away from each other, they may as well be in different rooms. It should be so easy for them to lend out a comforting hand and ask how they are doing, but fellowship is impossible in this painting as their depressive thoughts seem to have coddled them up, trapping them in their own worlds.
We start to heal when we realise that there is someone as complicated as we are, and reach out to a similar person and share stories of our lament. In a room where the lonely and depressed could collect, they would take turns revealing the emotional turmoil in their minds, detailing the newest challenges. whether that be sleepless nights, the inability to eat, the fear of being seen by the public eye and the overbearing voice telling them to kill themselves. Although the material would be dark, hearing that someone may be suffering the same problems as another does, would be a relieving feeling.
How is this relevant to my project?
Diving into why humans need connection is imperative to this project as connection is the driving force for the protagonist. As she has grown up alone on the streets, she doesn’t know what it’s like to have a close bond with anyone. When the game progresses and she is tasked with a main goal, she’ll do whatever it takes to get to that goal, even if it means sacrificing her own life as being dead is almost being the same as returning back to her previous lifestyle.
One of the underlying themes I want to incorporate into my game is bonds and friendships with people. I want to be able to move my player emotionally and feel happy when the protagonist makes a friend or talks to someone.
