Concept Art Drafts

For his initial character design/sketch, I took inspiration from 50s superhero comics as the men look very traditionally masculine (e.g. square jawlines, mature-looking, low-set brows, etc). However, this art style would end up not matching what I had in mind for Genevieve’s and Angelie’s character designs, and to have cohesiveness, I decided not to stick with this style. I would still like to incorporate elements of this stoic sort of design into his character. After looking at more modern comic character designs from animated shows, I found this aligned better with the other characters’ styles. Modern animated superhero designs, although still emphasising muscles and V-shaped bodies, looked much more cartoonish – balancing out the exaggerated body types of the female characters in my game.

Arthur De Pins (mentioned in Art Direction) heavily inspired the character designs: flat colours, simplified shading, etc.

Since I already had pre-existing characters from films in mind to inspire the character, I didn’t have a lot of trouble getting started. Previously mentioned in the research for his character, Titanic’s Cal Hockley influenced John’s appearance. Cal wears a pinky ring, has slicked-back hair and hooded eyes.

I aimed for John to look like a stereotypical straitlaced 1950s businessman through his dark-coloured pinstripe suit, oxford shoes and slicked-back hair (see finished design in Art section of GDD). Despite the game taking place in the late 1950s, John sticks to early 50s fashion trends for business wear (mature and sombre suits) which implies his belief in sticking to tradition. To convey his affluence, he is wearing a watch, pinky ring, and is smoking a cigarette (could also be changed to a cigar). The watch was specifically modelled after the Omega Speedmaster ref. CK2998 which was released in the 50s. Omega was the preferred watch brand among many during the 1950s, beating Rolex which wasn’t as popular at the time. It was considered the most capable and well-admired mechanical stopwatch money could buy (Altieri, P. (2020). The Most Popular Vintage Watches From the 1950s | Bob’s Watches).

Pinky rings have multiple meanings such as family heritage and social status, a symbol of sexual preference or a symbol of being a member of an exclusive fraternity/club/organization depending on the culture/tradition.