Character Design on the Farmoxel Project!

 Quick update first, from September 15th to September 25th, the main development team was participating on the GBJam 11. When you see this posted, the Jam should be over and the results public. If you want to see our game, you can check it out HERE. Now back to the Devlog...

At the begining of September, the F.a.R. Team received a new member, this time, a digital artist! Her name is Pipi La Filosofa, you can check her art Instagram HERE.

As soon as she joined the team, she made a LOT of progress related to the Character Design of the game, so, in this blog, I'll talk about all of the characters she was able to design as of now:

The band

Any normal Devlog about a game would start by presenting the main character. This is not a normal Devlog.

In the town the game takes place there will be a band made up of three musicians; a pianist, a flutist and a ukelele player. They will meet near the town's plaza to play their music which, coincidentally, will be the same ambient music that will play when you walk around the town (Ain't that convenient?).

Let's talk about each of the members:

The pianist

Probably the one who went through more design changes from the first concept to the last one.

This is the old concept art an artist made for the team back in 2022:

And this is how Pipi's design looks like:

He looks so freaking cute!

He is pretty shy. He is a perfectionist boy who wants everything to be in its place. He doesn't like adventure, he rather routine. He started playing piano when he was just 6 years old cause he heard a concert on the TV while his parents were watching it.
He is very self-conscious about his body, that's why he uses long clothes to hide as much as he can, he even let his hair grow so he can use a wool cap to hid as much of his face as he can.

All that sounds... kinda sad, right? Don't you feel like you wanna go with him and tell him he is beautiful and that he should love himself? Well, you will be able to do so and learn a lot more about him once the game is finished!

The Flutist

Once again, here you can see his old design made by an artist in 2022:

And Pipi's design:

He kinda hot, ngl...

As you can see, he doesn't look much like a musician, he looks... sporty. And that's right, he rather sports, but when he was in High School, he needed extra credits, so he decided to join the music club and learned to play what he thought it was the easiest instrument: A flute.
He stopped playing after graduation, but his best friends wanted him to join the band, and he loves his friends way too much to say no, so now he is in the band.
He doesn't talk much, he just says what is needed to be said, not a single extra word. 

I have a secret to tell you, he is secretly in love with someone in the town, but shhhh don't tell anybody. Of course is not you! You're a child! If you want to find out who is he in love with, you gotta wait till the game is finished.

The Ukelele Player

First, the old concept:

And Pipi's:

That was CERTAINLY a change.

She is the leader of the band. She is determined to accomplish all of her goals, no matter how hard that could be. She LOVES her friends, and will destroy anyone who dares to hurt them. In fact, she befriended the pianist when she discovered he was being bullied by his peers. He depends on her since that day. 
She has two young brothers who are twins, but we will talk about them later.

Oh, by the way. She knows.

This is how they look together:

I've known them for a couple weeks now and I already love them, if ANYTHING happens to them, I'll kill everyone in this room and then myself.

The Photographer

This character is pretty interesting cause, as a tiny piece of trivia, it is based on one of the members of the team's professor.

Here is her old design:

And, once again, Pipi's:

She is a landscape photographer who travels around the world to get the best pictures mother nature can offer. She wants the world to understand how much nature can tell by just looking at it.

She is a little bit of a geek. She enjoys old sci-fi movies and she plays retro games very often.

She is in the town just for a couple of months, looking for the best places to get shots of the most exotic samples of flora and fauna. But, after realizing this town may be hiding a couple secrets, she decided to extend her stay and investigate everyone to get the answers she is looking for.
What kind of interesting things will she discover? Is she after the protagonist? We will know in the future...

The Little Ballet Girl:

Okay... her old design... this is one of the first ever made so it was made by me (Lead Developer) and I TRULLY am not proud of how it looks but...

Hoo boy, I hate it.

Anyway, Pipi's time to shine:

Gosh darn it! This is like seeing a never-ending nightmare finally coming to an... end. You have no idea how many times I have tried to design her, failing. And Pipi did it in ONE HOUR! Maybe less! Anyway, let's talk about her.

She is a very independent little girl. She cuts her own hair, choses her own clothes and is seen alone at the town almost all of the time. She walks around with an old boombox she decorated with stickers asking people if the want to see her dance to some "cute music". If they agree, she'll turn on the boombox, playing the loudest and rowdiest heavy metal song, while she jumps around and... "dances".
I know everyone hides a secret but she cannot be hiding anything, right? I mean, what kind of secret can a seven years old little girl hide? Well... we'll have to wait.

Ragout Ganen

What is this? A named character?

Ragout was one of the first characters ever designed. He, in fact, was also designed after one of the members of the team's teacher (Again). This is his old design:

He looks like Morshu... Pipi's take:

He looks so huggable now!
Ragout is the owner of most of the town's stores. He is a hardworking guy who never got to form a family, not that he wants to either. Despite of his hard worker mentality, he has a huge heart. He and grandma Sylvia were among the first people to move to the town, they've known each other for decades now. He has vitiligo, a rare disorder that changes the skin's pigment. He seems so calm; he surely doesn't have much to hide... does he?

Grandma Sylvia

She also has a name... I- I don't remember when or why I gave her that name... but it fits her. Look at her old design:

And then Pipi did her magic:

She is the protagonist's grandmother. She used to be the original owner of the telekinetic powers, but now that she doesn't have them anymore, she'll have to learn how life was back when she was a normal human. She is a wise old woman who always have an answer. Maybe she doesn't hold a secret.... maybe her former power does... Who knows?

Well, those are all the character Pipi designed this month. We won't be showing you progress on this monthly, but we will update from time to time. Did you like this set of characters? Do you want to know more about them? I sure do. So, it is time to get back to work to, someday, see them come alive eventually.

Bye! Have a great time!