Last month, we divulged lots of narrative details -- this month? We’ve got a wave of art coming your way! Get ready for your eyes to be very very happy ~ 👀
Peek at Pookie
Dice has been hard at work delivering the romanceable portraits of every cutie in SpiSwa, with the most recent being Pookie! Pookie brings a sexy softness to the cast, contrasting nicely with Ishk and Leon and being every bit as flirty and comfortable in their skin~
From Réjon’s initial document drafting Pookie’s character, back when we still called them “Big Homie”:
“Big Homie doesn’t talk a lot, but when he does it’s for a good reason. His presence may come off as threatening to those that don’t know him, but others think he’s just a big ol’ teddy bear. When he’s not swapping spirits with the gang you can find Big Homie taking care of succulents, windboarding (skateboarding in this world?) from the tops of hills, and taking apart technologies to better understand the rhythms of their world (think solve et coagula, but with a care and attention to advancement).“
Will we ever allow masc characters to wear a full-on shirt in Spirit Swap? Unlikely, but Leon gets pretty close, as you’ll see next.
Love on Leon
Leon is also getting the in-game romanceable character treatment! We even got the amazing tattoo artist Makoto Chi to design his tattoos! That’s only fair, since Alex did base Leon’s character on Makoto, who he even shares an occupation with. Here’s the final design for Leon that Sam came up with, alongside the tattoos Makoto designed for him:
Leon also has another of Alex’s friends sprinkled in, but took his initial face inspiration from Kpop star, Kai, of the boy band, Exo. (If you don’t know of Kai...well...just get ready and watch this video for a taste). We really wanted that moody, luscious look for our emo artist to shine through. We can now show you a peek of our spooky-loving, non-binary boo’s in-game sprite, ready for animation!
With that design set, we asked Dice to work her magic on the visual novel (VN) portrait. While that’s not quite done yet, we can show you the sketch she’s in the process of coloring at the moment just below!
Would you smooch them? Or just be very good friends that ponder the depth of existence together?
Don’t Forget: GDoC & Indieland 2021 are this weekend!
GDoC Expo 2021 kicks off this Thursday 23rd! We’re going to be very involved in this event, so if you’re on the fence still please get those tickets! It’s one of our favorite game conferences bar none, and it’s gone completely digital again this year!
Not only will we be part of the GDoC Direct premiering at 9 AM Pacific on Thursday, but we are also doing a dev interview with the lovely DaPurpleSharpie and talking all about Spirit Swap on Sat 25th, 12:30 PM Pacific time!
Our creative director Alex will also be part of a panel on game cooperatives, so if you’re interested in how we run our studio please don’t miss it! They’ll be speaking with two other game co-op founders who have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share. Tune in on Friday 24th at 9AM Pacific for the talk!
Spirit Swap will also be featured on GDoC Expo’s Gradient Convergence Steam event page, so once that's live (Thursday, Sept 23) make sure to check out the games on display, try some demos and wishlist everything you love~
As if that all wasn’t enough, we’ve also been invited by Youtuber The Completionist to his yearly celebration of indie games slash charity drive for dementia research, IndieLand2021. Spirit Swap’s 2P Versus will make its first public appearance live as our team takes on the Completionist in our very own game… Join the fun and help us raise money for a great cause this entire weekend on twitch.tv/THECOMPLETIONIST.
Spirit Swap’s slot is on Saturday 25th, 5PM Pacific!
Hang out with Us!
The fun doesn’t have to stop here -- if you hop into our Discord, you can chat with the Spirit Swap team in addition to all the lovely folks who’re also excited about the game! We have server open/close hours (to help with our own work/life balance and server security), and we’ve got some beautiful art to help signify when the server is ready to go or if we’re taking a rest!
Check out the beautiful work done by Benny, capturing Lulu and Dio’s energies perfectly:
These images help signify our Discord hours, but also, what great ways to start and end our days by looking at these two cuties. Thank you, Benny!!!
Talk soon!
WHEW! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed all our art updates: this September has been busy, and Spirit Swap is really starting to come together!
Be sure to follow us on Twitter if you haven’t already, and wishlist the game on Steam! (Psst, the demo’s available here now if you’ve got friends who you think should give it a go!)
Love,
The Spirit Swap Team