Last month, we explained how some of Fireside’s characters were created. This time, we’ll take a look at Linus’ favorite characters and how Fireside’s outstanding art style came about.
At the beginning, Linus and Ilona talked about what the characters should be like and what would make them special so that Linus could get an idea of what they should look like. He then created three to five concept art drafts of the individual characters and discussed with Ilona which accessories, colors, and vibes would work best. Eventually, he produced the final concept and clarified everything with Ilona. The end product was typically one of Linus’s initial designs. For example, he created several designs of a frog, and the final character was the blue version.
But not all the characters were ready right from the start. Some of the most challenging were two female characters, who both had to be strong without seeming to be too masculine. First was Hazel, a woodcutter who leads her clan and comes into conflict with Owl. The second was Lady Hellmuth, a former princess from a castle who would rather be a knight. It took a while for Ilona and Linus to develop the right look and story for these characters.
One character that Linus absolutely had to include in the game was his dachshund, Buddy. In the game, he becomes the companion dog for Scout Gilbert. Unfortunately, other ideas did not make it into the finished game. For example, there are sketches of a shell with a pearl living inside, but we weren’t able to fit it into the final game. Another idea was a “Dragon Ball” reference for the mountain guide Greg, but nothing came of it.
This shows that the characters in a game change, and some are even completely thrown out, as the story and art style have to work together in harmony and not every idea ends up fitting. The art style of other things like items or the avatar’s house has also changed a lot.
This is because Linus initially drew everything on paper for the first demo, then colored it in on PC. It was only later that he did everything on the PC. In addition, his drawings were initially more sketches with room for error. Later, however, the designs had to be more precise, so Linus added more and more details like scars on the characters or traces of dirt on their clothes. Linus chose warm pastel shades for the colors and a mixture of cartoon and children’s 2D style for the world of Fireside.
Our testers have found the characters to be the most recognizable part of our game so far. They’re quirky, as they have realistic features, but are also completely over the top in their behavior.