Eggward’s Egg-sistential Crisis
For many of us, Eggs are the first thing we learn how to make. In GladiEATers, Eggs are the first thing you cook – emulating life! With over 13 Egg Creatures alone, we knew we wanted a chef to specialise in Eggs.
Initially, we thought up a character = Eggward, a crazy bald man, inspired by my own choice of hair at the time, who obsessed over Eggs. However, Eggward kind of gave us the creeps and we wanted to go a bit more upbeat and positive with GladiEATers’ first chef… that was the initial path that led into Eggie’s design.
Laying down Eggie’s Posing
The yolk of eggs has a bright sunny imagery that we wanted Eggie to mirror. In our initial pose studies, we thought about what would embody that energy best. Of what we came up with, pose 3 ended up too delicate of a step for the bashful egg creatures Eggie commands. Pose 2 was a bit too reserved and hunched over but pose 1 has such a brilliant skip in their step that our choice was made clear.
Another thing that felt very natural for Eggie was her Egg basket, a prop that has that integral link with the process of raising chickens, collecting eggs and, in general, life on a farm. Eggie’s egg farm origin brings attention to how food is sourced, a vital part of the process for any aspiring chef.
Costuming Egg-stravagence
Eggie’s costuming started with a long maid dress and apron, visually incorporating her farmer heritage. There was a lot to love in this original sketch. Eggie’s side bird character was an adorable idea, but we felt it took the spotlight away from Eggie.
Also, we adored the puffy cloth shirt, inspired by traditional Portuguese garb - it brought a puffiness to Eggie’s apparel that suited her so well.
Importantly, Eggie’s long dress had a great flow to it, but we scrapped it for two reasons. Firstly, it covered up the exciting leg pose we had set out for Eggie in our posing sketch above; you can’t see that dynamic leg kick as well with the dress covering… her legs. Secondly, the dress didn’t feel very practical. If we wanted Eggie to invoke images of someone running through muddy fields chasing after chickens, a dress didn’t do that.
Our solution to Eggie’s dress conundrum? Denim! A pair of cut up denim jean shorts or *jorts?* felt perfect to allow Eggie the movement she’d want. In terms of material storytelling, denim has always been an icon of farm life. Also, with the cup up nature of the shorts, you could almost picture Eggie cutting them up herself; her go getter attitude coming through again. A little band aid on her knee and Eggie’s active character was on full display.
Contrasting Colour
Eggie’s hair buns were originally set out to resemble two white eggs. We did try it – but ended up going with the more discrete egg similarity by letting that be her natural hair colour.
It was at this stage that we really saw the contrast between her upper, traditional puffed shirt, and her denim shorts come through. We leaned into this further by giving Eggie radiant golden hoop braclets and earrings.
Story Telling
We always want a chef’s design to speak for them. Eggie’s design tells a tale of family and the importance of food in one’s heritage. How do we give Eggie’s family a presence in her design, while not actually showing them?
For us, that was the heart-warming embroidery in Eggie’s apron, done by her sisters prior to her journey to the CALosseum! Each stitch is a different level based on their age, Benedita, Sofia and Camilla all wanted to stitch in pitch in.
Another key piece of Eggie’s family was her grandmother, avo in Portuguese, Ines. Ines was the matriarch of her family and prior to her departure, Ines gave Eggie her golden Egg locket. The gold matches her hoops, so it is both sentimental and stylish.
Finishings
So that’s Eggie! As with all our chefs, once we decided that we wanted the chefs to have a physical presence in the CALosseum amongst the GladiEATers, we created a pixel art variant of Eggie. This was paired with emotes for when they are taking a turn, defeat a GladiEATer or one of their GladiEATers expires.
Thank you for your egg-ceptional support as always! We’re egg-stremely grateful the community’s interest in GladiEATers and can’t wait to share more egg-citing content.