Welcome back to this week's Rune Record! We're bringing you this week's edition a day early instead of the regularly scheduled Fridays for one very special reason: Today marks ONE MONTH exactly until the launch of Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times! Time is flying folks, next thing we know you're all already playing the game and showing us your unique spell combinations!
But enough of the appetizers, moving on to the pièce de résistance - this week's Rune Record! Following on from last week's before and afters, we're showing off how the NPCs have developed over time!
For the vast majority of NPCs in Rhell's world, they do not actually have any concept art! Since I make everything in Rhell entirely by myself, I already have a pretty good idea of what I want the characters to look like in my head before I even draw them. So every time I sit down and try to make concept art, I end up making the finished version of a character instead.
However this doesn't mean there isn't any concept art for NPCs - two NPCs are very special in different ways, and because of this ended up getting some concept art and early designs made for them.
Delah Roe (the NPC you find in the first town area) actually went through the biggest change! Originally, I wanted them to be a cool, imposing dragon. I drew out and fully animated this design before looking at it and thinking, ‘wow, they just look kind of dumb.’ The design felt very generic and too out of place in Rhell’s world to me. I mean, they were basically just a dragon… So I redesigned Delah Roe completely! If you ever wondered what the deal with Delah Roe’s wing cape was, it is because originally they were a dragon.
And the other NPC to receive concept and early art is Langli (that weird hat you find in the library!) Langli had early concept art made for two reasons - the first is that Langli was the first ever NPC I designed in Rhell! And because of this, I really wanted to get a good basis for what NPCs would look like in my world. Also, at this point I couldn't decide if I wanted NPCs to be 2D sprites or 3D models, and designing Langli in this way really helped solidify my feelings on NPCs being 2D sprites just like Rhell.
The second reason Langli got concept art is… because Langli is my favourite character. I know a mother shouldn't pick a favourite child, but I have, and it's Langli.
That's all for this week, spellcasters! Stay tuned for next week's edition of Rune Records and let us know how you're enjoying the demo!
P.S., We'll be in Next Fest so tell everyone you know! A little bit of support goes a long way <3