Hello Creative People!
I've entered the Devtober Game Jam on itch.io; where you create a game in October. I like how much time it allows so you don't feel pressured to crunch, and I feel like my creativity can reach a higher quality without any unnecessary stress. I'm learning a visual scripting game software called GDevelop, and Yarn, a node-based narrative design tool. I want to focus more on my writing, so this will be a dialogue-filled game.
I've also doodled out and created the characters for my game, and it's incredible what you can discover when you take a screen break and open up your sketchbook.
Meet Leafette! Leafette (like Jeanette...but with a leaf...) is the main character for my currently titled game "Foliage Conversations."
Image order - Left: Leafette's original pen sketch. Right: Leafette's final pixel art sprite design.
[Image Description: On the left is a pen sketch of a character with a leaf for a head and a human body wearing a sweater and ripped jeans. On the right against a light brown background, is the pixel art drawing of the same character with a brown colored, leaf for a head. They are wearing red earrings with a dark green knit sweater that has light green patches on the shoulders, cuffs, hemline, and collar. They are wearing blue jeans with heart-shaped patches at the knees and red shoes. END ID]
Leafette is a resident of Foliage Falls, a cozy little town known for its beautiful lakes and rivers. Leafette goes by "They/Them" pronouns, and although well-known by the locals, they can be a bit shy around new people. And with a love for books, they are a familiar face at the local book store, the Cozy Reader.
The Cozy Reader has a weekly game night, but Leafette is pretty terrible at games; card games, video games, board games. If it has the letters G-A-M-E in it, they will probably lose at it!
So why does Leafette keep playing (and losing) against the Cozy Reader's top game night player, Ovate? Find out in my upcoming Devtober game jam entry, Foliage Conversations!
Leafette's Character Design Iterations
[Image Description: Shown from the shoulders up are four drawings of a character with a brown leaf for a head. From left to right, the first drawing is only the leaf person's head. The second drawing is the leaf person wearing orange earrings and a green, striped knit sweater. The third drawing is the leaf person with a light brown skin tone. The fourth drawing is the leaf person with eyelashes. End ID]
Because I sketched out a detailed character, I was considering opening up Photoshop to do a more detailed illustration, but I wanted to stay in the pixel art style that I've come to like. Practice makes progress, so I kept going even when I really didn't like what I was seeing.
It took me a few tries to find the right feel for Leafette, and I ended up opening Adobe Illustration and used to pen tool to trace out the body from my sketch, and then imported and shrunk the image into Aseprite. It's a lot of moving steps, but it's working for me.
Adobe Illustrator Outline of Leafette's Character Design Sketch
The sprite itself is pretty big, and the canvas size for this is equivalent to 9:16, sooooo, wish me luck! Now that Leafette's design is done, I'm now ready to design my second character, Ovate! That name is bound to change, because I keep forgetting how to pronounce it.
– Bloomzeye
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