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We talk about the visual development of our main character and how the design exists in conjunction with a game's design concept.

Omni Jacala, Blogger

February 17, 2012

2 Min Read

Sprite of main protagonist for Project Fixbot

Fixbot Sprite

Here’s our humble protagonist. He is Fixbot model no.: 23-972-c. Like most video game protagonists, Fixbot had to be designed by somebody. In our case, he was designed by a group of artists led by a dynamic vision.

As mentioned by Todd, the project began with a “spark.” The spark begins with the team of designers, artists, and programmers all collaborating to craft a gaming experience that is founded upon a compelling story. Right away, the other artists and I began to draw whatever came to mind throughout the meeting. At the beginning, we knew some things were more or less certain: the game would boast a multiplayer co-op and would have something to do with gravity or space. With this vague concept in mind, each of the artists’ initial sketches were wildly diverse.

Fixbot Concepts

Fixbot Concepts 1



As the “spark meeting” progressed, it was determined that our game would be a side-scrolling shooter. As the story and gameplay began to take a more solid form, so did the designs for our character. The story eventually culminated into a tale about little robot whose sole purpose, according to his programming, is to repair a gigantic abandoned space vessel in which he finds himself upon startup. You’re likely familiar with the old saying “form follows function.” Well, as our character’s function became more defined, each artist’s sketches began to converge into similar forms. 

Fixbot Concepts

Fixbot Concepts 2



In the second day of our spark meetings, we finally hammered out a final design for our robot, which we decided to call “Fixbot.” The final design, which was produced by yours truly, is a culmination of many of the design elements of the various sketches by the different artists. As each artist draws a bit differently, the process of combining these different elements required the creation of a set of stylistic conventions which would guide all subsequent character and object designs moving forward. Using these conventions, I came up with this final design sketch.

Fixbot Design

Fixbot Final Design

You may be able to recognize various elements that were borrowed from the preliminary sketches. Fixbot is equipped here with a hard hat, a modular hand that serves as a repair device and low-power weapon (pew pew!), and a magnetic base which fixbot uses to affix himself to any metal surface in his gravity-less environment. So as you can see, character designs are constantly evolving as the game concept evolves. As such, it is important for an artist to let his mind flow freely. In doing so, a design can evolve naturally and rather effortlessly.

This has been Omni, (otherwise possibly known as hextupleyoodot), and I am an artist.

(Reposted from Fixbot Blog: http://demergostudios.com/fixbot/)

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