Character Design Sells Games

[@DXFromYT]

The art for my intro, this video's thumbnail and title card was done by artist Azuma Yasuo. They have a Patreon as well, and you can find their links in the description!

[@shadowoperator97]

You introduced me to AY, for which I greatly appreciate. The art they've made me are some if my favorite.

[@TempoLOOKING]

DX is back guys.😂

[@ItatsuMagnatsa]

Hey! Want to check out my Characters, Review them in their own Video, and then Compare them to the Concord Characters?

[@MountKash1]

Lol why do people keep saying Concord was trying to be Overwatch ? It doesn't actual look or play like overwatch. And Overwatch isn't the one & only hero shooter. It isn't even the first hero shooter. I do agree with Concord having character design issues

[@FizzleFX]

Concords characters lack any visual storytelling and their (art) director needs to be fired. I never saw such useless and bad design. It's not simply generic but RNG generated random mush mash without thought.

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

Concord's character design was so bad it had defeated the Rule 34. Probably the only time a hero shotter ever did that. The game stood no chance.

[@Acacius1992]

You know something is ugly if even rule34 dont touch it xD

[@notbot5360]

Yeah gargoyle girl from deadlock have more rule 34 than concord, the funny thing is the gargoyle girl original design isn't even s3xy to begin with.

[@dankmemes8254]

There is sadly around 36 posts now most of them however redesign the characters

[@3takoyakis]

@Acacius1992 fr like, theres ton of fetishes exist out there and concord served none of them Its battleborn all over again

[@Atomic-id1kq]

@@3takoyakis it-z can be a fetish for some very weird people

[@LuvzToLol21]

It stuns me that the designers managed to make the heavy machine gun character look so goofy and non-threatening. Emari looks like a giant toddler

[@kaahzvi5820]

Her silhouette looks like the Michelin tire man or Pilsbury Doughboy

[@mrbluebell2735]

Remove armour and padding and realise Emari is about at flat as Itz. Someone obviously failed a biology and anatomy class.

[@williamdrum9899]

Emari should have had a "Mama Bear" aesthetic

[@shanenice5380]

​😂.I rather used him.then that creepy person

[@CidGuerreiro1234]

They didn't want sexy characters, but lacked the talent and vision to make something cool and appealing without it. I honestly have never seen an uglier/more boring character roster.

[@doratheshade]

Its not like they needed to be half naked too. I mean, look at SF6. Cammy was pretty much dressed casually yet people did TONS of art of her before the character was even announced!

[@sertiana2512]

​Yeah, you can create a modestly dressed character who still has appeal

[@socriabbas454]

Because they themselves doesnt know what "cool" is. Junkrat in OW is not sexy as Cassidy or Hanzo but HE'S COOL to look at.

[@axios4702]

​​@@sertiana2512Sexy=/half naked. If anything the sexiest characters are the ones dressed tastefully, not the ones running around with their birthday suit.

[@polker8380]

​@@socriabbas454 even Roadhog and E. Honda has way more fans than whatever Concord's is. Even better, Deadlock's Ivy, who is a really ugly gargoyle girl, somehow gets the most art/rule34 made compared to the rest of Deadlock's roster.

[@xeromachinimas]

TF2 devs didnt sexualize the characters and they're still very appealing and praised by people so it can be done

[@hunde2430]

even though that the relationship with heavy and medic was like a professional brotherhood within an mercenary bubble, Rule 34 really took them both (or even FKING PYRO??) to all time highs. Concord really just sucks

[@mallusaih]

its also a matter of different audiences, notice how the voice chats of TF2 and CS2 differ significantly from those of overwatch and valorant respectively; They clearly appeal to different kinds of people. But most importantly, they **do appeal** to someone, unlike concord

[@lokasz9]

dude do you have eyes? have you seen heavy?? goddamnn

[@martinferjancic]

gonna beat one out to engineer just to prove you wrong

[@SamyakGupta-e5q]

Tf2 mercs have really good character, like spy is French, soldier is an over patriotic American, medic is a mad German doctor And same goes to other classes

[@G0A7]

I fail to comprehend how people see gacha games earning millions every month and think "im sure its because of the story and the gameplay"

[@Borkyius]

To be fair, in recent years, games like especially, Arknights or Nikke do sell pretty well due to having a interesting story. But yea, most gacha's money maker are cute and hot characters/skkns.

[@G0A7]

@@Borkyius i dont think nikke is a good example, i cant say anything about arknights

[@DioBrando-qr6ye]

@@G0A7 Nikke has both the story and the asses. But western prudes tend to disregard everything else when they see big ass. Pretty much like they did with Stellar Blade.

[@G0A7]

@@DioBrando-qr6ye What i played of nikke didnt show signs of a great history, but im glad they provided one after all

[@platypus908]

@@G0A7 Limbus Company might be a better example of such.

[@TheDoomMaster]

You know your game fucked up when the R34 artists don't want to go anywhere near your characters

[@Acacius1992]

@@TheDoomMaster Even they have left some standards

[@JoseHernandez-xv2bt]

@@Acacius1992that’s the true surprise for me, that fricking R34 doesn’t even want to get near this pile of garbage

[@JoeyP946]

every single one of these characters can be improved by 1 single input with chat gpt. But no they needed 100 white liberal female devs

[@nicknevco215]

They did forspoken in 34

[@TheAkrillion]

@@nicknevco215 Because at least the main character of that was still decent looking, if you ignore some unfortunate frames and angles.

[@sebdaniel8940]

I 100% thought Daw was a woman until now

[@olzhas1one755]

Me too, and I believe this is deeply fascinating. Absolutely no assumptions you could make about this particular character are correct. I wonder if this was an intentional sociological experiment by some mischievous dev on the team.

[@peterparker-q1q]

because megamind devs made all characters in that game to look like trans or gays

[@angel_of_rust]

that's what woke people look like in a nutshell.

[@Spongemonkey26]

Bro so did I, which furthers DX's point on readable character design.

[@jacks1678]

Fupa

[@jimmypackorino]

the fact that people were willing to play the first descendant really speaks to how much character design means lol

[@coltonwilkie241]

And The First Descendant is terrible. It's carried by Ultimate Bunny.

[@luckyducky7819]

@@coltonwilkie241 I don't think its that bad. It is a bog standard looter shooter, but I think people confuse "mid" with "bad" too often.

[@r1g0r_m0rt1s]

​@@luckyducky7819Just another wannabe Destiny/Warframe/Division

[@coltonwilkie241]

@luckyducky7819 I don't think the game is mid though. I think it's complete dog water as a video game. It does nothing new, everything it does do is done poorly and the only saving grace for the game is the character designs.

[@D4C_LoveTrain1]

@@coltonwilkie241 1 time use shaders and it takes days to unlock the new character but the game is made for coomers so the complaints won't be heard. There was a time where 40 hours to unlock vader would get a company decimated, now it's a tuesday.

[@theastroguy7417]

Concord:"B-But, we wanted to be inclusive! Our game had the most diverse cast!" Overwatch has a more diverse cast and it's had that since 2016, to the point it RIVALED TF2, the cast with: A black, scotsman with a disability (Missing eye), the overweight russian, the frenchy, the doctor with a severe mental health problem, the soldier with lead poisoning, scout, a new zealand blood austrailian native sniper, a prosthetic hand having texan and pyro. Oh, and don't forget MS. PAULING who, despite her lack of actual strength against any of the mercs, IS THEIR BOSS. A woman boss in 2007, when it was still uncommon but not completely missing. Concord tried a formula that was in place for years with thousands of different ideas in it to improve, and still failed.

[@BaconGamign]

You can say so many things about scout, but somehow just saying "scout" seems more fitting

[@gstephenson9442]

TF2 is a great example of perfect character designs and zero sex appeal. They don’t have to be sexy but I really believe Mercy from Overwatch is also just a great design, she is supposed to “look like an angel” of course she’s attractive.

[@ajdndbdjbdj]

Tf2 design is just top tier, so simple, yet so informative and iconic

[@Mrhouse-k1x]

Meanwhile tf2 fanbase getting ptsd attack from a Song called tick-tock by joji

[@aguy3753]

zero sex appeal? have you ever been in the tf2 community

[@hunde2430]

"zero sex appeal" dude didnt glance once at topless TF2 characters (pyro pyro pyro)

[@mariustan9275]

@@aguy3753 By DEFAULT they aren't designed for sex appeal.

[@Y_KM]

If you don't wanna make "sexy" character's atleast give them a little personality they are as lively as a loaf of bread 🍞

[@erica8952]

Or at least make them cool. You don't want the women in the game to all be bombshell strippers? Then make them cyborgs or velociraptors or some kind of eldritch abomination. If you don't want to rely on sexiness you still need something that's immediately cool and eye catching in a character's design.

[@ezanawright7971]

@Y_KM it not like he saying he doesn't want character being sexy and he wasn't only talking about women he saying if you want to don't make character at least make look cool

[@birb5306]

Like Junkrat. He’s an unsexy little rat but he’s incredibly fun

[@joannelee5574]

@@erica8952 cyborg velociraptor women sound metal as hell lol

[@DeadFishFactory]

Deadlock has a character that is literally supposed to be ugly because she's a gargoyle with Ivy, but Valve crafted her character to be such a cinnamon bun that gives her a great contrast between how she looks and how her personality is, that she has more fanart and rule34 than the entirety of Concord.

[@VeraShtrobl-zy2xk]

Valve are the masters of character design just look at any character from tf2 and you instantly know what they are about and that goes for not just the mercs but also tha Mann brother hale etc.

[@jurtheorc8117]

Deliberately ugly, strange or at least unusual characters have their audience (lewd stuff aside) . Rayman, for example. Abe, Munch and Stranger from Oddworld. More recently, Pseudo from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos-- and that guy is uncanny as all get-out. Dude looks like a sore, grumpy nail-less noseless thumb with an old man's armpit for a throat and a mandrake painted orange with traffic gridding bodypaint for a body. In terms of personality: He's a hermit, somewhat old guy (seems middle-aged but it's hard to tell with Zenos) that has a "get out there to get stuff done" attitude. Pseudo's got his old pains, not feeling like a whole person, but he doesn't let that factor into what he can do in the moment. He's got his moments of kindness, sass, humor, annoyance, anger, wisdom, and can even be outright menacing. I find Pseudo cool to the point that i don't want to say his personality contrasts with his design to make him more memorable, because i feel like it would state "he's cool despite his looks". But both his appearance and who he is elevate one another. Warmly recommend looking up that game.

[@EngieMak]

@@jurtheorc8117 Looked him up and liked his design,just uh.....unfortunate that his neck resemble something else.

[@angel_of_rust]

the first shirtless flatchested female character in gaming. Larry Fink and Kim Belair in the board room like: "How is this possible?" with guns to their heads

[@baalfgames5318]

What sucks is that Ivy is the least human character in the game, but I had to squint my eyes at her to tell. That's not the golden design people make it out to be. If her face was more clearly inhuman and more monsterous, I could understand.

[@mr.derpyface558]

7:29 I think someone called this character a Monster’s Inc. scream canister.

[@angel_of_rust]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@JoseHernandez-xv2bt]

Now that you mention it yeah I can see it

[@BackToTheGame.98]

He looks like the bomb robots from the movie The Creator

[@Hurrhurrrrnaurrrr2]

Mint flavored michellin man

[@carso1500]

Holy shit he does look like one And you know the sad part, I think he is the best design in the entite game

[@-RH80-]

This is very simple, the first thing you notice of someone that grab your attention is the physical appearance, isnt their feelings. Back in the arcade era we choose on which machine we insert the quarter for the first time based on the characters design first later the gameplay came in to hook you up inserting more quartes. Characters design is the presentation card, thats the most basic thing for every media. It can be realistic or cartoonish, as long it is atractive or have personality you already have one side cover. Once the design is cover focus on game play and replay value. Is very simple, the problem today is that the message is above everything else.

[@archiveacc3248]

Great point. I remember in the early days of gaming, all the art on the arcade machines and on the game boxes was super crazy or had hot characters. Then the games had nothing to do with the cool art that drew you in 😂 and it 100% worked to get people playing. It's crazy that a company can spend millions to make a game and forget such a simple rule that was figured out 40 years ago.

[@danielloewen2857]

They weren't even pushing the message! They were just trying not to get run over by it. Which is still crazy, like who cares if a bunch of people who won't ever play your game don't like it?

[@R0UGE122]

It's easy to say "Concord didn't have sexy characters, therefore it failed". That is partially true, but I'm glad to see someone explaining WHY it failed beyond the obvious.

[@aquapendulum]

You miss a crucial one: Emari's shield. This is supposed to be a tank character, but compare her shield size to Reinhardt's shield size. Reinhardt's shield is wide enough to fit another Reinhardt on the left and the right side each. It's also a very transparent shield, perfectly enabling allies to hide behind and take shots from. Emari's shield is not only so narrow that it only fits herself, it's also not as transparent as Reinhardt's shield. It has wavy patterns and it FLASHES WHITE when it is hit. That's such a bad oversight for a simple character archetype as a tank.

[@DXFromYT]

I played Emari once and it was like playing the game in slow motion. Great catch on her shield. Such terrible design all around.

[@LuvzToLol21]

SHE HAS A SHIELD!?

[@DYrai]

@@LuvzToLol21 Had*

[@atlas3556]

Also, Reinhardt is just more visually appealing than Emari. He's huge (the tallest character in Overwatch physically at roughly 7'4), and his armor looks tough, angular and heavy-duty, which gives a far superior presentation of power than the random lady in plastic green pads. Plus he's got a rocket hammer (literally a hammer with a rocket attached to make it faster) which allows him to rake in yet more points for Rule Of Cool.

[@ShadowPirateX]

⁠@@atlas3556 Not to mention Reinhardt’s over-the-top bombastic personality with no indoors voice (I could hear him over the voice chat!) where he keeps yelling about GLORIOUS COMBAT and HONOR AND JUSTICE just gives him further points for presentation.

[@oaksaint4458]

Concord's characters look like you pressed "random" while creating a character in WWE or Soul Calibur. The photorealistic art style also makes it very uncanny.

[@WhoKnowsNose]

I like the photorealistic style quite a bit, but the characters themselves were just not eye catching at all, minus one or two

[@PhantasmicCackla]

I can’t believe a game somehow generated character designs that not only suck on their own, but just make people want to gouge their eyes out.

[@resolutogamer4859]

I totally agree with the part about the intestines on the clothes 🤢🤮

[@RyuHardGore]

@@resolutogamer4859 I hadn't noticed them, the more I see them the uglier they get🤢

[@windws7137]

@@resolutogamer4859 They thought they're edgy🤮🤮

[@xRIPx86]

That thumbnail worked..... More than concord did

[@purelysmetalnightcore]

I'm a woman that plays games specifically geared towards women, and if you go on any social media site and look up the games I play you'll see women drooling over how attractive EVERY character is, both male and female. Everyone wants attractive characters except AAA devs.

[@thatlat5831]

Thank you. Someone finally said it. People like looking at attractive characters that is just a fact that is how we are geared we first judge a person through their appearance afterall and that is the same with fictional characters we judge them first by their design. Also lets say we head over to the LGBTQ community most of them would probably say they like looking at attractive people. Cause that is just how humans work.

[@DioTheGreatOne]

True, male characters are also sexualized. Mainly by making them have absolutely gigantic muscles and a lot of the times walking around shirtless. And that is NOT a bad thing.

[@joshuaandrewson3091]

*Activists pretending as Triple A Devs.

[@BackToTheGame.98]

It's like developers are trying to appeal to a very, very loud minority of people who are complaining about sexualized/attractive characters. I'd guess most of these people don't really play video games, and the few that do aren't their target audience anyway.

[@thatlat5831]

@@BackToTheGame.98 It is amazing how when you ask attractive people in video games they automatically assume you are just a pervert? No i just like looking at handsome and beautiful people. Neither Panam and Judy are oversexualized but you know both of them are fairly attractive people

[@MTLoveridge]

The character designs of Concord are so unbelievably non-sensical. They seem to be designed by a group of people who were given 3 word descriptions and were told "Design that".

[@rykehuss3435]

I think one of the devs tweeted that the game was designed in committees, like that was a good thing

[@TheBadmatter]

Its actually impressive how they made basically all their characters look cringe and unsettling

[@shawklan27]

It's what a bunch of terminally online people thinks looks cool with their circle of people which I guess it's fine, but the problem is that the game was made to appeal to the casual demographic who just wants generally cool and flashy designs which concord lacks.

[@voctur]

Nah, good character designers can make somethinh good with just a 3 words description. These people are unable to make something good even with a detailed description

[@Scornfull]

@@rykehuss3435 That doesn't surprise me given how one of the devs threw a hissy fit over people calling the characters ugly LOL

[@nicko7939]

it's not only design but the attitude

[@timothyn4699]

for sure, personality

[@RepliesMuted]

False, Deadlock has some fugly ass characters but is still wildly popular. Concord fucked up in more ways than just one.

[@93hothead]

Yea concord isnt fun or visually appealing. At least they tried

[@Quadrilli0n]

Deadlock has style.

[@Jane-qh2yd]

Overwatch: Makes incredibly unique looking characters with different themes and color pallets to bring in interest Counter Strike: Cop and terrorist

[@ArdaSReal]

Once a hero shooter the other is a point and click adventure

[@windws7137]

@@ArdaSReal point and click💀💀 Well in CS the focus is on not the characters, but the weapons' cosmetics, so the strategy still checks out

[@channie3169]

counter strike had the privilege of not having to compete with every other game on the market today, and valorant is probably closer to it than overwatch

[@fluffywolfo3663]

the lesson i personally took from all this is, _everything_ about a character design should be communicating something to you. Down to the name. Pharah's name tells you that she's egyptian, the blue and bird motifs tell you she can fly, and you're supposed to have the idea she's basically wearing a fighter jet. McCree is a cowboy, as you can tell from the earthy tones, hat, poncho, and very visible revolver. And as compared to roka and lennox, like... Roka just looks like someone with a rocket launcher who bought the most boringly-colored unitard from a dance supply place and put a Destiny helmet over it, and Lennox's orange vest takes so much focus away from the revolvers. Also, he does not have a hat, which doesn't immediately tell you "this is the gunslinger." And their colors just... kinda _blah_, background colors at best.

[@ARStudios2000]

I especially wanna put mention on the gunslinger part. Some people were saying to some redesigning artists that "Lennox isn't a cowboy, he's described as a gunslinger!" Like, do you fucking realize how little that narrows it down? Gunslinger is literally "guy with gun", what the fuck is Lennox then? A cop? A cowboy? A patrolman? A terrorist? I swear, Lennox is such a strange case where I feel like even the developers didn't like him. He's on the face of the cover yet he's so underwhelming in so many ways (have you seen his gameplay? Those revolvers do pitiful damage)

[@fluffywolfo3663]

​@@ARStudios2000I know, right? four shots to kill people with a revolver?! And those shots have crazy bullet magnetism? Wack. Also so many things about him just clash. The sharp edges on his arm, the rounded vest. Like you said, "do you fucking realize how little that narrows it down," and I'm gonna continue from that by saying he's just... full of ideas that don't work together. And also what... what is that color scheme. Orange, gray-blue, and baby-vomit green skin? Also apparently he's "really old" (146) but nothing about him looks old. Maybe... I dunno, make his outfit look antiquated in comparison by making it look like he has a raygun gothic bodysuit under a vest or something so he looks like a young guy in old man clothes. Or just make him look old.

[@polker8380]

​@@fluffywolfo3663 yeah, it's so weird that they keep reminding people that Lennox is old. He look, dressed and act nothing like an old person. Unless the people at Firewalk somehow thought obsessing over hot sauce is considered an old person trait.

[@fluffywolfo3663]

@@polker8380 it was delivered as close to “as you know” as you can be without saying those exact words.

[@vivelespatat2670]

Thanks for using McCree and not Cassidy 🤝

[@TheeDeathCaster]

2:35 "Who's that Pokemon?!?!" "IT'S PIKACHU!!!" "It's Clefairy!" "FUUUUU-"

[@undertaleislife7210]

Classic

[@rtbear674]

"Who's that Pokemon?!?!" "IT'S SNORLAX!!!!" "It's Daw!" "Close enough, I understand"

[@Joshdagod97]

Golden

[@nicknevco215]

I love that one

[@mystery8820]

"Jigglypuff seen from above.", anyone?

[@SmithOfGear92]

It's astounding how Daw has pretty much become a poster-child for what *NOT* to do when designing characters; everyone discussing the art failures of Concord has cited Daw as the worst. Nothing about his design says "I'm a medic"; were it not for the flavor text in the bottom right corner of the UI, you would never think he's anything but just a guy in a blue jacket.

[@angel_of_rust]

nothing about him even says "him" almost everyone thought he was female until they saw his pronouns

[@ARStudios2000]

I'd say he's the most immersion breaking thing in the whole game I've had one of the games defenders straight up tune out on me (in their own fucking words by the way) because I criticized Daw as being out of place in a game like this, simply because according to their logic, "You went on a weird tirade about Saw being unrealistic but then wanting a more reptilian design for Lennox", like, first off this is the kind of stuff you'd get punched in the face in high school for. If someone's trying to have a decent respectful conversation, and they tune out like that? Tell em to fuck off. Daw IS immersion breaking because he's out of shape fat. He's not strong fat like Roadhog, or athletic fat which exists. He's out of shape weak fat. In a game like Concord, he just looks completely ridiculous

[@SmithOfGear92]

@@angel_of_rust That too. His facial features are very soft-- so soft that a lot of people confused him for a girl. I get that not every guy will be some super chiseled manly man, but facial features as soft as Daw's either make him look like a girl or a young kid

[@polker8380]

​@@SmithOfGear92 would have been cool if they designed Daw as a veteran space war field medic, instead of... whatever that is...

[@patsagonsaechin3006]

He looks like a random guy I'd see in shopping mall.

[@gajogrande]

Having something like "tactician/he/him" which equates sexual identity to the actual role of the character makes you roll your eyes so hard you unconsciously try to avoid such a cringe game.

[@ethereal1356]

I'm not even right wing or anything but why is the left so cringe wtf? This looks like ass

[@mr.perfect748]

Widowmaker in thumbnail = new subscriber

[@claytonrios1]

Character designs certainly sold Overwatch! Just look at all of the fan art for Tracer and Widowmaker even if its of the lewd variety!

[@senzulean4642]

the gooners always win in the end

[@mekingtiger9095]

As is the case for Nikke and Stellar Blade, if you know what I mean...

[@IsoMacintosh]

Overwatch at this point is immortal in a way, even if the game fails there will still be people making art of the characters.

[@kosmosfan01]

The R34 artists were out here setting world records for how fast they got the Juno artwork out after the first trailer 😂

[@TheNameIsSR]

I mean, sexappeal has been shown to work a billion times in the past. From Street Fighter to Tomb Raider. Not to mention the movie and music industry.

[@GlaDos321]

I just wanna play characters that look cool or are sexy. Thats it, I don't want to play a character that looks like somebody you would see at a Seattle Wal-mart.

[@EvilAngelXV]

Me too I prefer to play attractive/average good-looking characters just to escape reality and have fun.

[@baalfgames5318]

You guys are incredibly shallow if all you care about is having characters to fap to.

[@ryszakowy]

seattle wallmart XD dude the game is already dead you don't have to kill it like that XD

[@BRINGTHENERFHERDERS]

having lived in Seattle and shopped at the Walmart there, the only people there were normal looking regular people. So you're telling me you don't like normal looking people and want anime UWU sex dolls in the game?

[@baalfgames5318]

@@GlaDos321 So you want your "characters" to be objects you can fap to.

[@taithanh258]

my 16 years old mind was blown after OW "Dragons" cinematic trailer, i can be a cyborg ninja with big dragon katana ?

[@danitron4096]

But in concord you could be an obese man with a generic gun and a pizza!

[@ArdaSReal]

You can be a spaceranger fighting an evil monk robot now while you get healed by a peruvian sun goddes

[@LifeIsStrange225]

nice to see someone understand why concord failed rather than saying the characters are too gay or something

[@andrewthompson2167]

Ur thumbnail sold this video

[@potato_723]

The marketing for concord was 5 years too late. People didn't want more MCU humour. The trailer aged like milk before it came out. Just adding this

[@BROTRRer]

Concord failed so youtubers could thrive

[@nicknevco215]

What a blessing

[@BackToTheGame.98]

There's been like dozens of video essays recommended to me by KZbin on why Concord failed, out why it's character designs were bad. KZbinrs are staying busy.

[@doratheshade]

People really underestimate how much other people stay playing simply because they like a character. Hell, fighting games work that way because someone might be gravitated towards a fighting style simply because they vibe with the fighter. It's not just for looking hot or cute. It's part of the personality of the game.

[@kylesinkovich8332]

I've never agreed more with a comment. I love Mortal Kombat for example. My favourite character is Reptile. In every game he's in, I automatically play him. He's just so cool and his moves and appearances are perfect for me personally. Your comment hit the nail on the head.

[@ShadowPirateX]

Some people will even learn to get the hang of difficult characters just because of how much they like them. I used to be kinda bad with Spider-Man in UMvC3, but I’ve forced myself to get the hang of him just because I’ve been a Spider-Man fan since childhood.

[@Khann_2102]

Best comment

[@meh.96]

Me with Ken, ever since SF3 Third Strike(cos Daigo). Tho funny enough, I dont like his SF6 design, so I play with his classic costume.

[@lasarousi]

Have you seen the amount of street fighter 6 channels that exclusively play the big thigh ladies just to add sexy mods.

[@TheCrazyOne2]

I don’t like this modern trend of video game characters being ugly. These people seem to think that a character being attractive is a bad thing but you have games like Nikke or Overwatch that have attractive characters and no one complains about it. It’s honestly just baffling to me how this mindset even came about

[@kinetik9197]

i love how nikkes gameplay is awful and yet it still manages to pull players in

[@RandomPerson-cf3gt]

I think it's jealousy

[@Roadiedave]

HIS?? Omg lol I thought Daw was a chick.

[@Cecilion88292]

Thats literally an ogre

[@Harmonia96]

Masahiro Sakurai holding a small lecture on his KZbin channel about character silhouettes a month prior to Concord bombing is a hilarious coincidence, almost for Sony to show "This is how *NOT* to do it."

[@ShadowPirateX]

Sakurai: “No… This is not how you’re supposed to play the game!”

[@vivelespatat2670]

He made games for good boys and girls after all

[@qwertzy121212]

Daw's shirt and pants are nearly the exact same shade as cigarette packs are in Canada (and several other countries like Australia, i think), a shade that was deliberately chosen to be as unappealing as possible lmfao

[@sombodythatyouusedtoknow9046]

As Fleekazoid said "Sex sales and budget cuts bankrupt" make attractive character and the players will go to you

[@baalfgames5318]

I've said it before and I'll say it once more: Women are objects, NOT people. Gamers want you to treat them as such.

[@ARStudios2000]

Do I see another Pimperor?

[@Living-pretzel]

Fleekazoid would make our fuhër proud

[@baalfgames5318]

@@sombodythatyouusedtoknow9046 Don't bother writing decent characters or personalities. Women are objects. All people want is big, jiggly balloons on their chests.

[@mitacestalia7532]

literally how snowbreak saves themselves from bankruptcy

[@mrz3062]

Games are meant to be an escape by transcending reality and depicting our fantasies. I don’t think Concord was successful in representing either.

[@baskogitlog7276]

You nailed it.

[@jsmoothd654]

I actually disagree. We should not pigeonhole Video Games as a medium to be escapism. I think video games can serve more than just being fun things we do. That being said, I think Concord failed at being realistic.

[@Destiny-absolete]

You know you're cooked when even rule 34 doesn't acknowledge your existence

[@ValkyrissaGaming]

I like that your explanations go far beyond the “diverse designs bad” of other people. Good video!

[@tirramasu7948]

Concord looks barely diverse I was looking at the lineup on the time It felt so generic like generic models

[@Mrhouse-k1x]

The Concord characters are so "diverse" that they look like npc:s from a low budget game made in early 2000:s

[@northerntoe]

When I saw the green girl “itsy” I actually could figure out what her powers were because she’s clearly supposed to be nightcrawler from X-Men The silhouette is recognizable because it’s basically stolen Other than that, she looks like one of those Navi from avatar Definitely the most interesting design I will admit, though the trashcan is OK he would be a good “Objective Npc” like the push bot he looks like something you would give an item to, and then he would fight for you or like a living tower from a moba shooter

[@Fluskar]

im gonna be honest, i deadass thought daw was a woman at first

[@JoseHernandez-xv2bt]

I thought the same too

[@kylesinkovich8332]

Same here.

[@SCREAMshot6781]

Same here as well. I thought that until I heard Daw's voice 💀

[@KnightEclipser]

Not every man or woman looks the same.

[@inizioreal]

Same

[@erasmus_locke]

It looks like a game that was specifically designed to be as inoffensive as possible. At best this results in vanilla and at worst it becomes disgusting flavorless paste

[@bambampewpew32]

Anybody gonna talk about how insanely long and unnecessary that pause was here lmfao 1:23

[@DXFromYT]

Hey, someone finally caught that. It was done to get the video above the 18 minute mark. Lol.

[@ducanhdinh8574]

@@DXFromYT Glad you're honest about that.

[@_Caedwyn]

9:28 "didnt understand the appeal in the first place" no i disagree. they KNOW what appeals to men. they do everything they can to avoid the male gaze.

[@All_Might371]

Absolutely they treat us as if we are not 80 to 90% of gamers, you know like, the people that they suppose to buy their game

[@floofzykitty5072]

Concord seemed so hellbent on avoiding objectifying and sexualising characters that it didn't realise that a sexualised character is not inherently objectified. A sexualised and objectified character has no personality or motives other than to be something the viewer ogles at. Think of the sterotypical damsel in distress that never contributes to the story, just exists to be seen and rescued. They are quite literally just an objective to achieve. A sexualised but non-objectified character is one who expresses agency in the story and influences the world around them directly. Think of a character like Bayonetta or Ada Wong, who drive the story forward and have their own motives and personality. Even when Ada becomes a "damsel in distress" in RE4, that doesn't retroactively remove the impact her actions had on the events of RE4. Your characters can be damn near nude for all I care as long as they are actually interesting characters.

[@ARStudios2000]

for the last point, Conan the Barbarian!

[@phaolo6]

@floofzykitty5072 True, even if there's nothing bad if a female character just wanted to look sexy without being a "strong woman" or having "manipulative behaviours". Objectifying happens when sexualization isn't justified from the character's point of view and interests. Btw even objectifying isn't that outrageous, as long as it doesn't become prevalent in the industry. Guys sometimes just want to look at sexy girls without any deeper meaning hehe.

[@arsenkurmangali2997]

Quiet from mgs5

[@johnernest5843]

Good point about Bayonnetta She's sexualized to the cahoots, but you never think she's helpless or a mere background character. She's a bitch ass boss that's beloved by women and men alike. And even when she's damn near nude, her silhouette, face, and personality are still the highlights of her design

[@andhieyusuf7008]

Correct. The answer to objectifying sexualization of girls in video games is not full-on puritanism: make them strong, intelligent and proud of themselves. Also, balance them with equally hot guys.

[@BlackAera]

4:17 Wait a second... that's a MALE character?! No wonder the designs don't work... I legit thought that was an overweight woman.

[@franglais-riders]

Me too !!

[@darkspark5854]

Same….

[@RaizelLi]

thats spiderman's best friend

[@karamb1t_420]

Welcome to California

[@KnightEclipser]

"that's a MALE character?! [...] I legit thought that was an overweight woman." Not every man or woman looks the same.

[@nufsioohay]

"Cosmetic microtransactions don't affect gameplay so they are ok to have." I'd love to hear these people come back and say something now because sure it didn't affect gameplay.... but they affected gaming as a whole.

[@angel_of_rust]

show them a game from the 6th console gen where cosmetics and characters are simply unlockable by playing the game or entering cheat codes and they will disintegrate in real time

[@nufsioohay]

@@angel_of_rust they can't imagine having to actually play a game to unlock stuff.

[@phaolo6]

All true, even if cosmetic can also affect gameplay in multiplayer, since it can make more difficult to recognize characters on the fly due to the mess of available skins.

[@Mediados]

Because they could not see how vile they would be with it.

[@nufsioohay]

@@phaolo6 yeah there's a chance that can happen in competitive games.

[@NZOMV]

2b. That is all.

[@SteveTheVehicon]

A man of culture i see

[@TheUltimateSigma2000]

Nothing can top 2b 🗿🍷

[@HotDogGodorno]

man i dont even know where she came from but i see that girl EVERYWHERE lol, so much cosplayers and modded skins

[@guysome7469]

Sex sells, budget cuts bankrupt.

[@HomersIlliad]

Concord's designs were so bad that I couldn't even guess their genders correctly, let alone their roles.

[@anzheilen5217]

I guess that's their intenton behind the design and they nailed it perfectly seeing how your reaction is.

[@mrbluebell2735]

Took a while to dig down. Every one except the mushroom xenomorph Lark is male. They run like sissies yet bone structure is teen boy size adjusted.

[@JoeyP946]

lmaoo

[@DioTheGreatOne]

My brother, that was their intention.

[@silverfoalan9045]

That’s why they have the pronouns in character info

[@solidskullz5736]

The character design in concord is basically corporate executives thinking that throwing random bright colors one word looking outfits is enough to be interesting. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it and some of them don’t even look like they belong in the game itself

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

The designs fe3l AI generated

[@mattd5240]

You know what. I'm honna have to disagree. The designs I've gotten from AI are leagues better than anything in concord. AI is more creative than the empty vessels on the character design team.​@@flamestoyershadowkill

[@ARStudios2000]

They feel like corporate art if it was rendered realistically 3D

[@temtem9255]

Oh no there is definitely a method to the madness here. It's basically 'guardians of the galaxy but sex appeal is banned and we need to tick checkboxes'

[@jacplac97]

Daw even makes Heavy from TF2 look fit and healthy.

[@JeanneHamada]

Now that's just unfair comparison. Heavy might look fat but he is still an athlete

[@jacplac97]

@@JeanneHamada He's literally called "fat" in some localizations.

[@charlie_541]

@@JeanneHamadaall the other characters in TF2 bully heavy for being fat lol

[@zuhdibeyblade9]

​@@JeanneHamadahe is slow and eats a lot. Even engineer, with his 11 PHDs called him fat.

[@JeanneHamada]

@@zuhdibeyblade9 Engineer is a nerd with 11 Ph.D

[@genericcringe1271]

Came for the thumbnail. Stayed for the video. A perfect lesson of character design in a KZbinr.

[@teneesh3376]

There's one fascinating thing about character to design. We are constantly told not to judge a book by its cover to not stereotype anyone. But in good character design, this is basically what you do. Making sure that a character's look is meant to explain who that character is. Exceptions being the subversions of expectations

[@blobfish1649]

Well I think the difference is that with a book, you only see the title at the beginning. It has little/no impact during the reading experience. A character, on the other hand, DOES impact the playing experience, so it's acceptable to judge them before playing.

[@MothershipLoudspeakerz]

I asked my computer what he thought about char design and it answered with "80085" Hard agree tbh

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Concord's designs are based on spite. They were far more concerned about sending whatever message they wanted against whom they considered "toxic male straight heyero gamers" blah blah blah, they thought that by DEFAULT their designs would be some sort of groundbreaking statement. This is the results; a bunch of characters who have proved to everyone they haven't played games from the last 4 decades if they think ANY of the ideas presented are 'firsts'.

[@baalfgames5318]

Considering the people they are "spiteful" towards are racist, sexist, homophobic bigots who think they are the only people that should be pandered to, and that women should never be allowed to look average because women are not people: they are objects. Frankly, the spite cry-wokers recieved is deserved. Don't get me wrong, the designs in Concord are still awful, but cry-wokers are worse.

[@Spongemonkey26]

I'd argue the core mission for most of the activists in game development and media is spite against the actual players.

[@Valarius_J]

They did everything in their power to make a game for people that don't actually play the games, yet spend all their time trying to change them.

[@orboakin8074]

Well said 😂 Given how current western media are so fixated on making female and diverse characters ugly and with terrible personality, can we be blamed for not buying their stuff? Still confuses me as a Nigerian.

[@Reverse_Hood]

nonsensical straw-manning

[@serioserkanalname499]

Even if you fixed literally every other issue concord had, like the price-tag, the speed, the gameplay, the "poses" whatever... it still would've died the exact same because the second people saw those clowns you were supposed to play everyone immidiately lost all intrest. Nothing after that first 0.1 second mattered. Same for hyenas btw. The trailer was just filled to the brim with literal clowns scraped from the bottom of the playpit at mcdonalds in seattle and you show those designs to someone for half a second they're never gonna give you money.

[@claytonlehmann3483]

Every time you cut to Daw on screen I burst out laughing 💀

[@abdulrahmanzubairu8371]

I just see a less hungry roadhog

[@kosmosfan01]

Kiriko really is a money maker in OW2. I have a friend who will outright tell me how they didn't like a skin for her despite buying it and then perform some mental gymnastics when I asked why they got it in the first place since you didn't need to buy it to see how it looked with all the YT channels out there that showcase them.

[@ArdaSReal]

I already now she will get a new Halloween skin and theyre going to make 500 trillion bucks lol

[@kosmosfan01]

@@ArdaSReal Yup. Just throw out a recolored Witch Kiriko and there you go lol

[@yokoyakamori6589]

I waited until this video to finally see what Concord actually looked like and my god, there is almost nothing salvageable with most of these character designs.

[@-_Nuke_-]

As a graphics designer, I know that many of you might find this criticism very harsh on Concord. But in our industry - this is how people talk to each other - this is how you eventually get to have good looking things, and more importantly - things that work. This video is basically what you would hear if you could evesdrop into a meeting between designers. I don't know if DX is a designer himself - but if he's not - then he clearly has all the correct mindset to become one.

[@nedjimb0]

I think a better comparison is Steven Universe. SU's characters have a wide range of body types, not just "sexy waifu". Like, Amethyst. The Rubies. Rose. Sadie. Jasper. Steven. Greg. All of them have beautiful design, complementary themes and color schemes. All of them look good. All of them are almost immediately recognizable from their silhouette.

[@donuttree1]

Agreed, SU would have been a much better angle. "it's like a Steven Universe hero shooter" and everything that implies. lack of male gaze, and all.

[@mikubrot]

the designs look like they don't know if they're cartoony or realistic. why have (realistic) impratical outfits if all their movements are still and lifeless? they end up looking like they're cosplaying themselves. seriously. I don't personally mind "ugly" characters but if there isn't even a personality behind a mediocre design, what is there to enjoy at all??

[@Tehstampede]

It amazes me that nobody has made a hero shooter where all the characters are just hot chicks with bikini premium cosmetics, while having a fun gameplay loop and fairly passive monetization. Whoever does this first will be literally printing money.

[@csabaszabo6859]

I don't think we are too far away from what you describe.

[@lumirairazbyte9697]

That is NIKKE, and each character cost up to three times the price of Concord.

[@rossman8919]

no because you gotta make the work (or pay) for the bikini , if you give them the bikini too quickly they'll snap out of the trance and realize they can just watch porn instead

[@srt7248]

@@lumirairazbyte9697 really? pretty sure you still get decent amount of premium character even being casual f2p player.

[@lumirairazbyte9697]

@@srt7248 You don’t have the ability to chose the character you want. In the worst case, you have the character after 200 pulls.

[@crytkryssus9851]

Whenever I see Daw, I just think "Homeless Mei".

[@kevintrabert1922]

How to spend 400 million being unremarkably average. They tried so hard to do everything they achieved nothing. This is a lesson for the history books.

[@G.A.C_Preserve]

Be simple. Less is more

[@yurazah]

it bothers me how many people have said the issue is that it had a price tag, dude that doesn't matter. when people played early access no one was going "guys you gotta try this" none of the characters are appealing so no hype was drawn, its a game made by people marketing to an imaginary audience then being shocked when the actual audience of normal people weren't interested in it

[@direravendenial8947]

The name Concord only for me being British of a certain age reminded me of the airliner and as the name of a game seems from my point of view an odd choice for a hero shooter. The points you made are very valid and well-thought-out regardless, and 2 weeks has to be a record for a game live service to be shut down. If I had not seen your video on it and someone mentioned this game to me would be thinking about how on earth is it named after an airliner that was caught in a serious tragedy and taken away from the world. Still back on track well thought out and your right Blizzard has always understood good character design. Obviously, Sony missed that memo...

[@KevRyanCG]

'Character Design' and that picture of Widowmaker is saying more than words here.

[@toreole5831]

Let me just „copy paste“ this from tbskyen‘s take on concords designs: „These are just people wearing clothes“ They arent characters, theyre just random people pulled off the street. How „attractive“ they are or arent isnt even a factor. We are not being given a reason to care about designs that the designers did not care about themselves

[@LHWK_RHC]

I'd never even heard of Concord until I started getting YT recommendations for videos on how badly it failed.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

Randomly recommended your channel, but I remember I used to watch your "I f*cking hate" series back in the day. Powerful thumbnail

[@driguesbarcellos]

ooooh, so that WAS him, i thought i was triping here

[@TempoLOOKING]

​@@driguesbarcellosgood times...oh the SAO video....yah Kiritos foundation got a lit from those videos😂.

[@mekingtiger9095]

Lol, I know him exactly from that series. Good times!

[@madeumad64]

TF2's initial design principle focused on the silhouette rule, making every class be distinguishable by their silhouette. Plus the color choices makes it instinctively clear who the enemy is and who is a teammate . I feel like with Overwatch, I'm shooting at the chaos, hoping I hit the enemy. But that's just me.

[@ARStudios2000]

Nah I feel ya on that

[@TheAkrillion]

While Overwatch doesn't focus on colorcoding the enemies and teammates, the silhouettes still play a big part in gameplay. If I'm on an elevation and about to start sniping the enemy team, if I see a big fat man with a gasmask and a hook round the corner, I know I'm not looking at someone like Soldier 76 or Lifeweaver, I'm looking at Roadhog, the tank with the hook who can grab me from all the way down there and bring me to him. Games like COD is where the "hero shooter" esque design philosophy falls through, because you see the hot woman in skintight suit or furry outfit and you can't tell if that's the enemy or a teammate, because both teams have characters with that overall design or skin. Same with the billionth edgy black skin with skulls, flames or a hood over their head(sometimes even all three, in the case of Ghost).

[@shrub8644]

Definitely the part about homing spores made me think of my experiences with OW

[@spectre9340]

I'm a woman and since I was a kid, I dreaded the idea of being sexualized and objectified BUT as a gamer, I want to play cool and/or attractive characters Why would I be drawn to a character I barely want to look at?

[@ArdaSReal]

Characters have to look cool and unique, not necessarily sexy

[@spectre9340]

@@ArdaSReal that's what a lot of these companies don't understand Not every female character in Overwatch is sexy but they all have appeal There were ways to make the Concord characters look appealing but they didn't know how to achieve their "desexualization" mission while still having good character design

[@Meatdude]

This is the most bizarre comment I have seen, but to best there own I suppose

[@smeissner328]

Your last statement is very true. I remember when Mass Effect came out, I saw an ad in a magazine and I was instantly hooked. That ad was all it took to get me to buy the game at the earliest opportunity (to be fair, I was already a huge sci-fi nerd, but still). The same concept meant that box art used to be a huge deal. In high school, (back when physical disks for consoles were still the norm) I used to go to gamestop and other secondhand retailers to look for games that I could afford. The box art was the first hook that a game had. I've bought some pretty crappy games because the box art was amazing.

[@SlashHarkenUltra]

Emari's armor looks like what your soldiers start out with in XCOM Enemy Unknown

[@dassemultor6940]

"Mercy's design is incredible." Incredibly hot.

[@The_whales]

I feel like whoever designed the concord characters wanted to avoid stereotyping, which not only ruins them but also ruins the confuses the player has if you expect you think but get another it’s very jarring

[@ARStudios2000]

Well for trying to avoid stereotypes, they sure as hell made several themselves especially for the black characters. Bazz looks like freaking Thugnificent crossed with a disco wizard. Jabali and Bazz both wear the Morpheus shades, Jabali and Vale both do the braid things (despite wearing hats that would make those braids uncomfortable and ruin them especially in Vales case)

[@TakaCode]

DX calmly and casually roasting Concord. Great work man😂😊

[@brunokunzel9208]

I think its also interesting to note that overwatch characters always play around with stereotypes (e.g.: the rash, loud german knight, the seductive french sniper, the american Cowboys) i feel like this overexaggeration helped a lot with building readable, cohesive characters

[@alnoso]

yeah, definitely cassidy's cowboy aesthetic makes his "stand-off" ultimate and quick-draw abilities very predictable and his personality matches that the australian mad max character with burnt hair (junkrat) makes it obvious he'll probably be blowing stuff up and his personality matches that the edgy all black clothes character (reaper) is predictably back-stabby and his personality matches that again the sexy french woman is all seductive in her personality and doesn't like to get her hands dirty in-game, predictable again there's a lot of clues in overwatch's character design that points to their personalities. concord's daw could really be anything and anyone, I have no idea from looking at him what he does in-game, if he's supposed to be fun and goofy, or serious and professional, etc. and this is a hero shooter, there is no opportunity for character development or plot twists. believe it or not, concord's roka, the astronaut looking woman with the spacesuit helmet, is supposed to be like pharah in OW, flying around and raining down rockets. yet nothing in her design except maybe her helment tells you she flies around, no part of her design gives way to that. she has a TINY hoverpack type thing on her back that's the same color as the rest of her suit and is completely invisible from the front, which is just really bad design for a game like this. if you ask me, the helmet being so big makes her look more like a d.va type character, piloting some mechsuit which would make the helmet look proportional to the mech. the helmet being opaque would also lend itself to implying there's some sort of screen on the inside which could relay her information about the mech. but none of that is true, she just flies around as is and shoots rockets like pharah. hell even the hoverpack is so small that you would think it was a place for her to plug into the mech, kinda like the neural links in cyberpunk.

[@mccoolfriend6818]

I see Widowmaker I click. I see Concord I need an exorcism

[@TheeDeathCaster]

With a more serious comment xd, I think another great example of character design is for the characters from Team Fortress 2. Tbh I was kind of surprised it wasn't brought up considering Overwatch and Team Fortress 2 were compared so heavily years ago.

[@Dave.A.R]

Of course it sells games. That's one of the reasons Nintendo put special interest in Ocarina of Time's character designs. Not just Nintendo, that's why Sega kept redesigning Sonic to make him more appealing.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

The fact there is no rule 34 nsfw content for Concord tells you everything you need to know. The fact that not even the most hardcore online degenerates wanna touch their game with a ten foot pole, shows how hard it failed to resonate with almost anyone.

[@pacoramon9468]

It easy, put a hot woman on the cover, that's how Overwatch made billions.

[@tasenova2717]

"because that's like saying no one in real life, can be attractive" 10:01 That is hardest bar I have ever heard in game design discussions. This is such a good video.

[@Nathan-Croft]

When you start a DX video, you know, you're gonna get something special

[@MrJohnReviews]

Alternative Title - Why Character Design is EVERYTHING - The Overwatch Theorem Nice video man

[@DawnOfTheOzz]

The worst character design was, I think, Lennox. That lizard man Yondu rip with a human face looking... thing. The very human face is off-putting enough against the green scaly skin with quills but then we get to his... hair? Quills? That odd looking Mohawk on top of his head which was accentuated by a tiny little man-bun at the back. That man-bun alone made my eyelids twitch with rage and fury.

[@tontobr8387]

The fact I only ever played overwatch was because of reaper and Cassidy says a lot about how relevant character design is 💀

[@ArdaSReal]

Crazy

[@BorderlandsBoy0]

After experiencing The First Descendant Reddit community I can confirm it’s all about outfits that show the most skin possible for all the female characters. And some people are willing to spend anything to look like that while playing a online multiplayer game

[@socriabbas454]

As an artist who specializes in character design specifically (mostly from commissions) I whole heartedly agree. Look at our famous cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse or Spongebob, these characters are recognizable not because they are popular but because they visually look good to look at. Even if you take away the details and the colors and just leave the character in a silhouette you can still easily recognize them because of their simple figure. Im not saying you should follow the design choices but it should be the standard when you're creating a character and you want that character to be recognizable. You can shit on OW for being a shitty game but you cant deny how good their character design is. Another thing to consider is that if you are designing character there's two things you can go with, either you want to approach it in a practical way or the visual way. Concord didnt do either, all of their character design is neither practical.. or visually good.

[@GeometryEX-hp9zs]

The best way to remember a character is to highlight their characteristics. Sometimes it's a physical feature, sometimes it's a weapon, sometimes it's just a simple shape. Being easily recognizable is the basis.

[@mrbluebell2735]

Doesn't help that 9 of the 16 characters have a similar body type amd size. Anything larger becomes a priority target.

[@Eilandfreier364]

As a fellow artist (character modeller) I think you did a fantastic job explaining design principles. Have a sub and hopefully you'll get many more :)