How To Design Characters for Indie Games

How To Design Characters for Indie Games
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Hey Guys! Welcome back to a Guide to Making Indie Games! This week we are diving into a big topic, art direction and character design. I'm sure I will show you more of the process as we progress with this game, but I hope this is a good place to get started :)

[@PieYT]

I've always loved the look of pixel art in games. A lot more can be expressed than one would initially assume

[@apoxfox]

It's a great medium for learning how to make art!

[@ApplesRYum]

all of your characters are designed so excellently, i love them.

[@apoxfox]

Thanks so much for the kind words!! 😄

[@zdelga3569]

Man your pixel art is amazing!

[@apoxfox]

Thanks!! 😁

[@CrazyFox1337]

Love the advice! I've been slowly getting back into game development and really appreciate how well edited and put together your videos are! Can't wait to see more and can't wait to see more of your games!

[@apoxfox]

Thanks so much! I’m no expert by any means but I find that sharing my game dev journey with other people has been really helpful!

[@TheGameCourier]

I needed this video lol My character design needs a ton of work

[@apoxfox]

Hope I can help! Love your devlogs by the way 😁 the one about picking better ideas got me so motivated!

[@Xiimo_]

just now i was looking for character design in pixel art, really loved your video, subscribed

[@SadTown99]

Wow dude, your pixel art is great… Especially love the portraits! 👏💫

[@apoxfox]

Thanks so much! 😄

[@Jagi125]

It's cool to watch someone with a lot of experience designing characters, but if I tried to actually apply any of this to my process, I'd burn out before getting anything done.

[@apoxfox]

That makes sense, there’s no wrong or right way to design characters! I’m curious about your process now though

[@Jagi125]

@@apoxfox There is not really much to it, really. I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to drawing in general, so trying to make a character personality visible in the design would just mean that I'd have to redraw everything the whole time. So instead of spending all my time budget on improving from bad to slightly less bad, I can just focus on other parts and just do some drawing practice on the side.

[@kgosiitsilemodisaesi7580]

👍🏽

[@cheesymcnuggets]

This comment is essentially me just thinking out loud, read it if you want i guess, it's kinda long... Im currently trying to design a whole cast of characters, im not so much worried about the visual design just yet, more so the personalities and their purpose. It's hard to know how many characters I'll need or want, then to make them different enough from each other that they are iconic in their own right. My focus isn't plot, I'm keeping that simple so that the characters can pop and arguably keeping the characters simple can also help them pop. So a simple light-hearted silly-serious game with characters that reflect that. My main complication is my game is meant to tackle dark themes to do with depression. I feel like goofy characters will conflict my intentions rather than act as a well-balanced contrast to the serious theme that I originally intended them for. Some amazing advice I was recently told is that I can add my absurd humour into serious characters simply by altering their environment so long as the character believes they are serious, it can achieve both. Obviously don't do this for everyone but it proves you can still add your type of humour into all kinds of character archetypes and that personality isn't limited when trying to express a specific tone. I guess I'm confused about when I should prompt certain events, like how tf do I let my protagonist have a mental breakdown between silly moments, at the end of each major location in game seems like a good time for some proper emotion and intense dialogue but how do ease in and out of that, at one point can I say... okay, now I can add silliness back. Maybe a way around that is to never completely remove it, sometimes emotionally intense and/or wholesome moments can feel a bit silly, at least to me they do. But yeah anyway, that's not my current issue, I still don't know how many significant characters I should add, it seems like a weirdly simple problem that I just can't get right. I'm close though, I can feel it, once I overcome this issue, I'll go on a streak and knock out the rest of the game's story, I've been in the planning stage since the Unity drama when I scrapped my roguelike project and learnt Godot instead... so for quite a few months I've been at a mental block for what kind of game I want this to be. Apparently narrative writing isn't my strong suit lmao, who would've thought, it's not like I failed every English class from the start of Primary school to the end of High school lol :D As bad as I am at writing, I care a lot about what I want to express with this game and won't accept anything less than what I would consider an enjoyable game, iteration will iron out my creative flaws and determination will make sure this game will be released even if it takes me a huge chunk of my life, it's not about the money, it's about achieving my dreams of making a video game and expressing myself through it.

[@apoxfox]

I'd say just take it one character at a time, character design is tough but only make as many characters as you need at the time you know?

[@cheesymcnuggets]

@@apoxfox Yes perhaps you're right. But im afraid doing it like that will result in their personal relationships to other characters being a bit messy and looking like a last second thought. People wouldnt be who they are without those around them, I wouldnt be me if it wasnt for my friends or family. I just dont want my characters to be raised in isolation as if they dont influence each other in anyway. I know i dont want them to be too complicated but they still have to make sense in the context of their own world. Im also afraid that building them one after another will create them uneven, not only that but it may also cause the problem that the characters only exist to serve the protagonist when the game is meant to be equally about the other characters as much as it is the protagonist. Regardless, I'll take your advice and try making one character at a time and see how it goes, I can always redesign or scrap them if I'm not satisfied.

[@apoxfox]

Well you never know unless you try 🤷‍♂️ sometimes too much planning leads to nothing getting done. Good luck!

[@Plide]

Personally, I feel like sillier characters can absolutely still convey emotion for serious scenes and plots well. Paper Mario: The Origami King's characters are very cartoony paper cutouts, yet the game can still handle character death seriously. I feel like a sillier cast of characters provides a great contrast, making so when the tone does get serious, it hits harder.

[@melofox._]

Wait, you know the first HipHop film WildStyle?

[@apoxfox]

Yessss love that movie

[@Michael-The-Composer]

Hi, your game is looking pretty cool! If you're looking for a soundtrack, I could compose for you!

[@apoxfox]

Hey! Thanks for reaching out :) I'm actually going to try to make my own OST for this game but feel free to join our discord, there are a bunch of developers there who might need your help!

[@Michael-The-Composer]

@@apoxfox No problem, will do

[@Michael-The-Composer]

No problem, will do!

[@RialuCaos]

I just wanted to say that the single mole pixel near her mouth at 2:47 changes position too much which would bother me an inordinate amount.

[@apoxfox]

haha understood, the mole was becoming a character of its own