Welcome back to our monthly update! This time we’ll be taking a look at what goes into making character art for Wytchwood!
All characters in Wytchwood start out as a set of sketches to try and nail down the shape and feel of what they need to do. Some characters need to be able to move around, and some just need to stand and look pretty. The sketching phase is where we’ll break down all the different parts of a character and how their puppet can be made.
We then create the art for the character, and break up all the moving parts into separate pieces for a animated puppet. The number and complexity of parts varies wildly from character to character; do their legs need to be able to jump? Do they move their mouth? Are they doing a specific action, like digging a field or knocking on a door?
To make the puppet, we assemble all the parts in Spine, a skeletal animation program. From here, we can create all the needed animations and effects for the character. Once it’s ready, it can be imported into the game for testing! It usually takes a few revisions to make sure everything is working properly.
Some character, like the players Witch, are more complex. She currently requires 6 different puppets (one for each direction), each with their own animation set. Because she’s the central character of the game, we needed to put a lot more attention to detail into her art.
Other characters, like these villagers, also need to be multiple characters. Each one has a different skin we can run on the same animation puppet so we can easily create a wide visual variety without needing too many extra resources.
Narrative characters are the unique and memorable story players that fill out the fairytales on Wytchwood. Most of their interaction comes through the game’s dialogue and magic systems, but they visually change a lot depending on what their role in the story is. Usually narrative characters will need multiple puppets as their story progresses and their actions change.
That’s it for this month - be sure to wishlist on steam to keep up with future updates!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/729000/Wytchwood/- Jesse