Need some feedback on these character designs

[VanVeleca]

So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy

It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones

When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

[BlueKnightSkeleton]

I guess they're cool.

[Thetageist]

Perhaps it’s my bias when I hear about visual novels, but I see them in a school setting. Here’s my Scientific Wild Ass Guess, with some psychoanalysis because that’s usually what comes first to mind. (Apologies if I misgender any of the characters.)

Left to right, top to bottom:

1. Alternative fashion girl, may either act mean to protect herself from other people or just be dissatisfied with her life in general, especially in a school setting. Cares about the other two, who I assume are her friends, even though she may deny it to other kids.
2. She looks outdoorsy and probably has some quiet self-confidence, not being willing to succumb to teasing about being a “nature freak” or what have you.
3. Pinkie Pie personality. The optimist of the group, really sweet, and may defend people even if they themselves don’t think it’s worth the hassle.
4. He’s quiet, may have health issues or just be cautious about catching stuff, based on the face mask. Could struggle with depression or similar, he seems to be not motivated to do much. Might put up a facade of not caring, but if he lets you in, he’s actually quite tender inside and cares perhaps a bit too much.
5. Kinda the opposite, lives for the spotlight and does reckless things for attention. May come from a lower-income background, perhaps both parents work and they don’t have much time for him, causing him to act that way at school. May be chill if you befriend him in a genuine way that doesn’t involve making him “perform” for you.
6. The pseudointellectual of the class, uses what academic trivia she does know to prove her preexisting opinions. Possibly has some anxiety about the direction the world is headed, though she’s too young to impact it much. She vents this anxiety through trying to push people into agreeing with her. (Perhaps I’m projecting one of my classmates from middle/high school onto her.)
7. That outfit is probably a sports uniform. She might be on the soccer team, and be a tomboy/“one of the boys”. Maybe her dad has had more influence over her than her mom. Either way, she’s probably not very good at telling people how she feels.
8. Those clothes look very old-school compared to the rest. This may be the one who’s forced to present themselves (herself?) like an adult from a young age. Looks like they might be c Asian? Which is not meant to give a stereotype, just seems to happen a lot when your parents come from certain cultures. May be a mess/class clown underneath, but doesn’t get in trouble out of fear of parents.
9. The clothes look hand-sewn. Perhaps she’s the artsy/crafty kid who makes her own stuff a lot. Probably dabbles in a lot of different media, but art is her one defining hobby.
10. Gamer kid, I think. Probably the one videotaping the green haired dude all the time and egging him on. Doesn’t sleep worth shit, hence his eyebags. I may be completely wrong due to the nail polish I just now saw, though.
11. Another alt fashion kid for the first girl to hang out with. Seems a little anxious based on her expression. Gets dress coded.

[Skoops]

At 12/27/23 06:04 PM, VanVeleca wrote: So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy
It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones
When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

Something that's keeping me from thinking of these characters as playing distinct roles in a story is the fact that they all use the exact same mannequin. Different body types and proportions are a major factor of character design that help inform their personalities and roles, and that's missing here. Taken one at a time, I can probably guess what they'd be like, but as an ensemble with everyone placed next to each other, they start to lose their individuality. It's hard to tell who would be a lead character or a support character without being told, and despite having different clothes and hair styles, they feel mostly interchangeable.

Seems like you have a decent set of ideas here, you just need to keep developing them until I could pick a silhouette off of a lineup and make a good guess at what their role is.

[0blivions]

I think you've done a great job at individualising each character with unique hairstyles and facial features (like the different nose types and eyes) even though your style is very simple and cartoony, so nice work :)

I agree with what Skoops said above. Silhouettes are an important part of character design so try representing your characters with different builds, like muscular, skinny, chubby, different heights etc etc. It's easy to implement since you already seem to have finalised their designs otherwise. This, and different poses/postures makes a huge addition to showcasing each character and I'd love to see their personality displayed in that way :D

[VanVeleca]

At 12/28/23 12:16 AM, Thetageist wrote: Perhaps it’s my bias when I hear about visual novels, but I see them in a school setting. Here’s my Scientific Wild Ass Guess, with some psychoanalysis because that’s usually what comes first to mind. (Apologies if I misgender any of the characters.)

Left to right, top to bottom:

Thank you very much for the detailed reply!

1, Sieglinde Neapolitan

Pretty accurate-ish

2, Lucia Archer

Outdoorsy...I guess that kind of fits?

3, Ichigo

uwu

4, Henry (Hacksaw) Winters

I completely forgot that masks tend to be used for health reasons lmao

5, Michael (Machete) Orville

He's pretty chill if you're his buddy yea

6, Winslow Salek

She is actually a he 😅 other than that it's pretty accurate

7, Ingrid Goldprice

She's a mix of a tomboy but also a girlie girl...huh, would that just make her androgynous? 🤔

8, Katie Tanaka

Old school lmao, well, her design IS based on a mish mash of hippie fashion so that's pretty accurate

9, Olivia Mel

Her dress was a bit too complicated in her previous design so I wanted to simplify it, I didn't even notice that it had a hand-made feel to it!

10, Elijah Sweetgrave

GAMER KID?!....hm, the green and the symbols does kinda remind me of Xbox now that you mention it

11, Rosario Catapang

"Gets dress coded" 🤣

[VanVeleca]

At 12/28/23 01:49 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/27/23 06:04 PM, VanVeleca wrote: So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy
It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones
When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

Something that's keeping me from thinking of these characters as playing distinct roles in a story is the fact that they all use the exact same mannequin. Different body types and proportions are a major factor of character design that help inform their personalities and roles, and that's missing here. Taken one at a time, I can probably guess what they'd be like, but as an ensemble with everyone placed next to each other, they start to lose their individuality. It's hard to tell who would be a lead character or a support character without being told, and despite having different clothes and hair styles, they feel mostly interchangeable.

Seems like you have a decent set of ideas here, you just need to keep developing them until I could pick a silhouette off of a lineup and make a good guess at what their role is.

yeeea....distinct body types are one of my weaknesses...

I did try to make them more unique by making some characters slightly chubbier or slighly thinner. Some of them have a more mature-ish/going through puberty body type (these characters are in the fifth/sixth grade) but they look still really uniform gotta agree

Hopefully it won't be too much of a issue for when the game comes out, I mean, a visual novel with characters who look very similar/have the same body type is like finding a piece of hay in a haystack 😅

[Skoops]

At 12/28/23 06:38 AM, VanVeleca wrote:

At 12/28/23 01:49 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/27/23 06:04 PM, VanVeleca wrote: So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy
It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones
When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

Something that's keeping me from thinking of these characters as playing distinct roles in a story is the fact that they all use the exact same mannequin. Different body types and proportions are a major factor of character design that help inform their personalities and roles, and that's missing here. Taken one at a time, I can probably guess what they'd be like, but as an ensemble with everyone placed next to each other, they start to lose their individuality. It's hard to tell who would be a lead character or a support character without being told, and despite having different clothes and hair styles, they feel mostly interchangeable.

Seems like you have a decent set of ideas here, you just need to keep developing them until I could pick a silhouette off of a lineup and make a good guess at what their role is.

yeeea....distinct body types are one of my weaknesses...

I did try to make them more unique by making some characters slightly chubbier or slighly thinner. Some of them have a more mature-ish/going through puberty body type (these characters are in the fifth/sixth grade) but they look still really uniform gotta agree

Hopefully it won't be too much of a issue for when the game comes out, I mean, a visual novel with characters who look very similar/have the same body type is like finding a piece of hay in a haystack 😅

Well, don't let the failures of other people's projects be an excuse to make the same mistake; you're not locked-in or anything. Look at good casts of characters from good games and try to be more like them.

[Thetageist]

At 12/28/23 07:07 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/28/23 06:38 AM, VanVeleca wrote:

At 12/28/23 01:49 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/27/23 06:04 PM, VanVeleca wrote: So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy
It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones
When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

Something that's keeping me from thinking of these characters as playing distinct roles in a story is the fact that they all use the exact same mannequin. Different body types and proportions are a major factor of character design that help inform their personalities and roles, and that's missing here. Taken one at a time, I can probably guess what they'd be like, but as an ensemble with everyone placed next to each other, they start to lose their individuality. It's hard to tell who would be a lead character or a support character without being told, and despite having different clothes and hair styles, they feel mostly interchangeable.

Seems like you have a decent set of ideas here, you just need to keep developing them until I could pick a silhouette off of a lineup and make a good guess at what their role is.

yeeea....distinct body types are one of my weaknesses...

I did try to make them more unique by making some characters slightly chubbier or slighly thinner. Some of them have a more mature-ish/going through puberty body type (these characters are in the fifth/sixth grade) but they look still really uniform gotta agree

Hopefully it won't be too much of a issue for when the game comes out, I mean, a visual novel with characters who look very similar/have the same body type is like finding a piece of hay in a haystack 😅

Well, don't let the failures of other people's projects be an excuse to make the same mistake; you're not locked-in or anything. Look at good casts of characters from good games and try to be more like them.

I’m often wondering when the justification of “it’s a style” begins to work with this type of “objectively bad” art trait. Is it when the characters become a circle head on a square body with floating hands, like Homestuck or Madness Combat?

[OnixDark]

At 12/28/23 11:13 AM, Thetageist wrote:

At 12/28/23 07:07 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/28/23 06:38 AM, VanVeleca wrote:

At 12/28/23 01:49 AM, Skoops wrote:

At 12/27/23 06:04 PM, VanVeleca wrote: So next year I am gonna be finishing up a script and then programm a visual novel in Renpy
It'll be around 50k words and have a relatively large cast (3 main characters, 8 side characters and a few miscellaneous characters needed for specific scenes)

These are them, the girls at the top are the main ones
When you see these characters, what do you think of them?

What setting are they from? Where do you think they should belong? Can you guess their personality from the design alone? Which character seems like they would have a large role in the VN? Anything like that

They were largely inspired by Muppets, Sesame street and Naruto characters

Something that's keeping me from thinking of these characters as playing distinct roles in a story is the fact that they all use the exact same mannequin. Different body types and proportions are a major factor of character design that help inform their personalities and roles, and that's missing here. Taken one at a time, I can probably guess what they'd be like, but as an ensemble with everyone placed next to each other, they start to lose their individuality. It's hard to tell who would be a lead character or a support character without being told, and despite having different clothes and hair styles, they feel mostly interchangeable.

Seems like you have a decent set of ideas here, you just need to keep developing them until I could pick a silhouette off of a lineup and make a good guess at what their role is.

yeeea....distinct body types are one of my weaknesses...

I did try to make them more unique by making some characters slightly chubbier or slighly thinner. Some of them have a more mature-ish/going through puberty body type (these characters are in the fifth/sixth grade) but they look still really uniform gotta agree

Hopefully it won't be too much of a issue for when the game comes out, I mean, a visual novel with characters who look very similar/have the same body type is like finding a piece of hay in a haystack 😅

Well, don't let the failures of other people's projects be an excuse to make the same mistake; you're not locked-in or anything. Look at good casts of characters from good games and try to be more like them.

I’m often wondering when the justification of “it’s a style” begins to work with this type of “objectively bad” art trait. Is it when the characters become a circle head on a square body with floating hands, like Homestuck or Madness Combat?

may be a matter of personal taste... it is something they need to fix, but do they need to fix it ASAP or can they afford to fix it on the fly, as they draw the same character over and over?

I'd say let them refine the style into separate body types at their own pace if they're trying at all, but that's just me.

maybe i'm wrong to say it, but somebody developing on the fly is better than somebody stuck in improvement limbo?

[Skoops]

At 12/28/23 11:13 AM, Thetageist wrote: I’m often wondering when the justification of “it’s a style” begins to work with this type of “objectively bad” art trait. Is it when the characters become a circle head on a square body with floating hands, like Homestuck or Madness Combat?

It's not objectively bad across the board, it's just contextually counterintuitive here. It's fine to have cookie cutter designs when your characters are meant to be cookie cutter. If it's Among Us or Fall Guys, the whole point is that they're too disposable to put any thought into their individual character design; it's popular in games where death comes quick and you're supposed to feel insignificant. VNs exist on the polar opposite of that spectrum; the whole point is individuality and strength of character design, both in visuals and writing. That's why I say it's an unambiguous failure of the designers and the mark of bad game design if a VN has cookie cutter characters, specifically because it's a VN.

I feel like most games that make that mistake don't realize they're making it, though. Here it sounds like it's an acknowledged shortcoming, but addressing it isn't a priority, which I mean, hey, do whatever you want. Not my game, not my problem.