Visual novel background ideation

I've been really struggling to find any sort of decent visual novel background assets to use in my game.

I've been pondering on making my own backgrounds by taking photographs of local beach towns (aberystwyth comes to my mind~)

I have a canon sure shot 120 classic 35mm point and shoot, a halina flashmatic stb tele 110 toy camera, and a zeiss ikon contessamatic e 35mm rangefinder camera.

I'm hoping with some experimentation, some practice, and some gorgeous locations, i could get some creative background for my game whilst flexing my old photography muscles (that haven't stretched since 2011 haha!)

Goldfish outfit concepts

Alex and I revisited the first character she'd concepted, and since I'd had time to explore her character traits, I decided I wanted this character to be a goldfish who can't forget. This would tie nicely into my subversion pillar, and I referenced outfit inspirations from characters like Velma.

3 and 4 were my favourites here, so I asked if we could continue down that route. I liked having green to contrast the orange, even though Velma is known for her orange sweaters!

I was presented with a bunch of new options, as well as combos that mashed 3 and 4's outfits together, and I knew instantly I was drawn to 12. I loved the braces, the comfy green sweater vibe, and even though Velma's turtleneck is iconic, I think a v-neck shirt really suits this character.

With all my outfits confirmed, I just had to wait a little longer more for these concepts to be upscaled, polished and then turned into final designs.

Blob fish concepts

So my second character I wanted to be a a blob fish, which revealed hidden scope I hadn't considered. I had asked Alex for one character sprite, but because I wanted pressurised/depressurised versions of this character it ended up being two sprites!

I wanted him to be defined whilst pressurised, and not exactly fat but more a dad bod type shape language to show how fish can often feel "out of water.

Outfit wise I wanted to keep it simple, tank top and shorts, that change their fit with the change of his physique.

I also wanted shorts to show off the colours on his legs - the interesting graphic/watercolour styles are beautiful and I didn't want to lose too many of these super cute details.

Betta fish outfit concepts

I got some more updates for my betta fish character from Alex today, showing how the outfits would look on a more piscine body type:

After exploring the previous options 2 and 5, Alex returned with a new wave of outfits to choose from:

I was trying to whittle it down to a singular favourite, but it was just too darn difficult! I was a bit cheeky, and asked for final versions of 2, 3 and 6:

And if anyone is going to have multiple outfits... it HAS to be the fashionista!

Hopefully I'll be getting some concepts for my masculine character tomorrow...

Betta fish colour concepts

Alex showed me some of her designs based on a betta fish, and gave me 4 options to choose from:

I liked the colours of both the pink and purple betta, but proceeded to choose the pink fish as I felt it better suited the sweet "finfluencer" personality I had thought for this character.

With that in mind, she sent a variety of outfits that were fashionable and influencer coded using the pink colour palette:

Whilst I had initially decided against having outfits, I think it adds a lot of personality and could segue into other aspects of worldbuilding, such as fashion companies having to expand their clothing lines to be "gill-friendly". I also like the jeans being reminiscent of the blue tips of the original concept's fins.

Character concept proposals

Today I got in touch with Alex, a BCU student on the BA Video Game Digital Art course, in regards to commissioning a set of reverse mermaid character sprites for my visual novel idea.

I proposed 2-3 characters with 5 various expressions in the style of Justin Parpan and with that brief, this is what they conjured up:

I'm excited to see what other designs they will come up with!