Behind-the-scenes: Character Design

This is Sixtine Maréchal, Art Director on Monsters Are Coming!

We've seen a lot of interest in the development of the game, so we'd like to start sharing more behind-the-scenes content through a new series of devblogs.

For our first entry, we're taking a look at one of the most important parts of the game: the Heroes. While Monsters Are Coming! originally launched with a single playable Hero, we've introduced several new characters over the past months, each with their own identity and design challenges.

To begin, we'll be taking a look at the Guard and the journey from the first concept to the character you see in-game today!

Designing the Guard 🔥

The original character emerged from very early 2D concepts of the game, where we had this small caped guy fending off monsters.

We wanted to create a character that was not a knight, not a fighter, but rather a peon that took it upon himself to protect the city by any means possible. They had a simple silhouette and a feeling they could be easily replaced when the player died. Very brave, but hiding away beneath their hood. In the team, we often joked about the character possibly being a monster in disguise!

The simplicity of the design fitted both the artistic direction of the game and a need for a clean look from afar, dynamic animations, and easy iterations when we would eventually add additional characters.

The character was then refined. We added a torch in their hand to further illustrate the theme “light against the dark” that drove a lot of visual elements during the game development. The final 3D shape was pinned down; it was especially difficult in a top-down game where perspective shrinks everything; the actual 3D model of the character had to be surprisingly tall in order to look good!

The animations are also key to appreciating the design: we wanted to have the feeling the character was unable to stand still, always ready to run, and overall very dynamic and snappy. Our 3D animator did an amazing job, and the Guard was born.

Other characters ⚔️

When first designing the additional characters, we faced a choice: either create every character from scratch, taking the time to rig and animate each one, or think of each character as a reskin of the first one: same rig, same animation, to reduce production time and allow more characters to be created. As you may have guessed when playing the game, we chose the second option.

As artists, we stretched these constraints to their limits and created the King, the Golem, the Mayor, and the Lumberjack. We wanted very different vibes from each of them, even if they shared the same skeleton and animations. The size of the head, the way we hid their faces behind different elements like a crown, a top hat, a carved log… We focused on very specific outfits that would instantly differentiate each character, with very simple primitive shapes.

We also have a fun detail: each character has a shiny detail somewhere on its design. This way, the player’s eye is easily drawn to it. We also have a different torch for each character, a simple detail that adds to their design.

Now that characters could be selected, we had the need for portraits in the new game menu. It was the perfect opportunity to illustrate their personalities and give them fun poses. A simple picture can go a long way!

We then added the Leprechaun, the Mule - and others are still work in progress. We always proceed in the same way: a cool hat that hides their face, a very unique outfit, and a source of light. A simple recipe for small and fun little characters running around protecting their city.