Design Spotlight [Tanner]

I won't lie, Tanner's my favorite brother. Carver's the most infuriatingly charming, Fisher's design has elements from my favorite video game, and Hunter's…. Hunter… but Tanner's my pick every time.

Tanner's design was heavily inspired by the photography work of Charles Fréger and his Wilder Mann series documenting folkloric costume around the world. Tanner, like Hunter, took to the off-grid lifestyle the most out of the brothers, and the materials he's used to adorn himself with and the handicraft involved reflect that: fur, wood, antlers, leather.Steam post image

(The first sketch of Tanner's design, straight from my sketchbook. Revisiting this, I'm surprised to see the note at the bottom that reads "KITTED TF OUT - HE'S AFRAID".)

His mask is a shell of carved wood, blackened by fire (he carved it himself and blackened it as well, which does give it some waterproofing properties, but I think lighting the thing on fire was just an aesthetic choice). It has no features apart from two triangle-shaped eye holes. A blue sash affixes it on the forehead, meant to look like a false blindfold. (Yves loves false eyes, and I love blindfolded masks and masks you can't actually see out of--the practicality of it be damned.)

Granted, I'm not sure how his nose is fitting into this mask… but I don't really mind not knowing this--I love the eerieness of his mask, the strange, imperceptible silence it offers the viewer. Tanner's hard to know. His mask is devoid of usual facial features. And out of every brother, he's the one that wears a mask the most in the metaphorical sense. (You'll have to pay special attention to him in the full game to unwrap all his mysteries.)

I don't think I would've kept the antlers on Tanner if I hadn't thought about having them pointed downwards. The idea that he tried tying them on to be upright and then they slowly fell due to their own weight was more fitting. I think this is what informed Tanner's posture always being kind of hunched. He's just sort of beaten-down.

So--Tanner put antlers on, they collapsed under their own weight, and he kept them this way as an expression of himself.

And I think as a bit of protection. He's not easy to get close to, just physically speaking - one of antlers could come around and whap you in the head or poke an eye out if you're too close.

I think these drooping antlers are what gave me the idea for his hunched posture, too. He's the second tallest Strayer (and the second oldest at 28), but he doesn't feel that way.

(Sketches of deer I did in preparation for drawing Tanner's antlers.)

His brothers are also in his design. As you can see from the first sketch of Tanner, there were no ribbons on his antlers; Yves added those when he painted his sprite, and that created the idea (for me) that Carver (who Yves is responsible for writing and drawing) was the one who added the ribbons to Tanner. I can't imagine him doing that himself, but he'd absolutely let his brother add extra adornment to him. Fabric that matches Carver's mask also appears as patches on his pants (another addition by Yves.)

Tanner's shirt wasn't originally his either; it's much too large for him, as it's one of Hunter's old dress shirts for church.Steam post image

From a pure design point of view, with Tanner being a tall, lanky guy (around 6'1"), the large shirt cinched in at the waist gives his body a more interesting silhouette. This idea is honestly just nabbed from the beautiful, big shirts men used to wear in the 18th century (which I've made a few of.) They're really sexy and flattering on absolutely everybody.

The rest of his design was easy--army surplus pants, inexplicable fur-lined bracers, some boots, and a staff topped with a horn. I never planned to put a gun on Tanner, though Hunter and Carver both have them (Fisher has one too, but it's not visible), mainly because it didn't fit the aesthetic to me. So I just equipped him with lots of hunting knives.

This choice to not give him a gun ended up being pretty important to him and his story (and I've already seen lots of wonderful speculation online as to why he might not have one!) But it was totally just a design thing initially--funny how so many of these "meaningless" design choices actually ended up informing him as a person and where his story in the game goes.

(final Tanner Sprite)

Yves rendered him beautifully with really eerie upwards lighting, which works super well for him!

[Yves] [Ahhhh thank youuuu <3]

[Soren] Looking back on him, I'm exceptionally happy with his design (and very flattered by the people picking him as their favorite design in the game so far!) but those antlers… I didn't think I'd be having to paint this guy as much as I have, and boy have those antlers and their little ribbons have been a pain sometimes. But a pain well worth enduring for how cool they look.

FANART

Yves here~! Thank you again for all your feedback and your fanart! We cannot emphasis how invigorating it is to see people take the time out of their day to show their love for our little game.

This week, we'd like to highlight Zoe for both pieces ~! We love both and we love the redesign with the new colors - seeing color in RUNT is always a treat after the years of gray clouds and dark nights.

We'd also like to highlight Han ~! This piece made us laugh a lot <3

If you have fanart, be sure to post it to Bluesky and tag it #runtVN or @/grimstastestudio ! We would love to see it~!!!

Additionally, if you want to chat about theories or share art or talk about runtsonas or what have you, come join DreadXP's discord and join the Runt channel!

https://discord.com/channels/691433040366534667/1474461826279280752

That’s all for now! Y’all come back now, ya hear?

Love, Soren & Yves (Grimtaste Studios)