DESIGN SPOTLIGHT - FISHER

Soren here today to talk about the design and character of Fisher Strayer!

Fisher's the second youngest Strayer brother at twenty-five, and like Tanner, his design came forth far before his full personality had been developed. So when I designed him, it was focusing on nothing but the very core of his character.

And he's got an interesting sort of dichotomy, and I guess one that's always been fascinating to me: someone with a really scientific, analytic mind who also happens to be exceptionally religious.

He also has a push-and-pull going on between being the most devout Strayer, but also having a job outside of the family. The only Strayer brother that actually does. He's rarely home, but he's also trying to keep his father's faith and legacy going. Can he really be devoted to both?

So it was these two things, this push and pull, that I wanted to bring to life in Fisher. Like Tanner, I didn't do too many initial drawings of him--the first full sketch was the one we stuck with!

The first sketch of Fisher

(Final Fisher Sprite)

The mask is of course the biggest part of the character design for all the characters of Runt, and from a purey artistic side of things, I wanted his mask to be dark, angular, very "structured", and severe, all while making sense for his character. It needed to be all these things while also being practical.

While Fisher is handy and can make a lot of things, he has no interest in fashion--his clothes are pure function, familiarity and comfort. So his mask had to be something he'd already have and be used to wearing.

So I picked a welding helmet. Thankfully there are a lot of cool looking ones out there that are a bit more unique and anthropomorphic than just the standard bucket looking thing with a flat visor.

It also just looks badass, and hits the right level of "cool" for a guy like Fisher, who's stuck with some real rigid concepts of what's okay to wear as a man. (Do not ask him what he thinks of Carver's outfits…)

The moodboard I made for Yves when he was painting Fisher's sprite

The rest of Fisher is intended to feel overbearing, old fashioned, rigid and generally… "preacher-y". Hence the wide-brimmed hat, the vest, the duster. The green is army-surplus, but also a tinge of madness, inescapable.

The weapon he wields is a cattleprod he either made or adapted himself. It has two ends: the rigidity of black and white, of binary thinking, of Heaven and Hell.

Overall, his design is really simple, but asks a question: who really is he? Who would he be if he hadn't been a Strayer? Who would he be if his father hadn't been the Mouth of God?

What side of him--the scientific, the analytic, or the religious--will win out in the end?

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Thank uuuu all for playing the demo, please love Fisher more he's soo cool I promise :)

This week - we’d like to show off this lovely Runtsona art by Ares. We love the trident SO much~! Imagining living close to the water in the world of RUNT… We wonder what the seas have spawned in this dark world.

Steam post image If you have fanart, be sure to post it to Bluesky and tag it #runtVN or @/grimstastestudio! We would love to see it~!!! Also be sure to join the DreadXP discord to discuss theories, characters, and what you are looking forward to the most~!

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

Love, Soren & Yves (Grimtaste Studios)