Devlog: Designing Our Companions

After our first Devlog, in which we discussed Meho’s Character Design, we would like to go over the process of creating the character companions for Solstride!

Let us introduce you to Diphy, the first companion you will meet in Solstride!

We wanted the characters to neither appear as animal-like nor too human-like. We ultimately decided on a design that looks like animals but still incorporates human-like traits, such as having thumbs. Thumbs were considered important so the characters could hold weapons. Another key design decision included, having the character think for themselves. As a juxtaposition to Meho being quite static and not having much expression, the companions shine with expression. They express themselves verbally and they have their own consciousness.

As you can also tell they walk on two feet, which was also important from a resource choice on our side, since animating four feet is A LOT more difficult, but also having the animal companions walk on two feet incorporates another human-like trait to the mix. This specific design choice was made very early in the development process as you can see down here!

We went through multiple iterations of Diphy, because Diphy is a very important character for Solstride. Diphy is the first character the player meets and therefore Diphy should look friendly and inviting. We went with a simple red vest, and some buckle details to convey that friendliness. They also have a crystal similar to Meho, as an accessory. They use a projection of a flower as a shield. It is shaped after a skeleton flower (Diphylleia grayi), which is also reflected in their VFX animations.

[carousel]

[/carousel]

In preparation for animation, Diphy was designed in Clip Studio with every little body part separated and on its own layer via PSD Files. The animation is manually done in Spine, which takes a lot of hard-work and time from the Art Department, we really appreciate their efforts!

In Spine, Diphy has different body parts that can be moved, and the eye has to have a “bone” for blinking as well!

This is how a character like Diphy looks like, when all parts are integrated:

Quite interesting, right?