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Spinning Ideas
🕑 Added 2020-08-06 02:07:59 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Two quick sketch replies to your previous comments on Dorothy ideas.
First up (main image, top) is from Omri. Of this he says...
I took Jen's design and merged in half way with mine. Less serious and a bit more fantastic. i thought to drop her age to 15, giving her some more volume in the dress but not too much. having too much volume is for me too Anime. and i want to stay away from that. i want it "wearable" and still modern.
YES to puffy hair, but keeping it southern, unlike Aloy which her hair is more "viking"
The staff can be for witchcraft and melee, overall i tried to give her more stylized proportions, but i'm keeping the legs for now, i just really like them. Less heels, more platforms. like something she can stand in Easily so it will make it seem legit for fighting.
I think that the direction we ought to go towards is more a Fantastical "unfortunate series of events" the series. but not overboard her with elements from everyone else, we need to know who SHE is. Not who she's trying to be, if it's copying scarecrow or any other character. we need to base HER as a person, not as an element of gameplay. she has a lot of personality, we ought to use it. Pipboy optional.
Jen turned in a quick sketch based on my narrative prompt (Dorothy washed up on shore missing some limbs)...
And Jen adds a few notes along with this sketch:
I think the older Dorothy is probably better. The final book of Oz before Baum died has Dorothy trying to prevent a war and instead being imprisoned on an underwater island made of glass. Princess Ozma was the ruler of Oz during that time, but maybe Dorothy was supposed to take over at 18-21 and instead she left the island abandoning her responsibility? And on her way back a war happened outside the island, and her family happens to be victim of an attack, and she ends up washed ashore on Oz with confused memories about the timeline. Her abandonment of Oz meant it was invaded by outsiders and turned into a sick theme park for rich people ?
To all of this, I replied...
These are great - I really like the Beached Dorothy concept. Feels like the start of an epic adventure to me. Stranded on a mysterious island. Wounded. But kept alive by some strange force. So, off to explore and discover... and gradually learn, overcome, and transform into a hero.
Omri's sketch seemed to be the crowd favorite in the last round of comments. I couldn't really see it...and still struggling a bit with this latest version. But it's closer to something I could imagine being our hero.
We'll post these and see what sort of feedback is generated. We might want to pause on this stuff for a few days, think about it, then come back to it.
Meanwhile, Omri has produced a Final version of the Chess Dress...
And he says of this...
HEY! this is the finished version. American i have merged in the symbol, in a more abstract way but it's there. fopr me this represents the chaos and the harmony this realm is. Keeping it chess but keeping it not looking stupid.
Also meanwhile, Yan is working on design notes to the Plushie Dreadfuls. For example, she's asked the workshop to make the "Angry Rabbit" more clearly angry by switching his highlight color to BLACK and emphasizing his stitching...
Grrrrr. Isn't he cute when he's angry?
Expect to see the workshop turn around another physical prototype in the next week or so. Can't wait!
Asylum Business Development & Narrative
Just a reminder that we have brought on board a Financial Advisor to take over the job of securing funding for Asylum development. This frees me up to spend more time on creative tasks - which is my preferred way to spend my time! Hence the extra cycles you see going into Oz.
But Marc's work can't start in earnest until the parties on the other side of the negotiating table return from summer vacation. That means BD is on hold until mid-September. Our creative work and efforts towards the Design Bible will continue as usual... though we did "lose" Alex this week due to him moving house.
It's worth noting that I have opened up yet another avenue where we can pursue funding for Alice... in a round-about-way. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Can't say more...
As they say, when one door closes, two more open... or something like that.
I did mention previously that we'd taken two steps forward, one step back (or one step forward, two back) - AND I REALLY WISH I COULD SAY MORE - but now that the dust has settled it's resulted in more progress than we'd been making previously. So...
And as a result of that... and how it would emphasize certain aspects of storytelling... I've had to revisit some of the foundation elements of our narrative.
What I've come up with is something that better frames the story for telling in linear media (book, film, TV) while at the same time leaving intact all the work we've done so far towards the game design.
I'll share that soon. Along with the progress we make on this new avenue.
And, oddly, this narrative reframing came about because of the thinking I was doing around "Oz."
Feeling good about the progress we're making these days.
As usual, please give the team feedback in the Comments below!
From Shanghai with Love,
-American
Comments
Now this is 100% awesome! And thank you for the silver shoes!
Looking forward to the development of Dorothy's Character design, that's always a fun thing to watch as it goes.
Sarah McKeegan
Like the Dorothy look a bit better now
SCarey151
Loving the Chess dress. Re: Dorothy design, I think it may be challenging for some to fairly compare the two designs given the different art styles. Omri's image is a detailed presentation (and in a style we've become very enamored and familiar with due to the Alice work). Jen's image has plenty of detail, but those details are meant to invoke a story. I'm more *interested* in Jen's image, but I can see how people would be drawn to Omri's detailed model if you're asking us for feedback on Dorothy's fundamental look. Omri's "look" is fleshed out (but I don't see much story). Jen's is begging us to make up a story to go with the image but I don't think the model itself tells us what the character is going to look like throughout the game. I think we can all agree on big "lion mane" hair (if not red... how about strawberry blonde? please:) and a key staff.
Saleh Abu-Rashid
I love the designs. Alice with a ponytail is truly unique.
Stephanie Groth
Chess Dress is perfection!
In Dorothy's picture the head seems a bit out of proportion with her body. For story development, perhaps as in the film that the lion, tin man and hay man all seek something, and the search of this is part of it?
Chess dress is fantastic 👌
Love the image of her washed up on the beach missing parts. If she then had one of Omri's robot legs and an arm attached somehow that would work. I think the lower half of Omri's image works superbly but I still prefer the top half from Jens last image. Oh and wedges are way harder to walk in than heels, for me anyway, I could happily dance (and maybe kick butt) all night in heels say about 2" in height but wedges I would fall down 😂
The dress is perfect now :D
Catheryn Alice North
This version of Dorothy from Omri is much better, still not sure about the platinum blond rather than a more yellow blond, but the style is much better. Shoes are also much better (for me) ^_^ do those green dots (rivets?) on the skirt glow? Also, I think I love the chess dress, although the skirt seems a little backwards to me being longer at the front than the back ^_^
I like the huge braids for Dorothy, I think it makes her recognizable and gives her character
Therese
I definitely like the staff idea more vs the “key blade” and am very excited about the “washed up on an island” idea. I do like the boots, but I adore Viking mythology so perhaps that’s why. It gives her a bit of a Viking maiden feel. LOVE the chess dress and the angry bunny.
Hex
I like the direction that the Dorothy design is going in, although it's clearly not fully there yet. I can identify the following themes: emerald, alchemical prosthetics, magical keys. In regard to Jen's recent piece I feel that magical prosthetics on both her arms and legs (or at least one of each) might be the best way to go - I definitely like the "alchimechanical" look that Omri is going for! This concept could be used for gameplay purposes by equipping different prosthetic legs or arms with different skills (cf. Sekiro's shinobi prostethic, Bayonetta's arm & leg weapons). Concerning the key staff: I really liked the first version of Jen's drawing because the KEY felt very powerful in presence and gravitas there(even if somewaht comically large). In order to transition it properly to Omri's style, you should definitely give it more mass and design it as unique as possible - Jen's original looked somewhat like Kingdom Hearts keyblade, but it's a very good design and I'm sure you can make your own (similar) version of it. But definitely make the key bigger/thicker and don't be afraid to turn it into a trademark symbol for this setting... also don't worry about the weight or practicality, it's made from magical metal after all!
So based on Jens drawing I just got an idea. So like what if Oz is inside the Bermuda triangle? Like the island sits inside a stretch of ocean and mist and thats why things go missing in it and people. But the common people from our world discover the island within the fog and lead and expedition into it and then they destroy it by turning it into a theme park and torturing the magical beings that live there and Dorothy has been missing for years. Trapped in the glass palace under the sea in stasis until she washed ashore missing pieces (perhaps this is just the clone..the real Dorothy is still trapped) but she finds what's happened to the land and its people. I think it actually sounds kinda cool lol I love basing stuff like this in areas that actually exist!
RedBreloom
Omri's design for dorothy might be sort of off because of the expression/face I think? It comes off way too model shot Laura Croft serious. It's not an inherently relatable or thought provoking (for who she is or what she's like) face. And the head is kind of too big for the rest of her body in this newest sketch. That's my thoughts, maybe give her ginger hair? Or make her dark skinned, that would be pretty cool honestly.
I know it's still super early days, so all of this stuff is up in the air! Just wanted to get my two-cents in as someone who's followed all of your attempts to Oz for almost 20 years Even if Dorothy is a Princess, it's an honorary title. Baum's books talk at length about how she continues to be an earnest farm girl with simple tastes and Omri's takes keep looking like a victorian girl who could be an alternate version of Alice. Omri's notes are fantastic and his style is compelling and beautiful but even for a reimagined Dorothy, this still isn't close. Something I mentioned in Discord is the idea of making Dorothy customizable so that we can all play with our own interpretation. In the Oz books there's a character named Princess Lagwidere. She's not super important but she is TERRIFYING: she has a collection of heads that she can switch out at any point with her head. Why not let that be the customization feature for Dorothy? We can just switch our head whenever I've complied a little pack of references, these are all Dorothies from the early days of Oz -- yes they're public domain and free to pull inspiration from. Baum himself created very different versions of the character: https://imgur.com/GxsNR32
I noticed the orange bunny will he make an appearance in the game? I like how the character design is coming along looks great all around, I was however wondering will there be moments in the game where Alice's hair may have streaks of colour either during battle or during moments of emotional expression? By the way I like the oz idea keep it up.
I really love this chess dress I like the edits to the bunny i'm not 100% behind this dorothy design - like the staff and the legs/boots,...maybe it seems to plain otherwise? (has alice spoiled me? lol)
Samantha Olvera
The asterisk on the new chess dress, did you not like the one off to the side? "One of the dumbest designs I saw for this dress..."? Just curious.
