Process
For the first week of the jam, I concentrated on ideation for the visual style and character design, as well as creating concept art. I worked closely with the designers to create a player character and style suitable for the game's themes. During a group discussion, we settled on a sketchy aesthetic because of how expressive the linework could be. Messier linework could be used to visually represent the emotional turmoil the characters are facing, while neater lines can indicate stability and peace. I also used an animation technique that involves redrawing lines to create a wobbling effect that can give the impression of movement and make the characters feel more alive.
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For the character design, I decided to pursue a simple style with proportions that made drawing and animating easier as it is less detail-oriented and focused more on expression rather than realistic accuracy. Animation was done at a low frame rate to make it more manageable within the time constraint we had. I used primarily rounded shapes to make characters appear softer and friendlier, intending to make them look approachable, and larger, emphasised eyes to express emotions more clearly. ​ I also studied how different characters in media obscure their face to show their shyness and/or secretive nature, as the game centres around becoming more open with your problems and making connections with people facing similar struggles, which we used to address the brief surrounding mental health. In discussions with the designers, we concluded that we wanted the player character to appear closed-off and shy, showing their anxiety around being open with their feelings. Therefore, I searched for ways that this could be conveyed through the character design. The examples of characters I found that shared a similar personality and behaviour to the one we envisioned for the player character typically hid behind an accessory, such as a hat or hood, or their hair.
 
Concept artwork was drawn in a mix of my personal style and the intended game style. I started by trying to figure out the sprite proportions, testing different body types and levels of detail. Then, I compared them to the screen size and shrunk the sprites down to the size that the designers requested the player's avatar to be. Afterwards, I decided to maintain characters at a consistent height of a head-and-a-half tall to ensure that their facial and body language could be clearly expressed through visuals. Multiple silhouettes were drawn to help design a unique appearance. Later, I progressed onto making a few loose human and anthropomorphic character designs to further solidify the art style. At first, we considered having an anthropomorphic animal character as the protagonist, however, we decided to use human characters instead as we thought it would be more appropriate for the game jam's theme and could create a stronger sense of identification with people.
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At this stage, I was exploring different ways of showing the character obscuring himself through the visuals. I decided to utilise the hood in the final design as I thought it would be easier to draw and animate than other accessories like the umbrella and could still convey the player hiding himself from the world without fully obscuring his face or body. I considered including glasses in the design as well, but decided not to proceed with it as I thought the hood was adequate in portraying the player character's avoidant nature.
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Additionally, I made a talking sprite animation test, which I showed to one of my fellow team members and received feedback that the player character appeared slightly too open and eager to speak which did not match their personality. I kept this in mind while animating the character later in development.​​