Mandela's Leftovers Vol. 2 - True Intentions, Captured, and Other Things
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! Today I'm gonna be going over some more leftover scraps of unused and extra content, this time pertaining to True Intentions and Captured!
True Intentions had a lot of early concepts that sort of came and went as my mindset changed.
At first, I wasn't even sure I wanted to make a follow up game to False Miracles. But one day in the later stages of FM's development, I made an arrangement of Adrian's theme out of boredom. The result was Condensation. After I had made it, I had the idea of a game that took place in the city during winter. Eventually, I decided to make this a full-fledged game, as a sequel to False Miracles.
Originally, I wasn't going to include all of the FM cast. I considered only doing 2 characters. But I had trouble choosing which ones, so I upped it to 3. Then 4. And eventually, I was like: "I love all of these characters too much to choose one!!!!!!!!" So I decided to just do them all. Since True Intentions was going to be more story focused, it made sense to flesh out everyone as opposed to just like half of the cast. Now, with that being said, onto the new characters:
Concept Art / Character Concepts
Something pretty prominent when it comes to tech companies is that a lot of brands are all fighting for dominance. Everyone wants to make the next big innovation. And since Aero is a sort of personification of Windows, I thought it might be amusing to make a character that was referential to a phone brand, as phones are the natural enemy of computers, and also had a petty sibling rivalry with Aero. So, I created Noki.
I think this sketch pretty accurately sums up just how different the two are. I wanted Noki to kind of be the opposite of Aero in alot of ways. Since Aero leans more towards Frutiger Aero, I designed Noki with Y2K Futurism in mind. Aero's fashion sense is very weird, while Noki's is more refined and trendy. I think they balance out really well.
Here's the rough sketches I did of Noki's portraits. (I decided to do the rough sketches on paper this time around as opposed to MS paint, it feels slightly more professional lol) It was around this time that Y2K fashion was hitting a sort of resurgence on the internet, and I thought it fit her well, so I referenced all sorts of Y2K outfits for her. I think that people tend to view 90s pop culture and fashion as cool, and I wanted to give Noki a cool essence, so it just felt natural.
Next up in line is Atlas, but before I talk about them there's something else I need to mention real quick.
Originally, Atlas wasn't in my plan for True Intentions, and I had initially conceptualized a completely different character to fill their slot.
Around the time I was planning for TI, I got really hooked on the song Butcher Vanity, and I wanted to make a character inspired by that song.
Thing is, the song is about cannibalism. So... uhh... I made a cannibal.
This is the first and only drawing I made of them. I never gave them a name, the drawing is literally just called "butcher.png". I think they were going to like, live in an alleyway or something? The joke was that they never actually ate anyone because they were horrible at catching people.
But, in all honesty, this is a wildly out there concept, especially for a game like this. Looking back at this, I have no idea what I could've even done to make this fit in the game at all. That, coupled with the fact that I had make several drafts for a theme for them, and I was never satisfied with how they turned, out, led to me scrapping the character. Probably for the best. And so, I needed someone to replace them with.
I had thought over what I wanted to put in that character slot for a little bit, and I ultimately decided that something far more light-heated would be a better choice. Even still. I wasn't sure what to do. And then the idea, just, sorta came to me.
Not even joking, I had come up with the concept of Atlas in like 15 minutes during a 3 hour car-ride. Especially since I already had Rem solidified as a character, it felt like a fun idea to have a ghost hunter trying to catch them, almost like a Tom and Jerry situation. It was so perfect, that I immediately got to work making their theme when I got home.
Here's a sketch I did of them listening to their spirit box (radio) for a signal, with no results. It's fun to put them in all sorts of situations, because they're just so ditzy.
And here's the rough sketches of their portraits. Mind you, this is the first drawing I ever made of them, so I didn't come up with the idea of making their shirt flannel until later.
As a tidbit, I wanted them to invoke a feeling of Halloween, which is why I predominantly used orange and purple for their color palette, as well as giving them a more autumn-y outfit. It's also why their surname is Hallows. This ended up being a bit more subtle though.
But of course, you can't have a ghost hunter without a ghost.
Rem was an idea I had as early as False Miracles. Since Credibility is all about aesthetics, it just felt natural to do something with dreamcore/weirdcore. Once I started work on True Intentions, I knew for certain I wanted to use them for it.
This was the first concept art I made for them, back in 2024. The design is largely the same, but I thought it'd be fun to have them ride around on a cloud, so that came later. I also ditched the shoes and just gave them socks instead, because who wears shoes to bed?
Here's the sketches of their portraits. As that little label on the socks says, the socks are a little nod to Touhou Project. I think Rem quickly became one of my most popular characters, and I can see why. They really stand out from my other characters, and make a name for themself. At the end of the day, I'm glad I created them.
Roadrager as a concept was partially inspired by Touhou 19, where the beast matriarchs all gained members of their groups. I thought it'd be perfect to give Roadkiller something like that.
Roadrager himself was actually a suggestion from my mom. She said that I should make a biker character and give them a metal theme. The metal theme unfortunately proved a bit too difficult to make, but the biker aspect became a core part of the character.
Here's a sketch of Roadrager doing what he does best. I think the idea of Roadrager being a liability for Roadkiller due to his reckless behavior is really funny.
Here are the rough-sketches of his design. Ignore my slightly frustrated message on the second one, lol. I ended up going with a grunge-like fashion for him. I feel like that gritty nature suits him quite well.
Also, small tidbit, that heart shirt that Roadkiller's group wears is actually just a brand that they like.
Leocadio was an idea I had for a bit to expand on Aero's creation. Originally, I wanted to lean into steampunk with him, but as I created him, that idea slowly started to fade, and it became something more optimistic, I'd say.
This sketch details a story detail that I cut. Originally, Leo had a pet snail called "Rocket", this even existed in the original draft of the dialogue. But when I went to make his portraits, I had completely forgotten about it. And by the time Implementing his dialogue in game, I realized, and it was too late. It's a shame, really...
Here's the aforementioned snail-free portraits. The facial hair was a spontaneous decision to make his design stand out a bit more. I really like doing things involving him, I feel like it usually ends up being lighthearted, which is a nice contrast to the game's serious nature.
Mother Nature's concept stayed pretty consistent throughout development. After all, I needed a reason for the snowstorm, and I saw it as an opportunity to develop and flesh out Nisali as a character more.
She was inspired by this angel statue my grandma has in her backyard. It felt very ethereal, and I think it suited Mother Nature as a final boss, so I used it as inspiration for her design.
Here's the rough sketches of her portraits. I tried to make her seem pretty and dainty, but also confident and imposing. I think I struck a balance there. She also ended up being quite floaty.
Here's the sketch I did of her second form. Partly inspired by how a while back, "biblically accurate angels" (I.E. Biblical illustrations of angels as a ball of eyes with wings) became a popular trend on the internet.
These are assets that never got used in-game.
This was a image I was going to use for Roadrager's background. The idea was that the road would span out and this would be in the horizon. But the effect ended up not being very convincing, so I cut it.
An early version of the locked icon. I changed it so that the colors were easier on the eyes.
A portrait of Mother Nature's second form. I was going to use it, but I couldn't find a place for it, so it went unused.
This is a theme I made for the cut character I mentioned earlier. It's in an early stage, and the instrumentation is very much not finalized.
It's an okay composition I suppose, but it was a bit too bouncy for the character, and didn't really match the tone of the game anyway. So I scrapped it.
That's about it for True Intentions. Now onto to Captured!
The most fundamental idea of Captured was an idea I had since False Miracles. I wanted to make a camera game like Shoot the Bullet or Double Spoiler with my own characters. But the rest of the game was almost entirely different.
Originally, Noki wasn't even going to be the playable character, it was going to be Adrian.
The idea was that Adrian was going to take pictures of fish while scuba-diving. But the fish were going to be represented by Credibility characters (I.E. Adrian takes a picture of a clown-fish, represented by Aero). But the idea was really complicated to wrap your head around and ultimately wouldn't have been that interesting.
And since Noki was already associated with pictures, it made much more sense for her to be the main character. So, Captured was born.
Here's a funny image I found when I accidentally made the bullet density too high. Whoops
When the game was announced, people jokingly said that they were disappointed that the game's title wasn't two names. Thing is though, it originally was.
The original name was going to be "Captured Sight", which would've been a fine name... if it weren't for the fact it already existed. I found out afterwards that my friend @myosotisbigissue had already coincidentally made a project called Captured Sight, and I didn't even realize. So to avoid confusion, I just changed the name to "Captured!". That project has been cancelled for quite some time now, so I could've still went with the original name if I really wanted to, but I feel like the name "Captured!" is a lot more memorable and snappy. And also, I like not having to constrain myself to two word titles of each game, so there'll probably be more names like that in the future.
Speaking of @myosotisbigissue... there is one more thing I need to talk about before concluding this post...
Celestial Gathering is a game made by my friend @myosotisbigissue, featuring his own characters and music. During development, he asked if he could include Aero as a playable character, and I said yes, so he's in the game!
He had a full route in the demo, but he's delegated to Vs. Mode in the full game.
Originally though, he was going to have a full game route. Myo wanted to have Atlas guide Aero through his route, and communicate with him through a radio. Here's a bit of the dialogue he wrote (shared with permission).
This was ultimately cut for time. Which is understandable, Myo already had a lot on his plate. I'd recommend playing the game to show Myo some love! You can get it here.
Well, that's a wrap! I've been so glad to have gotten all this done this year, and I'm eternally thankful for all the support I've gotten. Seriously, you guys rock!
Here's to another year of Credibility games to share with you all!
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