Royal Rotters

some WiP stuff, playing with speed painting, started as a side project for #PATTcomic

DivingBell

Jack O’Neill

The iteration continues!

Forgot to post the updated versions of the Char designs for Steam Bandits: Outpost, so, here they be ^__^

For anyone following on the game’s main soc-med channels, and the kickstarter backer emails and announcements, then you’ve already seen these, but for those that haven’t, here they are.

Over the second half of this year, the character designs have undergone quite a few changes, tweaks and complete overhauls (all for the love!), and we’re finally at the point where the design direction is completely finalized.

These have come a loooooong way from the original versions (see the OG ver for comparison). The focus on the new designs has been a balance of creating characters that can be effectively and smoothly customized for variation, while also emulating an aesthetic that would work with the adventure-y feel of the SB:O world, provide diversity of representation (remember, always completely controllable by the player when making a character), and project that gun-ho, can-do, pioneering spirit needed by anyone making their way in the floating worlds of SB:O.

Now that the direction is finalized, we’re off to the races to complete the actual finished assets and get them ready for everyone to get their hands on in an upcoming build (can’t wait!)... so if I don’t update for a bit, you can guess that I’m chained to my wacom (as I have been, except for the holidays ^__^).

Thank you everyone for keeping the positivity up and cheering us on as we dig deep to sprint down the home stretch with everything we’ve got. We think you’re going to dig it, and none of us as Iocaine can thank you enough for the support and keeping the faith!

We’re almost there.

We love you all,

--Aleister

Some unused costume inks for character models in ‘Steam Bandits: Outpost’ based on the v3 char models.

As the title continues to evolve, final touches, changes and approaches to the char art style are beginning to come together, but the models used for these aren’t the last...

Bit of a behind the scenes look at the evolution of the character designs for Steam Bandits: Outpost

As with most projects like this, there is a lot of iteration that goes into moving from concept to completion, or in this case, simply moving from one concept of direction to another. These are only a few of the iterations and test pieces that were done along the way (it’s been a lot of work), but should be a good sampling of how the transition from old to new can go, as well as seeing just a glimpse of the different (sometimes drastic) directions things can take.

The obvious bit that’s not included in these visual pieces is the thinking that drives these sorts of changes (technical as well as aesthetic and stylistic), which will likely be a full discussion and breakdown for another time all together.

For now... time to get back to finishing these off, so every Steam Bandit can get to enjoy them (and make their own char!) in the upcoming release.

Until then, be excellent to each other.

‘Run The Bears’

Originally, I wanted to do this week’s strip on the announcement (unconfirmed) that octopi(/pus/pusses/pussessesses?) seem to be genetically unrelated to other creatures on earth and therefore: aliens. Always said that C’thulhu wasn’t from here, so that could make sense... alien octos!

But, no, instead el-p had to jump onto the scene and start a debate about alternate universe conspiracies. Not sure if high, or epic trolling. Either way it’s weirdly fun to watch...

el-P launches the unofficial crowd-sourced investigation of our fragile bear based dimensions: here.

Larger context for the Beren-phenomenon: here.

If you’re not already hip to the jive, make sure to check el-p’s twitter, and possibly more importantly, check out his music. He’s been rocking lyrics and beats for years. Full disclosure, el-p, aesop rock, and MF Doom are some of my all time fave hip hop artists, so yeah, I’m biased.