The playable characters in Bugby are an essential component of setting tone and narrative for our game. Our goal has been to create a grimy and comedic narrative, which can somewhat be seen through the pill bug and the dirty play area. The goblins needed to sell this level of humor (and mild disgust) to fully achieve that goal.
The first concept for our characters was a high fantasy, woodland-like aesthetic. The goblins were adorned with insects’ body parts and had human-like proportions. This design effectively captured the fantastical setting we were after. After some discussion, however, we felt that this design was too calculated and human for an arguably dimwitted sport and species, and it risked missing the mark of a whimsical aesthetic.
Our first concept morphed into a roller derby aesthetic, and the goblin design was reworked to have cartoony proportions with large and goofy facial features. Additionally, pronounced forearms helped emphasize the brutish nature of Bugby. The goblins were also textured to
appear dirty. This direction helped meet the comedic and grimy aesthetic we were aiming for. Although this aesthetic more closely achieved the tone of our game, it failed to work with the environment we had made. In relation to the goblins, the pill bug and environment appeared large and small simultaneously. There was no real sense of scale thanks to the human-like clothing of the goblins. Also, the ragtag athletic look did not align with the magical quality of the runic goals on our map.
After much brainstorming, we decided to merge the previous two ideas into one. Now, the goblins maintain their comical proportions, but they are also armored and clothed in bug remains. This solved our issues with scale and tied into the more mystical element of the goals, all the while preserving the comedic tone that we were after.