Practice brief for a TTRPG - Looks to windward [WIP]

Brief :

During the Easter break, me and my friend Francis decided to put together a little mock brief of sorts to make our own Tabletop roleplaying game. This is something we have done in the past, however this project is a lot more formally set out, for me I requested to do this so that I can work on my skills of working with a client. I have done some commission work in the past but I've been really struggling to find clients as of late, and this also gives me the chance to work towards something i want to do in the future. This project [for now, we haven't fully settled on a name] is called Looks to Windward, and will be a colony building game in the same sort of vibe as the videogame Rimworld. As Francis is the one developing the mechanics of this game, He put together some information that i would need that explains what this project is about and what he would like from me as the concept artist and illustrator.

Here is a general synopsis of what the game will be about and the requirements on my behalf.

This talks a little about visual style and inspirations that i can look to to help me make the artwork and designs.

And this covers the "Arkotypes" or characters within the game.

Gantt chart of tasks -

Although I wasn't given a deadline [as university is our main priority at the moment and we both absolutely want to prioritize our uni project work over this project] I decided to put together a gantt chart roughly showing how many days total i expect to spend on this project and what tasks i want to get done. Having a visual guide like this to tell me what i need to do next helps massively with keeping me motivated and on track, and it is also useful to show my client what I'm working on. It is to note that whilst the client I am working for is one of my friends, we are taking this project very seriously, I made sure to ask him to treat me as if i were a real artist and so if he did not like something i was working on or had feedback to give me, he should give it to me regardless and not have any sort of bias. He agreed as it is always really good to work on implementing feedback and constructive criticism, and at the end of the day, i want to make something that fits my client's vision, and so if they want me to change something, i am more than willing to change it.

The Pirates -

The first Arkotype i covered was the pirates, Francis included the first image of the orange harpy in his mood boards for this project and it immediately caught my eye. I loved the exaggerated features and i could totally see a race of cool bird pirate people that maybe fly big colourful airships. I followed on with this idea and gathered some other references of bird people races, as well as including some images of other creatures that had interesting silhouettes. I really wanted my design to be very exaggerated and almost a bit surrealist.

Using these references, I first drew out a range of side profiles, i found this was a great way to experiment with exaggerating features and silhouettes to get something unique. I loved the idea of a big pointed nose that resembled a beak, and combining the human and bird qualities in that manner as opposed to making them entirely an anthropomorphic bird. I then placed the head on three different sized bodies, i kept the arms long to help the creature glide better [for all of these designs i will design clothing for them when it comes to drawing that big illustration with all the races on it, for now i want to just show off the unique features of each race]. Once i had finished this, i sent this over to Francis for some feedback on my ideas and whether or not it fit his vision.

Francis really liked my idea for the bird people and especially liked their colour pallet, that was something he had discussed with me in the sense of having each race have a unique colour pallet to make them instantly recognisable. I thought the desaturated and warm primary colour pallet was believably eye catching, and almost reminded me of a cockerel. Of my designs, he really liked body 2 and face 3, though gave me some feedback to alter the shape language to be more sharp to give a more antagonistic feel to the design.

Using his feedback, i sharpened up the silhouette and gave more pointed eyes, i think this character definitely reads as being more hostile now and that slight change of moving the eyes has really given this character a whole new sense of personality. I then sent this back to Francis for a second round of feedback before i moved onto my final drawing.

Francis asked if i could alter the proportions on this creature to have longer legs.

This was my final iteration, the legs being elongated was quite roughly done however as this is just a concept it doesn't matter too much.

I then went on to make this final reference sheet using the design i had made, For the female [Malice] I found it very easy to just slightly feminize the male's features with a shorter frame, shorter beak, and wider hips. I followed the rule of bird sexual dimorphism where the males are much more colourful than the females, and to keep her colour pallet in line with Ssassafras' i simply colour selected his pallet and desaturated it to get a darker brown colour for her legs. I feel these two are definitely recognisable as being the same species whilst having their own individuality to them. As well as the designs, Francis wanted me to put together some little tidbits of information about each of the Arkotypes to sort of give some extra information on their special traits, habitat/profession, and anything else that is important to know. I also threw in some colour pallets in case he wanted to draw these two. For the art style, he had asked me to keep my designs mostly unshaded [only using it sparingly like under the chin and beak to help define shapes], he really liked the quite overexaggerated body shapes and unique silhouettes and asked me to carry on with this style for the rest of the project. He really liked my designs and said my character sheet was much nicer than what he expected me to do which was just some little annotations, I wanted to put something nice together because i thought it would be a cool addition to the PDF files we usually send out with zines we publish on Itch.io.

Referring back to my Gantt chart, this task took me around a day to complete which is as I predicted so far.

The Murrmites -

I followed the same creation process for the next creature, the Murrmites [Formerly known as the Barometz]. As this creature uses a type of space drug, i immediately thought of the caterpillar from Alice in wonderland, i really wanted to make a sort of insect/salamander/slug type creature that had a big section in its stomach containing a colourful gas. For my mood board and inspiration i gathered a lot of slug/caterpillar/axolotl character references to combine together. I talked Francis through my plans for this creature which he absolutely loved the concept for, i also think this beast would be a good juxtaposition with the very angular and sharp pirates to differentiate good from bad.

Here are my thumbnails for this creature, I again started with the headshapes first, i wanted to give them the sort of horn shapes that caterpillars had as well as some fin/gill like details on the cheek very reminiscent of an Axolotl. The colour pallet i chose was supposed to imitate bioluminescent sea slugs, i imagine these creatures live in a very dark and damp environment and so they would want to blend in whilst also being able to tell each other apart from the environment. Body shape wise, i immediately thought these creatures would be quite round and pudgy, to be fair when i was drawing these guys i felt quite inspired by totoro from my neighbour totoro, and his round and squat shape. I did include a slimmer body type too in case Francis preferred that. Below i also did a very rough sketch of the pipe these creatures would smoke from, I did not include this in the final reference, however it will make an appearance again in the final drawing i do when i put them in their race's clothing too.

The first bit of feedback i got was on the creatures head designs, Francis really liked design 1 and was enquiring about what the horns/crest was made of, to me i imagine it would be made of a fatty tissue and is used more as an organ to express emotions with than fight anything off, sort of reminiscent of a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Francis also asked me if i could find a way to make the eye protrusions look more like design 3 as he really liked that design's silhouette.

For the body shape, he really liked the squat pudgy shape of number 3, but wanted me to add back in the scale beneath the stomach of the creature, i imagined this scale would provide a bit more protection to the exposed stomach areas of the Murrmite.

This is the final design for the Salamids, i created two designs however their features are not entirely representative of males and females like the pirates reference was. As i based this species off of slugs in some ways, this species does not have defined sexes in terms of males and females, they are a hermaphroditic species and so there aren't any physical differences between the males and females. I instead decided to show off two character who identify as either male or female, Cedrick choosing to present as male, and Gaia choosing to present as female. I tried to show this more through the character's posture and facial expressions, with Gaia looking a lot softer in personality than Cedrick. I really like this detail and i think it makes this species a lot more interesting and dynamic when considering how their communities and species as a whole would live. I also am very happy with the pheromone bubbles on their stomach, i think it provides for an interesting character design and something that helps develop their otherworldly trope. I have also included some information on the side to do with their species.

The Varcids -

The next design i created was the Varcids, a race of fire people. When coming up with ideas to put on my mood board, i thought it would be cool to have a sort of fire elemental with a mask covering its face, giving a mysterious feeling to their design. Below i included some images of fire elementals, wooden masks, horn designs, and the nomai from outer wilds who had a similar vibe to what i was wanting to create.

Here are my sketches, i went for the opposite kind of build than what i made with the Murrmites, with the Varcids being very top heavy and their shape language reading more as lumbering strong beasts. Although their designs include a lot of sharp details and fire often is associated with evil or dangerous beings, i feel the hunched posture and round masks give a less intimidating feel to them. I also think the fire looks a bit like fur, which i think adds to them reading as docile creatures that only attack if provoked.

Showing my designs to francis, he really liked the overall design of number 3 at the top, he liked the more skull like mask and the design without a tail.

With his feedback in mind, here are my final designs for this Arkotype. I am really happy with the female variant of this species, that being Korra. I designed the female's fire to glow blue as opposed to red, as this infers a higher temperature. This higher body temperature is there to protect their species young from predators or harsh weather, with the babies staying close to the mother until they are old enough to fend for themselves. The females are also slightly bigger and have more exposed flame for the same reason.

I am hoping i can get this project completed by the end of the academic year as i would like to show how i have used the skills i have learnt in university and how i have applied it to a project in the sector i would like to work in in the future. However as my main university work is my top priority, I really cannot say when i will get this project finished. I will continue to add to this blog post whenever i find the time to work on this and if we do manage to put together a Zine by the end of the academic year, i will post a link to the itch.io page to check it out. [it will be free :) ]

^ Edit as of 11/05/2025, Its unlikely that we will get this finished by the end of the week just due to getting everything ready for submission on Sunday, however I wanted to include this in both 2D toolkit and industry practice to demonstrate how i have been using skills i have learnt in university in my own personal work to work towards the industry i would like to work in in the future. I will still be working on this over the summertime, along with the David Blandy game jam that was recommended to me and Francis :)