I am by no means a character designer. Throughout my patchy art and design background, I’ve always shied away from designing characters. Landscapes, fanciful illustrations, and fonts – those I can do. Characters? Nuh-uh.
To me, designing characters is the hardest type of design. Breathing life into a being created through imagination takes both skill and courage.
That’s why when it came time to design the main character for our game, I tried to pass the task off to anyone and everyone. I didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility because I didn’t think I was capable of creating a likable, memorable, and functional character.
What followed were weeks of ups and downs. Frustration, excitement, spurts of creativity, anxiety, and lots of iteration.
When designing Chip, we prioritized three things: cuteness, functionality, and memorability. First and foremost, he had to have a blocky head which could pivot to deflect balls. To speak to the intuitiveness and simplicity of our mechanics and gameplay, we also designed Chip using basic shapes and primary colors.
No character is perfect, but I think we’re finally at a point where we’re all satisfied with Chip’s design. Chip’s colors are warm and approachable, and his form communicates function. And thus, we’re finally ready to unveil the making of Chip:
