Anna Tsagada

In a previous post I've done a review of a game called the Arcana, this was the first game that got me into the world of visual novels, but since entering this world I found a new game and a new set of characters to fall in love with. When The Night Comes is a supernatural murder mystery in which you play a Hunter who hunts monsters that threaten humankind. WTNC was the visual novel that really got me thinking that this was the route I wanted to go down. When working on the second component of my Creative Design Project, I decided to try and contact the team in order to ask some questions. I was successful.

Anna Tsagada, known as annadraws on their socials, is now the art director for Lunaris Games, a small indie game developing company. They are the co-founder of the company and work on the character designs for their games. I managed to email them and ask for some advice regarding character design and how to be successful with projects, their response was as follows:

"Reach is something I am still learning how to do/manage, as a studio we’re very lucky Kris has excellent marketing experience so research on that aspect helps a LOT. Things I’ve picked up from making our games and social media are: 1) Participate in trending hashtags and keep up with whatever is happening at the time (there are so many tags on the Internet at all times so taking part a few will help). So make sure to keep an eye on that stuff. 2) Be active, people get bored if there are no updates from you so posting some previews of what you’re working on is always a good thing!

Now for character creation. Personally I believe that characters need to be eye catching, make people look more than once.

My go to is bright colors, even when you got a character that dresses in black or grey, a pop of color is always good (like bright eyes, a sash around their waist or a distinctive hair color)! I like putting gold or silver trimming on clothing just because it makes something look more unique, it really depends on the character though! I’ve also grown to like drawing patterns for each person, it gives them more personality and a bit more flair in my opinion.

Another thing I find important is to give your character simple yet interesting shapes that make them distinctive. From a long flowing tunic to an armor full of spikes it’s really up to you! Even hair can be a really interesting part of the design and you can go nuts with it. However, make sure that they vary from each other but also compliment the main vibe of the game! Keeping a consistent fashion helps.

Something important that I’ve found super useful is getting references. Making random boards on Pinterest to help you find the right vibe for the characters make it easier for me to design new things for them and kind of “upgrade” their original concept look. So save things that remind you of x, y, z and look at them the next time you’re sitting down to draw them."