“The development of the protagonist can be divided into two stages. The first could be called the student stage and the other could be called the project stage. Today, I’m going to share with you the evolution of the MO during the student stage~”

The Student Stage

During this period, we decided to develop a game that had ““mucus”” as its focus. After constructing an initial idea of what the gameplay would look like, the first thing was to think about was the protagonist’s appearance. Although the protagonist was essentially mucus, the game material had nothing to do with a classic fantasy world, so in the beginning we didn’t conceive of the protagonist as slime, and just wanted to make it a drop of liquid (?)

We decided to design the protagonist’s appearance based on its abilities: a liquid feel, able to adhere to both horizontal and vertical surfaces, without a specific shape and able to swallow anything. Something like a waterdrop that could be manipulated.

Although its appearance matched its abilities, it simply looked like a drop of water. There were no real defining features of a character nor anything that would draw people in. So we tried giving the waterdrop a core, as if it had a heart or something, emphasizing that this waterdrop had a life of its own, that it was a living creature. But giving it this core didn’t help give it any defining features that’s required for a character.

We tried a variety of skins, added new settings to the earliest prototype, changed the core of the liquid to a skull with distinct eyes, and adjusted the pixel art. This skin was put on the prototype for the first time and several dynamic tests of the protagonist’s abilities were carried out.

After we’d added the eyes, even though it had the feel of a character, the overall art style of the game was still being adjusted. The color tone of the background environment and the protagonist were both too high, but if the protagonist’s color was too dark then problems with identifying it arose. Luckily, at the time there were many changes and adjustments to the concepts of the prototype and gameplay. After three months, we’ve decided to restart the whole project due to problems of scale. We also decided to redesign the protagonist, but still wanted to retain its “liquid” attribute.

After a few months of trying, we found that it was not that easy to make a non-typical character. Most of the gameplay that had been produced was difficult to use as reference material. Even though we found a lot of information, it couldn’t be directly used as an example. In the gameplay design, quest design, character’s abilities, and art performance, we needed to explore every possibility on our own.

One of the original types of gameplay was a main factor in determining the skin design. When coming up with the gameplay, we thought the protagonist must have the ability to defeat enemies. We came up with a kind of protagonist that could accumulate electric power and then release it to attack enemies. It was then that we designed a look that is closest to the current one.

In this skin, we kept the concept of eyes and a core from before. In order to reflect the electric shock ability in its appearance, two protrusions that looked like plugs were added to its head. They were like a pair of ears, giving a cute feel to our protaganist.
Continuing with the previous skin design, we finally designed a character prototype that was closest to the official one in the game. Although the electric shock ability was removed, the most recognizable features remained. Considering the dynamic performances and expressions that would appear in the game, we replaced the sense of transparency and the core, making the color purer and more visually recognizable.

The tattoo on the head and the bright eyes signify that there is energy in the protagonist. The connection between the energy and the protagonist’s abilities can be clearly seen in the game. With the little horns on the head, it is easier to express the character’s emotions and physical state.

After a few months of trying, we found that it was not that easy to make a non-typical character. Most of the gameplay that had been produced was difficult to use as reference material. Even though we found a lot of information, it couldn’t be directly used as an example. In the gameplay design, quest design, character’s abilities, and art performance, we needed to explore every possibility on our own.

One of the original types of gameplay was a main factor in determining the skin design. When coming up with the gameplay, we thought the protagonist must have the ability to defeat enemies. We came up with a kind of protagonist that could accumulate electric power and then release it to attack enemies. It was then that we designed a look that is closest to the current one.

After confirming the character’s look and ability, we redesigned the character’s movements and completed the design of the protagonist for the project.

     

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