Hello everyone! My name is Arissa and I'm in charge of the character design and creation for Hexbreaker. In this post I will be going over the design choices made for the player character and enemies.

Rosalin

The player plays as Rosalin the exorcist, part of a group whose goal is to eliminate dangerous spirits. To create contrast between her and the environment, the color pallet was kept to warm hues such as reds and yellows. Flame patterns were paired with the chosen colors to further emphasize the light in cold shadow contrast between her and the enemies. Rosalin's exorcist robes are modeled after priest robes and classic fantasy adventuring gear (minor protection for a spell casting focused character).  Because the player would see Rosalin mostly from the back, I added the flame pattern to the top side of the large shoulder cloth and short sash drape to give visual interest from behind.

One element that stuck through the design process was the long robes and the petal-like shape the tips of the robes and sash would make at the bottom. Her design was also made to be asymmetrical, the shorter side of the skirt being on her right side so that the player can clearly see the movement of the character. 

Acropolis Defender

The black and (emissive bright!) light blue color pallet was chosen to show the cold bleakness of the spirit realm, the shadows of the past floating at every corner. Acropolis Defender appears in the ruins along with the Fallen Exorcist, so it has a rough texture to its surface. I kept the silhouette fairly asymmetrical and gave it a rocky spike on one arm to attack with. To bring in a little bit of a human element, solid floating ribs were added to the sides and possesses a spherical  soul shape in its chest.

Fallen Exorcist

Fallen Exorcist is designed to have some elements from both the exorcist group as well as the overall spirit realm vibe. They were once exorcists like Rosalin, but because their souls were trapped it became corrupted and turned into what we see. Going with this concept, I kept in a faded dark red in the dark cloak and transitioned the edges into wavy shadow strands to signify the corruption. Wear and tear was added to the edges of the clothing, as well as no footwear to create a worn state of being. Finally, hanging on the staff I added one of the talisman models to add to the exorcist look.  

Marsh Wanderer

Mainly designed by Archie, we decided settled on adding elements from the environment that it would be found in. One of these elements would be algae patches that could be found on top of it. For the shape of the enemy, it was left as the upper half of the skull because of the watery environment the original owner would have been found in (rotting away at the bottom of the marsh). The tongue would be the main feature of the Marsh Wanderer and what it uses to attack the player, so compared to the rest of the body it is much larger.  

Phantom Fragment - Phantasmal Despair

The Phantasmal Despair enemy is one of the Phantom Fragments of Delgauss (ruler of the spirit realm and the one who trapped the player), and it represents one of his powerful negative emotions. To represent despair within the design, I chose to make the body sludge-looking to emphasize the sluggish and heavy that the emotion can make someone feel. The silhouette is fairly round and the protrusions have liquid drippings hanging off of them to add to that liquid sludge effect. I chose to willingly break the artistic rule of odd numbers with the faces to make the design of the Phantasmal Despair have a sense of unease and feel unnatural.