Theory
The
theory I wanted to focus on is “Intersectual Feminism”, where I
would mainly focus on gender and race in my game.
In
Fraser's class we were taught about “white-washing” media, which
made me want to challenge what we see race in media and how we see
it.
Camille Kraeplin compares two tv shows (Girlfriends and Sex and the City) in her article: Girlfriends and Sex & the City: An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Gender and Commodity Feminisim, and how they differentiate. “Storylines focused time and attention on the characters’ marginalized roles as women, but the ever-present subtext was that these were women of color. They were not simply women; they were black women, and this was key to their friendship circle. In contrast, Sex and the City episodes addressed issues related to gender almost exclusively; race and ethnicity were not relevant factors.” She discusses how Sex and the City has white women as the main characters that do not experience racism or classicism in any way whereas in Girlfriends the African women do.
I want to have the diverse characters be "normal" like white is the "norm", the character do not face any form of racism or classicism.
Camille Kraeplin compares two tv shows (Girlfriends and Sex and the City) in her article: Girlfriends and Sex & the City: An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Gender and Commodity Feminisim, and how they differentiate. “Storylines focused time and attention on the characters’ marginalized roles as women, but the ever-present subtext was that these were women of color. They were not simply women; they were black women, and this was key to their friendship circle. In contrast, Sex and the City episodes addressed issues related to gender almost exclusively; race and ethnicity were not relevant factors.” She discusses how Sex and the City has white women as the main characters that do not experience racism or classicism in any way whereas in Girlfriends the African women do.
I want to have the diverse characters be "normal" like white is the "norm", the character do not face any form of racism or classicism.
Nina
I
decided I didn't want the main character to be white. At the start of
the project I drew a generic white face and slapped a brown color on
it. The style was very simplistic so it was hard to show the race in that particular style. I explored more with silhouette studies,
exploring African american faces. I changed the style to be more
detailed and slightly more realistic to be able to show the
character's ethnicity. As I was exploring African american
aesthetics, I realized that there have been games that have included African characters.
It
made me wonder if there are races/ethnicties that we don't get to see
in games/or media. I found that native american characters were often
left out, they were almost always stereotyped to be “native” and
not modern. Even when I google image searched “native american”,
they were often photographed in the wild wearing their traditional
clothing. I found very little women that were clothed in modern
clothing.
I
decided to explore native american aesthetics, and decided to use a
race that we often don't see in media and games.
I
wanted Nina to also challenge stereotypical women in games. They are
often sexualized and bring little to the plot. In the article I read
called: Racism and sexism in the gaming world: Reinforcing or changing stereotypes in computer games?, (Peck, Ketchum and Embrick, 2011) they discussed whether or not racism and sexism in games advertisement has changed from 1992 to 2009.
"On the one hand, black women are not reduced to sexual object for the entertainment of men. On the other hand, black women are ignored as sexual beings which reinforce the notion of ideal beauty as white." (Peck, Ketchum and Embrick, 2011)
They found that women
have been sexualized even more over the years, and that black women
are not. They brought up an interesting point where they discussed
that having unattractive, older black women in games can make them
unappealing, and that only white women are appealing as they are more
sexualized in games.
As I was designing Nina, I found that most
native american women are photographed quite sexually, and I wanted
to challenge that by having Nina be more muscular and tough-looking.
(rather than looking like a top-model)
I
liked the idea of her pink hair, I mainly played around with the
colors for her outfit. I wanted the clothes to look sporty, I mainly
played around with saturated colors. (mainly reds, pinks, blues, and
yellow) I liked the yellow look on her, as it made her stand out but
also because yellow is not a color just for women or men. It is more
of a neutral color, like black and white.
Death
Reaper
As
I was creating the Villain for the game, (Death Reaper) I was unsure
of what kind of representation I wanted to do for him. I found that
many villains in games/or films are often non-american, and not
white. I wanted to make the Villain of the game look generically
white to challenge that. I gave the Death Reaper a suit to make him
look like what we usually think of when we think of a “white man”.
Reaper Sketches
I liked the idea of Death in the game "Deadpool" where the design of Death was inspired by the Spanish Festival of the Dead face paintings. I thought it could be interesting to try the same but with a male death character. Instead of making him look sinister (usually with the human skull as a face), I wanted him to look more attractive.
Reaper Color Schemes:
I used Horror Palettes and Halloween Palettes for his colors. I looked up "K-Pop" Suits and found some very interesting designs for suits. I found one with flower patterns on it, I thought having flowers on the suit could look ironic as flowers can be symbolic for life. I ended up using similar colors for him that I used for the Ghosts.
Reaper Final Design:
I kept the blue hair as it would contrast with Nina's pink hair, and make him look a bit more ghost-like.
Boyfriend
In
a lot of games and media the male characters are often represented to
be muscular, tough and massive. For the boyfriend character I wanted
to challenge the way we see men in media. I wanted him to look more
fashionable and slim. I wanted the boyfriend to look a little more
feminine, rather than masculine. I though of the Korean culture, and
how the men usually dress quite differently from western culture. The
men often wear more stylish clothing, that looks a little more
“feminine”. I decided to make the boyfriend look “South
Korean”, as the K-Pop clothing style was so unique and different from western culture.
Color Schemes:
I wanted to experiment with different purples mainly. I didn't want to use typical "boy" colors like blue, black or red. I ended up liking the first one the best, (white) as white is quite neutral.
Final Design:
I found that his right leg looked off in the drawing above, and tried to fix it by giving it more curve like his right leg.
Dug
As
I was designing the side-kick for Nina, I watched a music video
called: “La la” (Sam Smith), where the boy walks around with a
“Chow Chow” dog. I found that that particular breed of dog best
contrasts with Nina's design. As Nina is slim, and the dog is more
chubby and big. I was unsure whether or not to make the dog a female
or male, but though that in the game I would use speech bubbles when
the characters talk, thus making the gender of the dog irrelevant.
Dug Color Schemes:
I tried out a few different colors for Dug, I found that the white made him look too "wise" and old. I liked the warmer brown on him as he looked less threatening.
Dug Final Design:
Ghosts
The
ghosts in the game are the enemies, the player has to fight. I wanted
to experiment with different colors for the ghosts, as when we think
of ghosts we think of then being white. I looked up “Halloween
Color Palettes” and used the colors off there. I found that
using purples, blues and yellows made the ghosts look more “modern”
and unique.
Ghost Color Schemes
I found that using purples and blues made it look the most "Ghost-like" while also making it look less threatening than the Boss ghost one. I found that the black one, made him look too similar to the Boss ghost.
Ghosts Final Design:
I found that using the light blue and light purple were the most interesting and less threatening looking than the Ghost Boss ones.
Ghost Boss Color Schemes:
I used Horror Palette colors and Halloween Color Palettes, I experimented with having purples, blacks and yellows as lineart or color of the body.
Ghost Boss Final Designs:
I found that the yellow and purple worked best for the Ghost Boss as it made him look more fierce and sinister than the average Ghost enemy. It would help tell them apart better.
Final Characters Line Up
Articles Reference List
Peck, B. M, Ketchum, Paul, R., Embrick, David, G. (2011). Racism and sexism in the gaming world: Reinforcing or changing stereotypes in computer games? .Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 3(6), 212-220. doi: http://www.academicjournals.org/jmcs
Camille, K. (2012). Girlfriends and Sex & the City: An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Gender and Commodity Feminisim. Media Report to Women, 40(1), 12. doi: http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/82396638/girlfriends-sex-city-intersectional-analysis-race-gender-commodity-feminism
