Heart of the Woods Fairy Sneak Peek (Patreon)

What’s a fairy tale without fairies? Technically just a tale, but that’s irrelevant. As you could probably guess from the final scene in the HotW demo (as well as the title of this post) Heart of the Woods’ story features fairies, and in a big way. Here’s a quick look at their design as well as their role in the story. 

 

Design by Emma Hugin!

In the world HotW, fairies aren’t born, they’re crafted. They’re little piles of snow, hand-shaped and designed by the fairy queen, and then imbued with moonlight to give them life. They’re adorned with leaves, pine needles, stones - just about anything found in the forest. Like snowflakes themselves, no two fairies are exactly alike.

Fairies behave more like insects (especially bees or ants) more than humans. They operate as a hivemind, sharing the same opinions and feelings as their brethren nearby. Though they can understand and converse in human language, they have no concept of individuality, and always speak using “we” and “us” instead of “I” and “me.”

Early on, we knew more about how the fairies would be featured in the story rather than what they would look like. We eventually settled on a direction reminiscent of porcelain dolls in terms of physiology and appearance - immaculately smooth skin and soulless features. We also drew inspiration from ballroom dancers, such as the flared skirt or their pointed feet, poised for a pirouette.

The fairies will be very important in Heart of the Woods - they’re not just a background element. You can look forward to finding out just how they’ll be relevant in the full game - or perhaps a later Patreon post.