Technical Post - Miho Character Design (Patreon)

Hi everyone! It's adi, and it's been a little while, hasn't it!

Last month, I talked about the design process for Aspen and I hope you enjoyed! Today, I wanted to talk a bit about our foxy protagonist, Miho!

Originally love interest turned protagonist, Miho's one of our first Asian characters. (Lock and Key has Kealey, who's half-Japanese!) She's energetic, spunky and cute, and it was really hard to visualize what we wanted her to look like!!!

I had a vague idea of traits I wanted - golden eyes, with pupil dilation differences, black hair, sporty/cool - but that was about it. I put Tomoe from Bandori as a reference for fashion, even. 

After writing up our document, we tried to get it translated for accuracy, but everyone was really busy. I ended up pulling out Google translate and manually translating a couple lines using my poor Japanese, a little bit worried - but kobuta made a design that was so far beyond our expectations:

We went with 3, and it was really as simple as that! (I did really, really like her ponytail though - it was tough!!!)

One aspect of Miho's design I wanted to talk about is the Korean imagery! It was a special request from us, and Kobuta did a great job at it.

While it's not exclusive to Korea, decorative knotwork is an distinct and beautiful! Attached to Miho's jacket is a a simple norigae, and the knot portion is called the maedeup. They're often hung on more traditional clothing like hanbok.

Working on this game has been a fun experience, because I've been learning more about my own culture as I do - not having grown up in Korea, I've always felt a gap in my inherent understanding of the country despite being Korean, and as Miho grows to learn more about herself and her background, I seem to be doing the same!

The silvery belt is also inspired by patterns that occur in Korean art.

Thank you everyone for reading! We'll continue to work hard.

-adi