[Concept] Fall Brells: Ultimate Hoedown (Patreon)

WARNING: This post contains sexually suggestive content.

I haven’t slept yet, so I’ll try to keep this fairly simple. As I previously mentioned, I’ll be producing an image set soon, so I spent this month’s concept art post exploring that.

What is an image set?

It’s just a collection of images – simple, right? I’ll be selling them on Gumroad, but you’ll be getting access to the project as part of your Patreon rewards too. So, you won’t need to buy it separately.

Concept

This image set is based on Fall Guys: Ultimate Showdown, a recently released game that has been extremely popular lately. Maybe you’ve seen me playing it a lot lately, haha! The concept is based on an obstacle-course game show like Takeshi’s Castle. This is perfect for bad ends & embarrassing scenarios to put our characters in.

Of course, we’ll be calling it… Fall Brells!

Character

So, as you can imagine… Instead of having little guys competing, we’re just going to have a bunch of brellomascots instead. Fun, right? I mean, that’s all I ever draw anyway. I expect I will focus on a single brells, so we have a specific character to invest in – like a perspective character. Even if we do see some other brellomascots meeting unfortunate ends or existing in the backgrounds.

I’ve yet to determine what exactly our primary character will look like, but I’m sure it’ll just be a simple bodysuit – just a specific colour so we can easily recognize the character across all the artworks.

I like the simplicity of a skin-tight rubber suit, especially since that’s how I perceive the characters in-game, but it would still be cool to play with a few different costumes. They’re a pretty big part of the game experience, after all, and they’re just plain fun.

The in-game costumes are a lot bulkier, matching the rounder frame of the guys you play. Of course, that might be an eye sore in our project, and makes it hard to appreciate sexy bodies, right? So, here’s some nice costumes that keep with the previously desired simple, sexy aesthetic. I’m sure there will be a handful of opportunities for a few more character costumes in the background, but we’ll have to see.

Composition

The most important thing, however, is to determine what exactly the artworks will look like. Before even starting, I’ll need to sketch to help visually express what I want. It lets us problem solve before having to get heavily involved in the work and is a bit like having a map, so we don’t get lost along the way.

Like most of my projects, I begin with a text outline of what I think I want to accomplish. Though I end up with more than 9 illustrations here (I’m shooting for 9 primary artworks, by the way).

Because I haven’t put pencil to paper yet, I don’t have a clear idea of what the pieces will look like – just a light picture in my head. I ended up having a lot of ass shots though, so in the interest of diversity, I am mindful of this later in the development process. 

Soon after, I begin sketching my ideas. I tackle the first 8 pieces of the set.

Although they deviate from the outline, I have a better idea of what I want now. The compositions will still change, however, and the camera zoom will likely be adjusted. Our first attempts at expressing an idea are seldom ever our best.

I know we need image 2 to help communicate what’s happening. Most of our images are specific close-ups, but we need to see the big picture first. We need to know we’re on an obstacle course. This image is directly referencing an in-game shot, so I want to keep that. A lot of the shots in the bottom row feel pretty stiff though, and 3 of them are back-to-back ass shots. I’ll address this shortly. 

As for the final shot, however… I know I want the character to have failed, falling into a pool of slime. Though the expression of that shot is uncertain. I naturally ended up with even MORE ass shots here, so I made sure to put some frontal shots here too… I really like the first 3, but I don’t have a favourite.

I’m only happy with a handful of these sketches, so it’s time to redo them and even try some new stuff. When doing design work, it’s important to try different takes on a single concept. There are many ways to express a single idea, and like I said earlier – our first attempts are seldom ever our best.

The dildo spike trap swing concept is pretty interesting, and I think it could easily serve as a replacement for any of the weaker sketches above. It works well as part of an obstacle course, has some good energy, and even provides us with greater pose variety. The reward screen mirrors the in-game experience after finishing an episode and could work great as a cover – I figure I can also include a few variants of it too.

The “falling” pieces are cool too, but since I’m shooting for 9 illustrations, I’d probably only include it as an extra. So that’s something to think about AFTER finishing everything else first.

Verdict

Now that we have more sketches to choose from, I feel a lot more comfortable moving forward. So, what pieces should I pick to turn into finished illustrations? Hm…

I think I’ll select these:

I like these shots. There’s a good amount of energy in them, and they’re all pretty different from one another. Variety is important, because we don’t want anyone to feel like they paid money for a bunch of images that look too similar. Of course, it is still subject to change.

As per usual, feel free to provide your thoughts through this post or our Discord sever.

This project will likely take a few weeks to make, and I plan to start working on Monday.

Don’t forget to eat & sleep.