The Art Problem (Patreon)

Hello folks. As you may have noticed, we've been having some delays when it comes to the Ruby update. The primary reason behind this is the change of the art direction and - primarily - our displeasure with it. We've made a number of polls last month concerning this issue, and it seems like you are thinking the same way. This is a problem that requires a definitive solution, as artwork is very important to a game like this.

Now, we understand that we'll never be able to have an art style exactly the same to the one we had with Shakie. Shakie's style was her own and it's going to be extremely hard to replicate it perfectly. The goal is to get as close as possible, for the sake of the game's continuity. We've tried multiple solutions to this problem the past few months, but ultimately, no artist we have contacted has been sufficient in our opinion.

The "art problem" has been oppressing our efforts for more than a year now, and it has been the primary reason behind the lack of updates and content drops. About two months ago we realized there is really only one way to definitively solve this problem permanently. Being reliant to third parties and/or freelancers could bring us back to the same position we are now and it would really be out of our control. Thus, our solution is to learn to draw ourselves.

We have acquired the necessary equipment and have been exercising like absolute maniacs for the past 2 months in order to reach the required level of skill that's needed. We have also contacted the help of a friend to join in the effort, so we're now a team of 3 (so hopefully handling the artwork along with our existing dev work won't be too much for the schedule). While we obviously still have months or years ahead to perfect the art, we can focus on modifying Xenssei's (our current freelancer artist) work to better suit our interests and style.

I am including Ruby's design in this post (surprise to 2$ patrons I guess!). One is Xenssei's original design, the other is our rework of it. Really, our only problem with the original design was the face (last poll showed the same result), so that's what we have modified. Please take a look and let us know if you like our rework or not.

Thank you.