Friday Update #3 (Art! Art! Art!) (Patreon)

While it may be Tuesday, the scale of time is very different in 2020, so I'm letting you all know about this today.

Based on the recent surge in new patrons (seriously, thank you all so much!) Espeon and I have decided that we're making a big push for more art.

But first, let me gush about these base color sprites for Britney that Myumi just sent me. She's looking way hotter than I had expected and is setting a high bar for Zoey to clear.
To reiterate, her sprites come with 6 outfits, 2 hairstyles, 3 unique  poses, 14 expressions per pose (with 3 levels of blush and a sweat drop  emote), and a glasses option.

Now for that aforementioned art push... we're going to be commissioning sprites for 2 new characters (and replacing placeholder sprites for another).

Rich

Simply put, we've been holding off on designing Rich for too long. He's meant to be the third (and probably final) friend Zach can choose to confide in for help. Without going into detail, his route is meant to be a bit more dark than Keisuke or Britney's.
Here are some blurbs from Rich's WIP design document:

Rich is a very cocky (if not downright arrogant) rich kid that Zach has known since they were children due to Zach's dad working directly under Rich's dad, who is the CEO of a large online real estate database company similar to Zillow or Redfin. Even from a young age, Zach found Rich to be a sleaze, but he's managed to remain on good terms with Rich despite that.

While Rich's dad is an eccentric tech entrepreneur (think a budget version of Elon Musk), Rich himself views himself as destined for high finance. He’d love nothing more than to live like a character from The Wolf of Wall Street or Mad Men. To that end, he is pursuing a dual bachelor's in Business Administration and Finance from the fictional Lewis & Clark University in Portland, which is the same school Zach is attending; however, unlike Zach, Rich lives off-campus in a luxury apartment complex.

Rich looks like a younger version of Christian Bale's character from American Psycho. His brown hair is styled in a slick Ivy League haircut, he's dashingly handsome, and his body is nicely toned, though his muscles are more for show than for practical use like Keisuke's. His icy-blue eyes are cold and calculating, though their intensity is offset by his wide smile that shows off his perfect teeth.

Rich is someone who likes to be in control. He's incredibly competent at nearly everything he puts his mind to, and one way or another, he'll produce results. He not only thinks of himself as being destined for great things, but as someone who deserves it.

hakei, who has already done such a fantastic job with the Keisuke sprites, is the artist we want to use to bring Rich to life.

Zach's Mom

While Zach's mom is a comparatively minor character, she'll be showing up often enough on home visits (particularly in the Keisuke route) that we think it's important for her to have sprites.
Here are some blurbs from her WIP design document:

Zach's mom is a stay-at-home housewife who holds down the fort while her husband travels for work and her son is off at college. She's been rather lonely since Zach started his year of travel and then went off to college.

Much to Zach's embarrassment, she is extremely flirtatious. She acts more like a college sorority girl than a mother and housewife who is 43.

While her body isn't as well-proportioned as Zoey's, it's clear where Zach (and Zoey) gets their genetic makeup from. She's about 157cm/5'2" with a youthful appearance that has only recently started to fade.

She's an overprotective mother with some unspecified anxiety disorder that has only been exacerbated since she's been at home by herself.

Her general appearance is similar to an older version of Azur Lane's Taihou.Much like Taihou, she gives off a playful, flirty, and slightly yandere mood.

At home, she tends to wear clothes intended for comfort and ease-of-use while cleaning:Though if she knows Zach or her husband is coming home, she'll dress more nicely:

TiltSHIFT is the artist of choice for Zoey's mom once he's finished with Zoey's sprites.

Ryouichi

There's not really much to say here. Ryouchi's design in the placeholder is almost exactly what I want from his final sprites. He's a darker-skinned young Japanese man who competes alongside Keisuke on the university's swim team. Outside of giving him a few more outfits and taking away his rat tail from his hair, what you see of him in-game is pretty much what we'd commission.

hakei would once again be given this commission.

A decent portion of this two-week development cycle is going towards making proper design documents for these characters and sending commission requests to our artists, but if I have time, I'll add some new Keisuke Day 4 content with Zoey going to her classes.

(By the way, Keisuke needs a flaccid nude sprite, so we'll be going back to hakei for that).