Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #84 (Patreon)

Hiya everyone!

Ahhh--it's the end of the month already. That sure crept up on us all, huh? Pesky February! Luckily it falls in line with date I intended to post a new dev log, so it's not all bad! The start of next month is just going to feel a little packed with early month posts and such so I apologise in advance for email spam that's bound to happen. Feel free to direct your anger towards me here!

Now, for this week's dev log, I wanted to focus on someone who I don't believe I've done a proper overview of before (or if I have I'm a complete scatter-brain who can't keep all their posts together, lol, which funnily enough relates to this character) of Claire, the bumbling merchant!

Claire is something of a special character in the Quest Failed universe, in that her design process was almost the complete opposite of how I went about creating every other character. She wasn't created to be sexy, alluring, teasing or even dominating--and instead is a bumbling clutz with a penchant for getting lost, who sets out to do something with good intentions, but ultimately ends up making a complete disaster of it all. In a way she can be seen as a female Matt, if you really wanted to look at it like that, haha--but perhaps even unluckier in some aspects.

Neurotic, nervous, and possesses a crushing lack of self-esteem--it's a miracle that Claire was ever even to start her own business in the first place without it all going up in smoke. (Though her shop has caught alight more than a few times, much to the disdain of emergency services in the city) Despite all of these setbacks though, she does seem to have the remarkable ability to keep forging on ahead, even when times are at their roughest.

Writing her interactions with Matt has been a lot of fun, since she's almost on an even playing field when it comes to social awkwardness between the two. It's often clear that she wants to say more to him (and sometimes it slips out anyway, leading to some panic attacks on her side) but doesn't quite have the courage--nor is she as forward as some of the other denizens of Rhan that freely toy with our young adventurer to their heart's content. In a lot cases, Matt might even find himself the initiator of a lot of conversations, or attempts to not say the wrong things that might set her off. So, for those wanting Matt to be in situations where he's not always the one being dragged along--you may find a lot of fun to be had in Claire's events! (Not necessarily the h-scenes though, which I'll go over a bit later on.)

Claire's sprite design process was fairly painless, with the artist Devirish responsible for her conception (among other sprites like the Queen, Anna and fairy!) I approached them with several key features I was looking for out of her design:

- Short, boyish hair
- The eye-patch, of course, a crucial component of her clumsy character!
- Fairly 'plain' clothes with no extreme sexualisation or cleavage, etc.
- A giant bag she lugs around everywhere she goes, to really help hit home with the 'merchant' look. (That she's somehow able to carry around with ease despite her scrawny frame~)

And this lead to the first few proposed drafts!

As you know maybe from past dev logs--when it comes to these sorts of choices, I love to mix and match elements between designs--and here you can probably see which ones I went with in terms of colour and hair styles. I fell in love with the floofy hair style on the far right almost immediately, and loved how it lended to a certainly homely cuteness with her--rather than any kind of overt sexualisation. (Since if I was ever going to have her painted in an alluring/sexy light, it would be by complete accident on her part rather than any solid attempt to seduce anyone!)

From here, the rest of the sprite came together pretty swiftly and without issue. I believe this particular character was one of Devirish's favourites as well!

After this, it was time to move on to her CGs!

Now--it's probably a commonly known thing at this point, but just in case anyone is new, I'll say that at the beginning, two CGs for Claire were made and finalised. But then later on, I felt they just didn't represent her character as I planned, and decided to scrap them in lieu of more comic/goofy scenes that better suited her (with hints of eroticism still, too, don't worry!) I don't believe I've ever shown anything from the scrapped CGs, and will keep them secret for a while longer in case I plan to bundle them in as an extra down the line, but for anyone curious I felt they ended up demeaning her character far too much and wasn't the sort of vibe I felt meshed with QF as a whole. (Generally aiming to empower the women while having the MC be a sub) They did technically fit her character, but in more of a sad (and in one CG's case, far more erotically extreme) nature. I'll leave you to wonder what those might be a little while longer, haha.

The above attached chibi cut-in that headlining image (which I still find absolutely adorable!) should give a better idea as to how her CGs play out now. Far more cute and playful rather than depressing and demeaning! (Which of course wasn't the fault of the artist originally, they were just following my exact instructions and I realised later on what a bad idea it was to go that route.)

Finally, I can't forget the stellar voice performance from her VA, Autumn Knox! She's been able to capture Claire's anxiety-ridden outbursts really well, to the point of perfection. And I can't imagine a more suitable voice for her now. All of her scenes have been finalised in terms of the voicework--so I'll look forward to implementing those into the newest alpha builds in the near-future.

So, to wrap up things--while Claire isn't necessarily a key character in things, nor crucial to the overarching plot (in fact, she's entirely optional) she did end up getting a lot of special consideration compared to other characters in how I approached her scenarios, and how she interacts with Matt. I really have enjoyed bringing her to life--and while I know she probably won't appeal to everybody, since she's kind of the opposite of the others in terms of not being a busty, teasing beauty, it's nice to have some variety in the cast and I'll hope you'll enjoy her scenes as much as I've enjoyed writing them.

What do you personally think of Claire--and will you be making the effort to help her out of the disasters she seems to just magnestise herself towards? (Again, a lot like a certain adventurer-to-be! I wonder, are they double unlucky when together, or does it cancel out at a certain point?)

Thanks again for tuning in, and until next time!

I'll be seeing you all again real soon next month with my usual tier rewards posts!