No Truce With the Furies Update – Bird’s Nest Roy

The latest post on the No Truce With the Furies developer blog describes the iterative process of creating a character for the game, using one Bird’s Nest Roy, a middle aged drug addict and a pawnshop owner, as an example. Check out the update for a plethora of work-in-progress images, or just read the text part of it here:

“Roy, white male, about 50, tall and gaunt, pawnbroker and drug addict (though the latter is not immediately obvious). His arms, legs, and torso all seem too long, and his hands are too large – expressive hands with long fingers, but nevertheless ugly. Speaks in a quiet, husky smoker’s voice. He was part of the cleanup crew after the People’s Pile disaster. Has traveled extensively. Though he grew up on the coast and runs a pawnshop by the water, he doesn’t like boats.”

First draft. Immediately I’m reminded of a few people I know, these hippie types who’ve gotten older and started dressing down from their regular outlandish gear. You can see this guy having a smoke on the little lawn in front of his 16 story public housing apartment home. An old rocker kinda dude. Add a rigid leather fanny pack as a coin purse for his clerking obligations.

Comments come back from the writers. It’s a good start! The slim silhouette, natural almost invisible way of dress is great. Hair is a bit too wild and cool though. It’s not the hair that’s the Bird’s Nest. Maybe let’s try a lazy ponytail instead?

Alright getting closer. Needs some accessorizing to bring him out of that random dude place, to add some character there. Throw some lopsided shades on him. Maybe a ribbon in his hair? Some kind of memorabilia from the cleanup crew days. Maybe his old jacket? I’m not too keen on breaking his silhouette with more clothes though so I’m thinking we try out an arm band. In retrospect a silly idea.

Naw that’s stupid. It’d much more likely be some kind of an old reflector vest he wore as part of the crew. Maybe some dog tags?

You know what? Dog tags are silly. Way too american. Let’s try like a medallion. And man not so sure about that sweater either. Let’s try like a white jacket. He’s in a room with a projector that’s blasting trippy LSD coloured light all over the place. I think a white jacket would work well as a canvas for the lightshow. Let’s kill the glasses too since the character’s partly written already and the writers would have to go back and edit some bits of text about his eyes.

Man but that jacket sure balloons up now, kinda kills the silhouette we had going with his guy. What if it’s properly buttoned up instead?

You know what. Naw, nope, let’s roll back. That jacket really doesn’t do him justice. Alright so thinking again about the vibe the character is supposed to give off I’m leaning back on that old rocker feeling.. Let’s go full out – a denim vest. Like a biker or something. An old rocker fart. Those dudes love their denim vests.

Pfffft nope that doesn’t work at all. We’ve arrived at some trucker dude / metalhead IT specialist now, all he’s missing is a Manowar print on his chest. You know what, fuck it, roll back. You can’t push the rocker look too much or you get into stereotypes.

Upon reflection that old crew vest was pretty nice. A kind of a believable accessory. You could definitely picture a dude hanging out like that, reflector bits shining. And with the light show going on the glasses were a completely legit idea. No biggie, we’ll just edit a bit of the dialogue. Yes, this works. In hindsight it’s completely obvious that of all the Roys the best Roy is this Roy.