TD1900 ,
GIL3D
Who was responsible for the Design of the characters, lookswise? Was this something simply written out by TD and realized by GIL? Were you limited by HS in what you imagined for the characters?
Ah, I was beaten to the punch, but I guess I'll share my side of it too.
TD and I have been friends for some years now, met through comic-making. I designed Felicia and later Kathleen while I was still not on the project. I wasn't told they were for a game. He gave me almost complete freedom iirc. Felicia just needed to look mature and Kathleen needed to look older, in the gray hair zone. While I did retouch both when I got onboard, the first costumes you see them wear in the game were the ones I originally gave them. Both were subject to small changes on delivery by TD's request too.
Rosalind, Victoria and Dalia are original TD characters, I have only edited them slightly.
Hana and Mina are greatly improved replicas of two old characters from my first comic series, done in Playclub like a century ago. We brainstormed their implementation and roles. Mina got promoted to heroine shortly after we started working on the prologue, she was originally going to be a side character. Her cute design and first shooting session won TD over I like to think, altho I did lobby for her considerably.
Veronica was the last heroine to be designed. Originally she was going to be a teacher type. Her glasses and hairstyle are the only thing she keeps from her first draft. We worked very closely on her creation, finally deciding to go muscle. I'm very glad we did.
As a side note, Edwin and Ian were also made by TD, with very minor edits by me. Chuck and August were remade, but their essence is faithful to the TD originals.
All designs after those have followed the same process: TD explains to me what he needs, I make and edit it over and over until he is satisfied. That goes for costumes too.
Have we been limited by HS? Sure, but not terribly. I wish the Character Creation tool was as deep as HS2 at the very least, but it didn't even exist when we started working. Also, you gotta give it to TD, he both has a set in stone vision of the story with very defined goals (I've already SEEN part of an ending!) and the very rare ability to adapt and incorporate other's ideas to enrich and expand it. Such generosity and creativity is very rare in my experience. It's an absolute joy to work with him.