Partial

I managed to confirm a majority of things today but not enough to safely dump all my concept art. So I made something fresh for you guys that I don't quite care if it gets stolen. I took 10 min or so to do a very quick rough sketch of what one of the new characters might look like. I was thinking about adding freckles and adjusting the jawline to make her look a bit younger. I couldn't decide on a hair color and I didn't feel like spending time to do eye lashes right so her lack of them does look a bit creepy I will admit. The freaky discoloration is meant to be a symptom of mutation from the cloning process indicating she can't afford to die too many more times. As a character dies more the mutations become more apparent. If you let your team mates die too often they too will become more mutated and you can completely lose them making the rest of the game MUCH more difficult. Back to the character I'm thinking now of more shoulder length hair and free flowing instead of a bun which I didn't really make clear. What it comes down to is a basic shape, scale and positioning of important facial features. As I work more out on the character these will become more prominent and detailed.

The eyes were started with a mosaic pixelation and radial blur which I then went over with brush and burn tools. I've never been a fan of the "black outline" of features, I've always liked subtle color shifts to indicate shadows and such leading to a much better looking image. I tried to dodge in a couple highlights for reflection and depth though they could have been done much better than they were. Hopefully you can click the pic and see the full size version. This was all done in photoshop because I'm trying to shift in that direction away from fireworks which I've been using since back in the days of macromedia. I love fireworks layer system and the integration of vector tools with pixel paint but when it comes down to it it's a half way and I'd really be better off doing full vector or full pixel. I might do a basic 3d in max and render that out to repaint and see how that goes, this time with ears. I'd say this wasn't bad for grabbing my little digi pen and flailing for a couple minutes.

The most important thing I tan think of when it comes to doing digital art is definitely layers, I can't stress it enough. Layers make a world of a difference in workflow. For example this contains roughly 28 layers, good luck spotting them all.

Hopefully I'll be able to dump on you soon, because I'm getting this "put up or shut up vibe" like I need to put out some OC or risk being a faker. Keep in mind the main game is still pre production with perhaps a few early dev assets already in place. I have the city already done but I've been adding to it for a long time. I have the main characters for the same reason and the story, but now I need to organize everything and get ready for full blown development of everything else. I only have 1/4 of the weapons I intend for finished and they all need to be programmed still. I haven't done any of the scripted cinematics though I do have the facial rigs and everything else in place so that it'll be quick once I start. I suppose you get the idea now, main game sounds much more complete than it is only because I've thought it through and mocked it up enough times to know how everything should turn out. Mini game I haven't touched all week I'm going to have to finish it up.