Inventing people is a complicated business. Where do you start?
It’s a good question!
Not so very long ago Scarlett and Finn were a blank page – a figment of our imagination. It’s a strange thought, as we approach the end of Blackwood Crossing’s development, and get ready to say goodbye and send them out into the world.
So, we thought we needed catharsis; a moment to share how these fantastical children came to be.
It probably won’t be a surprise to discover that Scarlett and Finn started out a lot differently to where they ended up. At the beginning we didn’t know anything about them apart from them being orphaned siblings…
Early Sketches of Finn and Scarlett
So we set out on a process to learn more about Scarlett and Finn, going through a thorough pre-production process to give them the due diligence they deserved.
In the beginning we toyed with lots of different versions of them both: Finn as a vaudevillian show off; Finn as a mad scientist; Finn as a recluse. Scarlett: an emotionally-charged artist; a punk; a tomboy; a rebel; even Scarlett as a preppy It Girl!
It’s common practice to do this. Exploring a trio of ideas (at a minimum) allows us to explore a number of different personalities, traits and features, and then pick and choose characteristics from each that fit well with the idea of Scarlett and Finn that we had in our head. It sets a much clearer direction than only exploring the most likely sounding ideas and then trying to decide if it’s perfect or not.
Next phase sketches of Scarlett
Next phase sketches of Finn
And of course, neither Finn nor Scarlett are perfect. But it’s exactly those little flaws and unique characteristics that helped us develop the siblings to where they are today. Our goal wasn’t to create the perfect children, but very human ones that our players could relate to and sympathise with.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking a bit more about the development process of Blackwood Crossing; in our next post we’ll take a look at how Scarlett’s character and personality was developed, and how we settled on the thoughtful artist she is today.