I personally like the character. The only part that confuses me on the sprite is that the hair at the front gets confused with the ear things at the back, so they end up looking like they have bunny ears. I think the only other thing is that the wings seem on the one hand like overkill, and on the other they're so floppy and indistinguishable that it's almost not worth having them visible at all. At the very least they could be a different colour to distinguish them. The animations could do with being smoother but they're early animations so that's not really an issue at this stage.

The hair, I could probably fix by either returning it to three strands or reducing it to one strand. Before anyone suggests removing it altogether, I already tried, and...it just doesn't look right. It feels like something should BE there. As for the wings...that's a bigger problem. She'd look pretty stupid flying with nothing but the, ahem, "exhaust" coming out of her tail, so just removing them doesn't seem like a good option, and at the same time I feel like adding an extra color just for her wings would be edging on too many colors. I can't even think of what color I WOULD make them were I to make them a different color.

[quote="soopakoopa"]As for her color scheme looking a bit too "girly and childish," Kirby is literally a ball of pink with sparkly eyes. And your first design's color scheme is...almost exactly the same as Kiku's current color scheme, so I don't exactly know what to say about that.[/quote] I expected that you would come up with this while I was writing my post. (I don't mean anything nasty, but I did expect that) Kirby manages to come off being not girly, because it's design isn't gender specific despite it having pink body colour. Because it's the only design that I can think of without trying being too girly with the pink colour scheme. I tried to experiment with the colours that you had with the redesign, but it didn't feel very fitting. [quote="soopakoopa"]The hair, I could probably fix by either returning it to three strands or reducing it to one strand. Before anyone suggests removing it altogether, I already tried, and...it just doesn't look right. It feels like something should BE there. As for the wings...that's a bigger problem. She'd look pretty stupid flying with nothing but the, ahem, "exhaust" coming out of her tail, so just removing them doesn't seem like a good option, and at the same time I feel like adding an extra color just for her wings would be edging on too many colors. I can't even think of what color I WOULD make them were I to make them a different color.[/quote] Well, I agree with you that it's hard for you to come up with design ideas that makes her fly and having trouble simplifying it or having details that defines the character. (I did couple redesigns few posts back) Have you tried doing multiple designs of the character beforehand? This is what I usually do when it comes to making character designs. If you show us some of the designs that you made, it may at least help us to "reshape" the character by using the earlier ideas from earlier designs. If nothing really works, you could try make a new character with some of your old ideas and new ones.

i think it's mostly just a matter of there being too much detail. cuter characters tend to translate better when there's not as much detail so people can fill in their own blanks. there's actually like a surprising amount of science in creating a "cute" character that's borderline ridiculous but that's character design for you i guess. [img]http://i.imgur.com/X6yba8F.png[/img] it's hard to understand what you're going for with the design because it doesn't really have a consistent body "type" so to speak. it's obviously anthropomorphic and some kind of animal, alien or otherwise, but it's better to make things more direct and obvious in what they are when working on the design. there's a lot of different pieces that suggest different directions so i tried to streamline it a little bit and cheated with a sonic-y body type. it worked for sega, and it never really stopped working, so for now it's an easy out. on a similar note "cute" is really subjective in general but "appealing" usually isn't. i think you tried to go for a cute that takes after a lot of cutesy toys geared towards little girls (especially in the west), which is fine, and at least that's the vibe i got, though for more universal appeal generally characters two heads high with good readability translate best- think hello kitty in this sense. looking at your design as it stands it's hard to tell what's really what, which is a mix of design quirks and overdetail. EDIT: i didn't know she had wings until after reading a little bit, but i think that also falls into the issue of the design not being clear enough. you could give her a "cape" that can be used like cape mario, or little "wings" under her arms like a flying squirrel/lemur. i might be able to try out some more stuff tomorrow because it's really late now.

That's actually pretty good design! really like how it's quite cute, without making it overly girly. I didn't know that the these colours would translate quite well into your design, so I think the issue with the colours is more of a design issue and how it works with the design. (Never realised that colour would take into the account of basic design, how it works with it rather than being a separate thing) And I thought that the flying squirrel was a pretty good idea and could work well in motion. But yeah, as like Mit said. For this type of character, I think a simple and direct approach (theming and concept) in character design would work pretty well for you character.

I personally don't mind "girly" characters.

I think the only issue I have with Mit's redesign are, ironically, the eyes. They're at pretty much a perfect size, but I think he went about simplifying them [i]too[/i] much. Something about them crosses the line of "cartoon-y to a point of not actually being cute", and maybe adding some kind of adorable shimmer or something to the pupil could help in restoring its perceived cuteness. Just my two cents, anywho. But yeah, as everyone else has already said (myself included): simplicity goes a long way in achieving universally appealing character design.

Once again, while I do [i]like[/i] the design, it just doesn't fit with what I have in mind. As I already mentioned, she's supposed to look a bit "uncanny-cute," for a number of reasons. A lot more thought went into the design that I'm going with than one would probably assume just by looking at it. The number one reason is that, story-wise, I'm going for a bit of an "unwanted child" narrative. While I don't want to spoil too much, let's just say that a combination of her weird look, enormous appetite, and a few other factors make her a bit...unpopular on the planet that she ends up on, even among "friendly" NPCs. Because of that, I want to make her look cute and lovable, but not the generic Japanese mascot kind of cute and lovable where it's almost inconceivable that people could possibly [i]not[/i] love her the moment they first lay eyes on her. Almost every aspect of her apperance is designed to be about 75% cute and 25% creepy. In essence, she's supposed to look like a character who [i]needs[/i] a bit more love than the world around her is willing to give her. Which is why I went with a sort of "girly" look and personality. A girly kind of personality is, after all, a distinctly human kind of personality, and one often associated with seeking out attention and affection. I want the player to realize that, in spite of her alien appearance, bizarre biological abilities, and mildly eccentric personality, Kiku is essentially just a little girl at heart. Another factor, far less story-based, is that I simply want to make her design stand out and fit her personality and powers. While your redesign is cute, it has the same problem as Psid's redesign; it's just that. Cute. It doesn't have that weird, mildly uncanny and...well...[b]alien[/b] edge that I'm looking for. It just kinda looks like something you'd see advertising cotton candy while on a tour in Japan, think "Hey, that's cute," and go on with your life. That's pretty much...the [i]opposite[/i] of what I want Kiku to look like. She's supposed to be the kind of character that you look at and think "So...what the heck is that, anyway? I mean it's kind of cute I guess, but...what's going on with that tail?" and slowly grow more attached to as you go through the game with her, helping her grow stronger and achieve her goal in a world that doesn't really like her all that much. She's designed for a game with a story and a theme, not the side of a lunch box. Also, none of the redesigns proposed by anyone so far really look like the kind of creature that'd have a 12-foot tongue that it uses to pull monsters into the quantum singularity that is its stomach before using them to fuel a biological rocket engine attached to the back of its pelvis, cute, appealing or otherwise. [quote="Vimimin"] But yeah, as everyone else has already said (myself included): simplicity goes a long way in achieving universally appealing character design.[/quote] Once again, that's kind of the point; universal appeal isn't exactly the goal when it comes to her design. Universal appeal isn't a bad idea, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to give the story and theme more emotional impact in the long run.

But here's the thing...reasoning why it's a good design doesn't make it a good design. Your reasoning behind the design is perfectly valid but it doesn't make the character look any better. If you want an example of a character that is uncanny, awkward, alien-like and shunned but likeable, look no further than [url=http://www.nag.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/oddworld_abe.jpg]Abe[/url] from Abe's Odyssey. He's a completely different execution of a similar concept (and not at all cute) but Abe demonstrates that it's possible to make a good design without compromising a character's backstory. I would suggest sketching a few different ideas for Kiku and bouncing ideas off of us. When I design characters, I tend to go through 3-8 different iterations before I settle on the final design. [spoiler][img]http://i.imgur.com/AcnfURF.png[/img][/spoiler] If I instead settle on the first design I make, I become attached to it and unable to redesign my character. Wouldn't this design have been much worse if I had stuck to the first one?

I get what you're say, but first of all, this one [img]http://t07.deviantart.net/_fDkqI11wdqwoC53GpV6dvH64MY=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre03/1fb4/th/pre/i/2016/298/7/7/major_design_overhaul__1_by_soopaderpcat-dam7lla.png[/img] is in no way at all the first iteration. She actually initially looked like this: [img]http://t13.deviantart.net/rBuTHjZBB6JlkhhA5EcAuorIR_8=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre15/66b6/th/pre/i/2016/291/1/3/kiku_the___um___i_don_t_know__by_soopaderpcat-dalge7v.png[/img] Which I already changed up a bit for the concept art shown in the OP, before "settling" on the current design. I just recently sketched up a few alternate head designs, and I don't really like either of them: [attachment=0]concept.png[/attachment] I just...I dunno, I've got her pretty much how I want her. As I said before, there'll probably be small changes here and there, but as it stands, I'm more or less satisfied with the overall design. I'm willing to make a few compromises here and there, subtract a few details, change the wings to make them a bit more distinguishable, maybe adjust the eyes a bit more, but I'm considering at least the IDEA behind her current design final.

The gigantic eyes still don't look any good. You should try experimenting with different shapes, sizes, etc. Also, Mit's design is instantly more readable than the current one. The fact that he couldn't tell she has wings until reading (and he's right - I can't tell either just by looking at the design) should speak for itself. The insect tail is gross by the way

[quote="David Byrne"]The gigantic eyes still don't look any good. You should try experimenting with different shapes, sizes, etc. Also, Mit's design is instantly more readable than the current one. The fact that he couldn't tell she has wings until reading (and he's right - I can't tell either just by looking at the design) should speak for itself. The insect tail is gross by the way[/quote] I literally just said that I plan on reworking the eyes and wings in the previous post. I might just cheat and make the wings white to make them stand out more. Or, maybe I'll make the wings fold into her back and only unfurl during flight. I dunno. As for the insect tail...that's probably not going. Not only does that seem like the most intuitive way to design a sort of rocket tail thing, but a large part of her design is influenced by moths and the way they use the stars to navigate at night. But yes, people. I plan on working on the eyes until they look right. Stop worrying so much about them. If I have to, I'll copy-paste fifty Kiku heads and draw different eyes on every last one.

[quote="soopakoopa"]As for the insect tail...that's probably not going. Not only does that seem like the most intuitive way to design a sort of rocket tail thing, but a large part of her design is influenced by moths and the way they use the stars to navigate at night.[/quote] If you have all these influences on the design coming from insects... why not just make her an insect then? Seeing a big, bulbous, insect tail on some sort of furry animal is really jarring and unappealing.

I think people are getting way too personal about this. I actually quite like the big eyes and don't see them as an issue. The character design doesn't need drastically changing to me either because I think it looks quite good, though I will admit I do like this one a tad more due to the simplicity of the clothing and design. [img]http://t13.deviantart.net/rBuTHjZBB6JlkhhA5EcAuorIR_8=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre15/66b6/th/pre/i/2016/291/1/3/kiku_the___um___i_don_t_know__by_soopaderpcat-dalge7v.png[/img] People are missing the point entirely with their redesign and huge changes are going to change the feel of the game and character.

[quote="David Byrne"]If you have all these influences on the design coming from insects... why not just make her an insect then? Seeing a big, bulbous, insect tail on some sort of furry animal is really jarring and unappealing.[/quote] Because I...I dunno, because I like the way she looks and think that she captures a certain kind of weird, innocent and whimsical charm that would be lost by altering her too drastically? I think that a bug-mammal hybrid alien is a good idea. You don't. Fair enough, but we're probably not going anywhere like this. That's pretty much it. Most of the people who dislike her design are fans of artistic styles and trends that I myself dislike, while [i]I'm[/i] clearly a fan of artistic styles and trends that [i]they[/i] dislike, and as a result it's only natural that we aren't really going to see eye to eye on any single point at all. I think big eyes are appealing; you don't. As long as we both think those things, I probably won't convince you that she looks good, and you probably won't convince me that she looks bad. Pretty much everything that could be said by either side has already been said, and I would like to politely request that we just drop it for now and talk more about the gameplay concepts.

I just realized, why would you give her wings if she already has a form of propulsion (the rocket tail)? I would either get rid of the wings or shift toward an entirely mothlike design (larger, transparent wings) instead of a hybrid. It's possible to make things cute without being a fluffy animal, it could be done with rounder shapes. A mothlike design would give you the chance to make a rounder, "cuter" design without throwing tons of fur on while retaining the gameplay concepts.

the issue with the design isn't the eyes but rather just overdetail. like kritter said the first design is better as it's a lot simpler and reads easier. i entirely understand what you're trying to go for with the design but at first glance i can't tell what's going on at all, both in the first and current design. having seen how she's meant to fly, it might be worth trying out different things. the way it stands now is fairly unappealing but the concept is interesting, you should try to look at things like gundams and other fighting robots that have that kind of "wing" setup. on a similar note, you could make her a robot, which streamlines a lot of the process. another idea is to try to work with juxtaposition. rather than having her eat like yoshi, you could have it so she's actually got a fairly monsteresque mouth kinda like corrin's neutral b in smash. [img]http://i.imgur.com/7dpMMMA.png[/img] that way you can convey the weird kinda cuteness in a multi-layered design, and not be forced to cram everything into the surface of it. a lot of what i'm picking up from here is that you know your influences, however you don't really know why the choices they made were made. it's important to study a lot of things in drawing and designing so you can pull your own interpretations from them, and find out if they're the same or different from what your influences pulled. it's obvious that there's a lot of banjo-kazooie and yoshi going on with the designs but it's hard to get those designs to work without knowing how they work (mechanically) in the first place.

I actually find that the eyes are probably the worst part. Feel free to disagree (in fact, Mit and Kritter have already), but the eyes are perhaps the only major thing holding the design back to me. It's not that they're "grotesque" or truly "uncanny", but it seems like it's the only kind of eyes you can draw sometimes. You have a lot of technical skill soopa, but you rely so much on one style that it starts to look and seem like it isn't a style but a crutch. A big part of art is going against what you're used to and trying something different, which often you struggle to do. That's fair, but you won't improve as an artist unless you at least try to. It's worth thinking about, at least.

if i may offer my take, character design is of course very important but maybe not as much at this point in the development of a game. if youre starting on a game and formulating basic ideas its probably more worthwhile to start making a basic engine with some placeholder sprites.

[quote="mysteriousclown"]if i may offer my take, character design is of course very important but maybe not as much at this point in the development of a game. if youre starting on a game and formulating basic ideas its probably more worthwhile to start making a basic engine with some placeholder sprites.[/quote] This is good advice. Perhaps we should be focusing more on how the game ideas work than how the character looks.