Spark Game Design

One of the most fun (and most difficult) tasks when doing character design is figuring out what clothing best suits a character. Listed below are a few things I think of when looking for inspiration.

(Image from http://www.albatross18.com)

1. Color Theory

The Colors of the Character:
It is a good idea to come up with a particular color scheme for a character. Find three or four colors that go well together and fit the character. A good website for finding a suitable color scheme is Color Jack. Make sure to check out the color sphere.

The Colors of the Environment:
Also, make sure you know what types of environments the character will be in. A white suit may blend right into the snow. A lime green dress may be very jarring against a pale orange and blue background. A designer must decide how much he or she wants a character to blend into or stand out from the surroundings. Ultimately, the designer needs to make sure the colors of the character work well with the colors of the background.

2. Create a costume that suits the character

It is important that the costume fits that particular character. What will the character do? Where will the character travel? If a game takes place in the desert, it does not make much sense to wear a winter coat. Granted, that is a rather extreme example, but you get the idea. Knowing who the character is will greatly help narrow down ideas for what kind of costume works best.

The environments don’t match the costumes.

3. Look at other costumes for inspiration

One very important thing to do is collect reference work. I do this often when perusing the web. Anytime I come across something I like, I download it to a “References” folder.

It also helps to organize references. For instance: costumes, characters, worlds, etc. To organize even further, it is good to provide subcategories. Costumes can contain: medieval, fantasy, desert, summer, street, office, etc.