ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

from True Monster

by Northumbria University

MAIN CHARACTER ONE

ALICE

MAIN CHARACTER THREE

Based on the young female character Alice from Wolf- Alice by Angela Carter’s short wolf Stories.

Alice and her twin brother Dug have lived their life since they can remember, within the human village cathedral as servants to the cult order. Despite the two of them being werewolves, the cult order of the human village raised them like a fellow human. Because of this both Alice and Dug never knew they were werewolves, till they became teenagers and experienced changes associated with being a werewolf. After the twins come to realise, their life, they came to know, was all a lie, they also discovered a dark secret truth about the human cult order that could change the world. Being scared with everything that has happened recently in their life, it’s now up to Alice with to her brother Dug to find their way home and discover who they are; which will make a difference between the war of the humans and werewolves.

When Alice and Dug were new born babies, they lived in the devil’s forest with their family and fellow pack of werewolves. However, one day human hunters called the Venandi, attacked the pack, killing every werewolf in sight; except their eldest half-brother Lupus who was able to escape the attack. After the humans attacked the werewolves, within the aftermath, the Venandi discovered the twins. They decided to take them back to the human village cathedral where they were raised as slaves, but to be later secretly experimented on to see if they could become human; forgetting who they truly are.

INVOLVMENT IN GAME STORY:

Alice and her twin brother Dug live in the human village cathedral, but come of age experiencing the werewolf transformation. The twins end up discovering a dark secret the cult have kept for centuries, that could change the world. After learning about this secret, the twins escaped from the human village filled with fear, leaving everything they knew behind, to the place they were born; to be with their own kind in the forest. However, on this journey, the twins will face challenges testing their friendship. Alice wants to be with her true family, Lupus and the other werewolves, while Dug is wants to return to the human village as that’s the life he felt like he belonged in. Which side will Alice pick? Will they stay together or split up in this war choosing a side in the process?

CHARACTER DESIGN:

DAY LIGHT

young Alice appearing like a human girl who is unable to speak with other features that resembles a wolf: “Could this ragged girl with brindled lugs have spoken like we do she would have called herself a wolf, but she cannot speak, although she howls because she is lonely--yet’ howl’ is not the right word for it, since she is young enough to make the noise that pups do, bubbling, delicious, like that of a panful of fat on the fire. Sometimes the sharp ears of her foster kindred hear her across the irreparable gulf of absence....they are trying to talk to her but they cannot do so because she does not understand their language even if she knows how to use it for she is not a wolf herself, although suckled by wolves”.

Although her appearance hasn’t been established. I used the characteristics expressed by the young protagonist in the original source, to inspire the animal like and playful design while also keeping to the original design style I gave the wolf characters in the world. For instance, I gave Alice Pure red hair which is long and tangled, styled in a loose massy brayed to keep it slightly under control while running around having fun. I also designed her character to wear a traditional gothic influenced maid dress, to symbolise and portray her position in the world as a slave to the church. I also added small details onto it to flush out her individuality onto it like un even socks, bandage and untidy sleaves to reflect more on her wild character more.

SUNS SET LIGHT

NIGHT LIGHT

FIRE LIGHT

SIDE CHARACTER TWO

Based on the Male character Duke from Wolf- Alice by Angela Carter’s short wolf Stories.

When it came to Dug, he is designed as Alice’s twin brother, and side supporting character for her. With Dug and Alice being twins, it came to designing their appearance as well with the story. For instance, with Alice designed with a Gothic maid dress with wild red hair and eyes, Dug also presents himself with the same design but with a gender swop instead, a male counterpart to Alice. Following this everything between them is the same even with the colour pallet design of dark blue, brown and white pallet combination for the outfit along with a tanned skin tone; which really pulled the characters; design together, definitely better and different then using a traditional black pallet for this uniform, as I felt it made the twins looked flushed out and flat.

Apart from Dug designed to be identical to Alice, but with a re design to meet a male character appearance, I did include features in Dug's creation to reflect his characteristics as they may be twins, but their characters are vastly different making the twins clash a lot with each other; which is an important part in their story for the game. For example, although Alice is wild in nature Dug is quite

the opposite, while his siter enjoys playing all day getting in trouble in the process. Dug is very shy and timid in his nature, he likes following rules and keeps to himself with a good book to read. Because of this for his design I gave him features in comparison to his sister a lot tidier and well kept. Dug takes care in his appearance with short clean hair and a tidy uniform; he also needs glasses to help him see better when reading his books.

Although Dug is Alice’s twin, his whole design isn’t based on that factor of the game story. Dug design is also inspired by the character Duke in Wolf Alice There wasn’t much describing the Duke's appearance apart from the similar approach of him being like a human but with wolf traits:

“The Duke ….. thin legs scabbed with old scars where thorns scored his pelt…….. He sleeps in an antlered bed of dull black wrought iron until the moon, the governess of transformations and overseer of somnambulists, pokes an imperative finger through the narrow window and strikes his face: then his eyes start open. At night, those huge, inconsolable, rapacious eyes of his are eaten up by swollen, gleaming pupil. His eyes see only appetite. These eyes open to devour the world in which he sees….. he will leave paw-prints in the hoar-frost when he runs howling round the graves at night in his lupine fiestas……. shoulders a weird burden of fear; he is cast in the role of the corpse-eater, the body-snatcher who invades the last privacies of the dead. He is white as leprosy, with scrabbling fingernails, and nothing deters him. If you stuff a corpse with garlic, why, he only slavers at the treat: cadavre provençale. He will use the holy cross as a scratching post and crouch above the font to thirstily lap up holy water.”

DAY LIGHT

With this in mind, the way the story describes the Duke and the later relationship he develops at the end of the story, influenced my decision to make them twins in the game as they both were presented in the story as more than humans sharing a lonely experience in the world. This quote also helped when designing Dug’s appearance in wolf form, the same approach in human form, although his sister Alice's wolf form has wolf unkept fur decorated with knotted braids. Dug likes to keep his wolf form well tidy; he even decorates his wolf in vines of frons. Following this I used the frons on the leg as a reference and key design to the Duke who Dug is inspired form. This is from the way it describes the Duke having scars on his legs from the frons. By adding the frons to his design it’s only keeping to the Gothic pagan design I gave the werewolves of the world.