The Rag-Doll
Now, you should remember this guy from in my early concept stages. As much as I liked him, I wasn't sure how I could fit this kind of creature within my game. Since I wanted to start going down the route of things the players see to be turned against them, I started to think about how I could take inspiration from this thing.
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This leads me to try and draw out a series on sketches using CLIP STUDIO PAINT (as I use this on all my works as it's very easy to navigate and use) and then asked my friends which one they liked the most.
As you can see, I ended up trying out several ideas. I wanted to be able to make sure that the creature related back to something that the Player would've seen before the main story of the game starts. Thus, I came up with the idea that during the tutorial phase and even in the van on the way there, the Player will see a rag doll and that will then be used against them in an even scarier way. I tried several different designs from it looking similar to my first idea to really trying to incorporate how it could move even with exaggerated limbs. In the end, after asking a few friends on what they thought, we settled with design number 5. Overall, with the tongue and hand combo, it seemed like the scariest choice and that one that would and could really leave an impression on the Player.
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Now it was time to do the turnaround sheet:
This is the final design of the Rag Doll. It has a disgustingly long tongue that gives it the ability to try and grab the player (more or it's abilities in a moment). To keep to the Neo-Noir idea and the idea that things glow a lot (especially in the low light setting of the game), the red stitches of the Rag Doll glow in the dark, making it easier to spot when you need to go from place to place within the Gardens. It primarily has to use its long arms to move and thus can be quite slow from time to time.
Overall, this drawing took me over a week to do. With all the details and colour it was quite taxing, but I really wanted to show off the full example of how it would look. The kind of mechanic it has means the Player will always have to try and escape it. In my game, you cannot fight any of the enemies, thus, the Player will have to be careful when any enemies come after it.
After I had the idea of how the Rag Doll would move, at 2 AM I decided to try and show an example on how it would drag itself with its own arms. It was a little embarrassing to try and film, but when it comes to trying to track the monster and be aware of its movements (especially in the animation phase), I figured it would be the best thing to try and do.
After that and with a quick 1-1 with James, we decided there also needed to be variation to make things a little more complicated (if people wished as there can be difficulty settings) and thus I did a sheet of the different possibilities of the Rag Doll:
With these alternate versions of the Rag Doll, they also have different abilities!.
Red Stitches: The original. Will move at a medium speed. Chances of it using its tongue is low. No chance of it using mouth arms but will spit on you instead (spit and breath are acidic and will hinder you).
Blue Stitches: Moves slower than Red but it will use its tongue to catch you. Will do damage to the suit as a result. Low chance of it using hand mouths to grab. This one will use its breath to intensify hallucinations.
Green Stitches: The fastest out of all the three. Uses its arms and tongue to catch you. It is the worst at spotting you, so hiding is the best way to evade it. It may also spit at you too in an attempt to slow you down.
As you can see, each version has distinct stitches and buttons. This should make it easier for the Player to recognise which creature is attacking while also implying that there is a harder scale for them in the long run.
I am happy with this idea of variation as it means the game may not be as repetitive as you have to go and do your tasks. It was a little difficult to figure out the colours for the buttons, but I am glad with what I ended n and added the extra colours to the colour palette at the top of the character sheet.