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This project is tentatively titled Culture Shock! (name subject to change), and it takes place largely in an enchanted forest known by the name of Yggari. Yggari is a fully realized fantasy setting with unique fantasy races, plant life, animals, cultures, history, and more. The time period and setting is technically present day Earth, but Yggari exists apart from the modern world.
The format is a bit different than most visual novels. For one, while there is a good bit of romance involved, the choices players make do not determine what love interest the protagonist(s) ends up with. Each protagonist has only one potential love interest, though it is possible not to end up with them at all. That actually brings me to the second greatest deviation: there are multiple protagonists. It is not unheard of in visual novels for there to be more than one protagonist, but rather than CS! presenting one story through the eyes of many, each protagonist has a completely separate story. What ties them all together is their forest home rather than the overall storyline. Many of the characters interact with each other, but their individual lives are what CS! follows. There are, however, events that occur within the forest which effect all of the characters, and how each character deals with these events would probably be the closest equivalent to the more usual format.
Another important note is that the main race of CS! is a type of human/animal hybrid. If there could be a scale from 1 being kemonomimi to 10 being full-on anthro/furry, these beings would fall somewhere in-between, albeit much closer to the kemonomimi side. This is important to note because it is this design concept that I would like to work on with the character artist.
What I'm Looking for RIGHT NOW
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I would like to commission one or two pieces of character art, preferably something along the lines of a colored sketch, to gauge if your art style fits with my vision. These will be concepts of a major character or protagonist (or two), and I will both provide all of the information pertaining to that character and answer any questions relating to the character or project overall that will aid in the design. Since these are concepts, I may request a few tweaks. Please provide your rate for something like this when responding.
What to Expect in the Future
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My goal is ultimately to fund this project through Kickstarter. If hired, the character artist will have the option of either being paid an agreed upon commission rate from the funds acquired through Kickstarter, OR receiving an ongoing percentage of sales made, paid out either bi-weekly or monthly via Paypal. All of these details will be discussed well in advance.
What Your Role Would Be
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As the character artist and undoubtedly one of the most important contributors to the VN, I would like to work with you on a collaborative basis rather than merely commissioner/commissionee. By that I mean that I would like to work with someone who will provide feedback and suggestions (on the storyline, characters, and project overall), and who I in exchange would be willing to incorporate ideas from if desired. Do not be afraid to critique my ideas! What's most important is for the project to be the best that it can be, and having outside perspectives always helps in my opinion. When the time comes, I will also need your assistance with running CS!'s Kickstarter campaign. There is 0% likelihood that it will succeed if I am the only one working on it. This extends to marketing, even as much as promoting it on your dA and various other social media. I do not expect you to market as much as I will be, but everything helps!
Your role as character artist would include the following:
1) Colored concept sketches of all of the characters, including humans, humanoids, animals, and monsters. If the latter two are not your forte, I would be willing to find a separate "beast" artist. However, for the sake of consistency, I would PREFER one artist.
2) In-game lineart for all of the aforementioned. This would include both sprite sets and event CGs. There will be a separate colorist (not yet chosen) and background artist with whom you will be working. Sprites will include alternate outfits for some characters and a couple of alternate poses.
3) There will be a schedule at some point during production, so please be willing and able to stick to one. I will work with you to determine a schedule that fits with yours. Please --and I cannot stress this enough --, PLEASE do not offer to help out if you know that you cannot dedicate several months to this project's development.
4) CS! will feature relationships between males, depictions of violence (not much, but it exists), bullying, fantasy racism, and other potentially triggering or objectionable content. If you are bothered by any of this, then CS! may not be the project for you. While there won't be any graphic sexual content, there may be some racy material. Thus, you must be 18 years of age or older.
What I Look for In An Artist
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This is what I will typically be keeping an eye out for while I browse through galleries. That is not to say that all of these points HAVE to be included, but it'll definitely up your appeal if I see them.
♦ Multiple examples of both male and female characters.
♦ Dynamic poses and depictions of characters interacting. Full on illustrations would be fantastic!
♦ Lineart examples or at least that your work tends to be lined rather than painted.
♦ Varying ages and body types amongst character designs. It is a definite plus if you've got children and elders, thin characters, chubby characters, muscular characters, curvy characters, etc.
♦ Clothing design. It's not something I'm particularly good at, so I will definitely notice if you are.
♦ Varying facial structures. I love bishies as much as the next person, but all of the males within CS! will not fall under the category of "beautiful". It stands out to me if all of your characters look too similar. Manly men AND pretty boys, attractive and unattractive, different eye and nose and jaw shapes...All are a plus in my book.
♦ Creature designs and/or animals/anthros/furries/kemonomimi. It is very important that you be able to draw convincing animal parts/feathers/fur/fins/scales/etc. They do not have to be hyper realistic. Stylized is right up my alley! But I will take notice if there are no examples of this in your gallery, or if what examples do exist aren't particularly convincing. As for creature designs, there are fantasy creatures in CS!, so if you're already adept at conceptualizing them, all the better!
♦ A unique art style. I am looking for something that could be described as "anime" or "manga", but I'm not a huuuge fan of the particularly generic styles. It doesn't have to be off-the-wall, and I'm not even saying that I would reject a "generic" or common style. But I prefer styles that veer at least somewhat away from the norm. I would LOVE to have a style that can be easily identified. If there's any anime artist you can think of whose art style you'd recognize anywhere, even if it's only a slight variation from the norm, that's what I'm talking about. This is definitely not a requirement, however.
Anything Else?
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Ask away!
