Our project, Steamweavers is still driving forwards rapidly- with steam power, you might say! We're putting lots of attention into our level designs and beta testing on Facebook right now, and hope that when it is ready to be released, you will love the game as much as we do!

In the mean time, please enjoy another issue of the blog series in which we'll explore the characters more deeply, and give you the chance to learn more about them and their personalities. This week, thanks to Jim, the writer for Steamweavers, we will be hearing a lot about the characters not just in their game setting, but also outside of it too. Furthermore, I also spoke to Gareth, the artist for Steamweavers, about his designs and artwork- there is an interview with him later on in the blog.

We will be focusing on the Brasslands characters this week; who are some of the first that you meet in the game and help to set the story rolling.

Abuelo is an extremely eccentric fellow in the mould of a mad scientist. He is the inventor of many of the machines that keep the Brasslands safe, and his extraordinary ability means he is broadly accepted by the region, although his experiments are often heavily shunned and mistrusted. Even the head of the local Church (which is staunchly against many of Abuelo's experiments) allows for his unorthodox behaviour.

Abuelo is the grandfather of the twins. It is from their "grandfather"that the twins appear to have gained their extraordinary practical working knowledge of machinery, and their deftness is a marvel to the entire region.

Dump-Starr is a true clockwork man created by Abuelo as an experiment and to help him with raising the twins. He is powered by steam and clockwork, with great intelligence an attitude of polite servility combined with a dry wit.

He adores the twins, and they him. Although the relationship tends to be punctuated with teasing, this is because the twins truly accept him even if no one else in the region could really bring themselves to trust in a metal man. Of all of Abuelo's experiments, a sentient clockwork man has been the most divisive, and he and his family are treated not quite as pariahs, but certainly with distrust by the local populance.

Concept Art and descriptions:

Abuelo-

Abuelo is in his late 60s, and although he is now stooped and slightly wiry, there is an air of strength and dignity about him. It would be no problem to imagine him pulling together and still working very actively and physically, though he may need Dump-Starr to do the heaviest lifting now.

There is the intelligence and wisdom in his eyes to make it very plausible that the smallest, most intricate details could spring easily from his fingertips. He is a sprightly and slightly mischievous-looking character, with a wiry white beard poking out in all directions from his chin. His skin is weathered and tanned.

He wears a single monoggle in a deep, rich green. It's like a set of brass goggles, but with only one "oggle". It should be a big, chunky piece of kit that is a defining feature of his face and character. He's dressed in a battered red waistcoat and smart white shirt with an open collar and wing-tips. Tools protrude from each of his pockets.

Dump-Starr:

Dump-Starr was one character who was thought out a little before more in depth character descriptions were written, in order to try and pin point a style for the art of the game. An early sketch of him is below, followed by the concept sketch that followed it, once a character description had been written.

A robot butler, Dump-Starr has been made out of rough scrap metal and is powered by an internal steam engine. His inherent sense of style and panache sees him kitted out with a battered top hat and monocle.

He has a slim and elegant build, similar in a manner to the robot from "I, Robot". His boiler is a wooden barrel attached to his back. Suspended inside his chest can be seen an array of cogs and pulleys, demonstrating with extraordinary clarity Abuelo's genius.

The predominant metal used in his construction is brass, with wood detailing. His face would be a wood carving, and his legs should be "Cheetah running blade" style contraptions from the knee down, but with a hydraulic linkage at the back of the calf.

He has the sense of being an actually very elegant piece of construction, clearly years ahead of his time, but with the raw, nuts-and-bolts steampunk approach present in the details.

Getting to know...

I spoke to Jim, the writer for Steamweavers, and decided to quiz him on some quirky character traits and details for the Brasslands characters.

- What does this character do when they're not commanding vast steam armies?

Dump-Starr was originally created by Abuelo as a kind of glamourised car-jack to help with some of the heavier lifting in the workshop. But on reviewing his designs it seemed that it would be a lot more convenient if his tool could walk itself around, and from there it seemed like it would be best all round if it also had a mind of its own so that it could be given instructions and pretty much function entirely on its own. Even though he may be the first and only 'living' example of a self-aware clockwork mechanism, Dump-Starr doesn't let it go to his head, and remains committed to aiding Abuelo wherever and however he may need. In fact, the only thing that has ever gone to Dump-Starr's head is his jaunty brass top-hat, which he made himself.

Abuelo is a mechanic's mechanic. When he's not commanding an army, he's in his workshop creating extraordinary machines.

- What would be the motto that they live by?

Abuelo: 'If it ain't broke, then you probably haven't fiddled with it enough yet.'

Dump-Starr: 'Should we perhaps put out the fires before we continue with the modifications, sir?'

- What did they eat for breakfast this morning?

Dump-Starr drank a large and nourishing can of 'Fossil-Lube' crude oil to keep his insides (literally) ticking over.

Abuelo started a bowl of prunes, but then got thinking about how he could get an extra bit of performance out of one of his machines by replacing a cog with a slightly different cog, and wandered off without finishing them.

- Where is their favourite place and why?

Abuelo's favourite place is his workshop.

Dump-Starr's favourite place is by Abuelo's side.

- Do they have any unusual talents?

Dump-Starr has several parts of his inside made out of a heavy duty pneumatic platform previously used for raising Abuelo's heaviest machinery. This means Dump-Starr can lift more than 40 tons if ever required to.

Abuelo has a superhuman thirst for knowledge.

- What is their most prized possession?

Dump-Starr's jaunty hat.

Abuelo's massive man-cannon, 'E.L.E' which stands for: 'Extinction Level Event'.

- What does this character live for- what is their overriding goal in life?

Dump-Starr lives to serve his creator. Not due to his programming, or any other enforced nonsense, but through a sense of gratitude and humility.

Abuelo does not have a goal that he has defined. He is one of those rare characters who simply finds his every waking moment filled with his obsession - in this case for machinery. It endlessly delights and fascinates him to the exclusion of almost everything else.

About the Brasslands themselves:

The main colours of the Brasslands are red with brass. The Brasslands are based on classic steampunk: they have elements of Victorian London present, with Victorian appearances and ideals mixed with high technology and an air of sophistication. There is definitely a measure of British aloofness to the characters in the Brasslands, and also immense ingenuity and sense of refinement and civility.

There is a marked coldness and almost arrogance to the people of the Brasslands. Through their powerful army and the extraordinary technical prowess of Abuelo, the city has lived in peace, easily able to repel the aggressions of neighbouring lands. They are not an oppressive people by any means, but if there were to see injustice in the other lands, they would feel no particular compulsion to lend aid. They are self-sufficient and unconcerned with the issues of others.

Other Characters

Father Tome is an NPC (non-playable character) who you meet fairly near the beginning of the game, as the announcer of the Great Steam Competition. He is head of the Church in the Brasslands.

He is in his mid-30s, wearing a large black cassock, tightly buttoned, that conceals his body entirely. He wears pure white gloves and a bishop's hat. He wears a large brass medallion, with a large cross sign overlaid onto a chunky brass cog. This motif is repeated on his hat.

Below is a concept sketch for Father Tome.

This week, I spoke to Gareth, the artist for Steamweavers. I asked him everything from how he prepares to draw characters, to his artistic process- and it's quite an exciting insight not only into how the characters visually developed, but also into the way that Gareth works, as an artist.

Q: "What did you first look to for inspiration, after having read the character descriptions, before you started sketching?"

A: "For the Brasslanders, I had to familiarise myself with Steampunk and Victorian dress but I also watch an awful lot of Anime. When thinking of a character's appearance, first of all I'm always flicking through every character I can recall in my mind. I then think about why they look the way they do and if there's anything about their attire in particular that sums up their character/personality in an instant and in that case, what I would need to draw attention to or make prominent. I personally tend not to physically refer to too much visual reference at all and in doing so keep the character original looking as possible."

Q: "Did you have a set look in mind for the characters when you started drawing, or did you let them evolve during the actual design process?"

A: "I think any artist would tell you that it's always difficult to translate what you're visualising in you mind to paper. It's not impossible, but yes most of the time a character sketch will start off loose and as I begin to tighten up the sketch, I'll find that I'm adding details that I may not have thought of initially. Sometimes it can just simply boil down to what looks good and what comes to mind as you work. If I can get excited about a character's visual appearance then I'd like to think that's generally a good sign to gauge how it will be perceived by others."

Q: "Was there anything that you found challenging about designing any of these characters?"

A: "I would say that the most challenging aspect about any character design is if there is some form of mechanics or machinery involved. There's no simple way to "just draw" mechanical looking parts without actually thinking about the mechanics behind them and how they actually work and move. If it doesn't look like working believable machinery then the whole impact is lost.

"So with Dump-Starr, I didn't want to go overboard on showing too much intricate machinery and inner working parts. Yes he is a completely mechanical man but it helps that Abuelo has built him to look friendly and human so he's quite covered for the most part. Just a hint of cogs and pipes within his stomach region is all that was needed."

Q: "Could you tell me a bit about your physical process of designing the characters from start to finish, in terms of tools, media etc?"

A: "Every initial character design starts with visualising the pose. Once it's clear what the character art is intended for (static or dynamic pose for poster art or in-game dialogue) then I begin with the sketch. For the full-length character pose, I start with drawing the vanishing points which dictates the perspective. Then I draw a 3D box corresponding to the vanishing points.

"I can then start roughly sketching in the anatomy of the character and the skeletal structure. Once the entire basic body is drawn, which at this point is like a featureless manikin, I then start to add the character's details beginning with the face. You get the face right (particularly the eyes) and that's half the job done right there. Then you start to have a feel for the personality of the character and this can aid in the visualisation of the clothes and any quirks that come to mind. Once the majority of the design is down I will then swap to softer pencils to define the edges and any intricate details more so that I can scan them in and have a clear line art sketch to render.

"Now I have the line art sketch I can begin to trace that in Illustrator using the graphics tablet. Then on a separate layer below I start on the flat color using the pen tool. On another layer in between the line art (which always sits on top) and the flat colour layer are the light and dark shading tones. These are usually simply white and black at 50% - 70% and 20% - 30% opacity respectively. For the more detailed poster artwork there were two further layers of darker colours as well as the light and dark tones layers.

"Then I go back to the line art layer which was drawn in black and I now have to colourise all the lines so that for example, the lines surrounding and detailing the face are a darker flesh colour than the skin etc. Next I have to then re-arrange the line hierarchy so that the outline of something behind something else isn't appearing in front of it. For example, a line surrounding hair behind a character's shoulders isn't appearing in front of the shoulder.

"Then it's a case of tidying up any lines and adding any details like colour to the cheeks and I'm done."

Q: "Which was your favourite character to draw in this set and why?"

A: "The character I enjoyed creating the most out of this set was definitely Dump-Starr as it was potentially the most challenging to get right and therefore the most rewarding. Once you're rendering a character that you know you've particularly laboured over and really thought about the appearance you do get a great sense of achievement. Abuelo was fun as he reminds me of every quirky, eccentric old man character in every Anime I've ever seen. Father Tome was very very simple to draw, as he was quite a typical religious figure to work on."

Q: "How different are the character's final forms from their original sketches?"

A: "I don't actually think the final character artwork differed that greatly from the initial sketches at all in this instance. With the exception of Gorezerk, all the Steamweavers characters were nailed pretty much off the bat which is largely attributed to Jim's character descriptions. We were both able to clearly visualise how the characters would look and luckily enough, we were both on the same page throughout the project."

To find out more about Steamweavers, or to try out the Facebook version, go to the Steamweavers website or directly to the Facebook app here:

Facebook App

Steamweavers Homepage

Next week, we'll be updating with a new set of Steamweavers characters, to tell you more about their creation, background and development!

Stay tuned!

-Vicki T.