The Orbital Reflector is a unique satellite that is an artistic gesture. Having no scientific equipment on it and is effectively a diamond shape balloon that is reflective. At night, the Orbital Reflector reflects the light of the Sun and can be seen moving across the sky. Trevor Paglen said that he hopes that this would give a reason for people to look up at the night sky. I personally find this to be very poetic and moving as I've always been interested in the stars- to stop for a moment and look up and be in awe of how big and complex our world is.
When taking this reference image and turning it into a character the main feature that I wanted to incorporate was the diamond shape balloon. This was something I initially experimented with the silhouette of the design:
I added a cloak that would try and capture that diamond shape. I also decided to make the character an android or a robot to capture that feeling of it being man-made like the satellite. The blue hair is intended to make the design look a bit more futuristic or high-tech looking. The first draft looked too rigid and clunky. I wanted to capture the artistic nature of the reference so I made the based robot design more cleaner looking e.g the face/ head. I also decided to make a full cloak/ poncho and added a triangular pattern onto to it which is suppose to be reflective. I added some gold highlights to make the design pop which resembles gold circuits in a computer or machine.
With the second batch of draft designs I was thinking more on what clothing items could help capture that main diamond feature and then I remembered the kimono/ yukata. Kimono are beautiful pieces of clothing that I think capture that poetic/ artistic feel while capturing that diamond shape as well. The hair colour was also changed to a dark navy blue to help balance the different hues together and not look so out of place.
I was inspired by the satellite panels to turn it into an umbrella or parasol. The inside of the umbrella I made a gold colour and the outside dark blue or navy. This is so when the character buts the umbrella over their shoulder it creates a contrast between the colder colours of the character with the warmer colour of the gold underside.
From what I have heard from my peers and classmates, these two designs are the most popular or well received. I like the shape of the cloak of the left design and as Adam suggested about the design, gliding or flying can be a mechanic or ability of this design. I do also like the clothing style of the right with the umbrella as a prop.
If I was to continue iterating on this design there are two options that I could potentially experiment with:
Combine the cloak aspect with the kimono/ yukata to retain the flying mechanic idea whilst still retaining the clothing design.
Take the kimono and add a hakama to add to the clothing design and turn the diamond shape or umbrella into a sword. This would resemble a practitioner of kendo or a samurai which could suggest a more action orientated gameplay and or mechanics.
I'm deciding to move on as to not get hyper focus on one design. These are prototypes to help me generate ideas. With more character design prototypes, I can potentially generate more ideas and build stories around these characters. These designs can be revisited when a more concrete game idea takes form.