Asphodelium was a project made pretty fast from initial concept to first demo, meaning all of the character designs (as well as the rest of the project) were done in about 2 1/2 months. I normally like to give myself a lot of time to figure out character designs (like several months), but that didn't happen for this project.

The character I focused on the most for getting the right design was naturally Aster, the love interest. He's on screen for a majority of the time and is the character you'll be falling for, so it's important to get his design right.

I wanted his hair to be messy and wispy, like it floated in the wind. I also wanted it to be something purple-ish, but I couldn’t decide if it should be light or dark. I went with something similar to the 2nd one here, though I ended up making it longer.

The next step was deciding on an outfit! Aster is a traveler who has spent the last several months roaming the country and the game is set during winter, so a jacket was a must. I went through several different styles of coats for him, ranging from something with a tight waist to bulky, oversized jackets. The oversized jacket on the far right is what won—it felt cozy while not exuding high confidence like the far left jacket does.

After another redraw of the outfit, all that was left was….the hair, again. I still hadn’t decided on a hair color for him, so I made quite a few tests. It wasn’t until a few people suggested mixing a few of the colors to make a duotone hair for him that I came upon the final design for Aster.

Next is Charlotte! She was the easiest to design as I already had an idea for her—a bob haircut with a fluffy pullover jacket.

Getting the shape of the hair was a bit of a challenge as well as the right shade. I wasn’t planning on making most of the characters have duotone hair, but by this point I realized it was inevitable.

Charlotte isn’t shown much with her coat which is a shame, it’s my favorite part of her design. I considered making her an extra outfit as well, but no one else would have as many outfit customizations as her (as she also has an apron) so I scrapped it.

Next is Bryn. Their design was somewhat hard as they’re the most energetic of the group and an ex-soldier, but I wanted something more modern for them. I had tried to design the cast around fantasy Victorian aesthetics, but Bryn threw that out of the window.

I knew I wanted them to have long hair and was leaning towards a red/brown hue for it. I ended up going with a hair style similar to the 1st, where it’s a messy short brown with a longer ponytail over the shoulder.

Last is Alexei, Charlotte’s younger brother. He’s a hunter who keeps to himself a lot, not talking much and preferring to be out in the forest.

Because I associate forests and fishing with him, I was originally planning on giving him a green color scheme, but I ended up giving Bryn a green-ish color scheme and a blue color scheme would be too close to Aster’s color scheme.

I had no clue what to do with his design! I wanted it to incorporate a scarf (again, winter) but had no clue what kind of jacket to put him in. After some more tests, I ended up putting him in a turtleneck and vest/jacket.

And here’s the final lineup!

What do you mean I’m missing a character? This is the entire cast! ...That’s designed.

I actually didn’t finalize the main character Hazel’s design before finishing the first demo, as they don’t have a sprite and only show up in CGs (the first demo didn’t have any CGs).

What will he look like in the full game? Something similar to these, namely the bottom right sketch. You can see Hazel’s design soon in the full game!