Medicators

I was so pleased with the new hospital staff I've made recently that I took a crack at revamping the mad docs. Sadly it didn't work out, but I recovered these from the ashes:

They use their syringe guns to inject people with dangerous helpful medications.

I like them overall, but there's a few issues. #1's goggles are a bit too space-man, #2 needs more line detail on the and #3 just lacks pizzaz.

I do like the fluids in the guns - the laval-lamp style blobbing makes it look nice and toxic.Unsure about #2's zipper along the neckline. Might be too subtle. Maybe I should have made the zipper a line-detail? The guns are cute and their beige plastic + bright rubberised grips colour scheme is perfectly on-theme.

I'm wondering whether I should try harder to unify the colour schemes across variations. It depends on exactly what they end up getting used for, but  if they're all just different looks for the same game entity then it's important that you recognise them easily. On the other hand maybe I could turn the bug into a feature and make variations mechanically different. I don't know.

Also "medicators" is a lacklustre name. I thought about making them phlebotomists and making the syringe guns full of blood, but I really wanted some drug-injecty guys. Vaccinators is inappropriate because the meaning is too specific. Pharmacists maybe? Ooh - ballistic pharmacists? That has potential. Not there yet but along the right lines.

Better Euthanists

Decided those euthanists were shite. Redid them with stronger poses. Much much better. #3's face looks dumb though.

Euthanists

I think these are only about 80% there. They have lots of bits I like, and I'm happy with them overall, but they feel underbaked. Lots of "good enough" in the details that creates an unsatisfying overall impression.

Euthanists. Doctors who euthanise. Obviously I decided that a grim reaper style would be a nice way to convey that these are the death-doctors. It was fun making scythes that looked medical rather than generic reaper. Scalpel-styled steel handles for example. I'm particularly happy with the EKG blade division on #3. Painting them red also worked - I was worried it would look like blood, so I kept it off the cutting edge and did it in obvious geometric patterns.

As part of the reaper look I thought about giving them skull masks, but that pulled them too far from looking like doctors. Plague doctor masks were my compromise, and also made a kind of sense given their role. I also think bird skulls are creepy so that worked well for me. I'd have liked to incorporate some hypodermics in the design, but it didn't work nicely. Shame - lethal injection would have been a cool secondary theme.

A lot of detail here again. I put more on the garments to make sure they didn't look totally out of place behind the fancy scythes. #2's apron for example is something I wouldn't normally do.

I unified the colours more than usual because I think this special role deserves a uniform. I have a mental image of a call going out over the tannoy and, seconds later, one of these guys stalking down the corridors. I figure they have to be badass because they put down the experiments gone wrong. The special forces; the only doctors in the hospital who *deliberately* kill.

So, dark purple robes all round. Still, I made sure they all had teal and crimson details to fit in with the rest of the doctors.

Scalpel Ninjas

They need a proper name yet. Scalpel ninja was the concept though. The pose is silly by design. i was pushing for something unnecessarily dynamic and this happened. Not ideal for holding the scalpels though. Perhaps its some ninja rest pose after they've incised somebody. Or a weird martial arts stance.

Incisors would be a good name for them, but then I'd need to rename these guys. It really suits the ninjas though.

Blood continues to be a pain to do. I didn't really want to bloody their scalpels at all. It's all on its own layer so I can clean it easily enough. Yeah, the more I think on it the more I think the blades should be shiny and clean.

I'd like to talk about the scalpels themselves. I took pains to make them look like scalpels and not generic fantasy blades. That's why they're all single pieces of metal. I also differentiated them from my usual blade style by not having a line to delineate the bevel to the edge. The idea is that it makes them look sharper. Also those holes in the blade seem a nice compromise between fantastic and surgical.

I'm fond of the grip details on the hafts. I nearly did those as line detail but I'm glad I left it to the colouring. Similarly, #2's arm bandages. There wasn't enough room to do those with black lines. And now it's got me wondering whether I should have done his head the same way. An awkward middle ground.

I've expanded the colour palette for the surgery theme. That lovely turquoise is still centre stage but I think when I revise the earlier figures I'll use more dark red, buff and that purplish brown.

Gunners and incisors

Pirates and mad surgeons; going a little bit retro here.

 The pirate gunners feel a bit old-fashioned to me. I think it's the feet - I've largely stopped varying feet/boots now. But for pirates I think a wide variety in clothing is a good thing. Only one of them has variant legs, but I think it's best to consider the torso+legs as one element.

The guns are deliberately over-large so that I could detail them a bit better. They're far from perfect though. Particularly the way #3 carries his. Doesn't feel right. #2 and 1 are okay though I think. The cannon-style gun is particularly cute. Maybe it's that #3 is too vanilla in general. Should I have mixed the parts differently?

I'm also iffy on the colours. I can't point to any one thing to change, but they seem very earthy and subdued overall. I got to a point where I gave up and moved on. Coming back with a brighter palette later on would be easy.

Now, surgeons. "incisors" to be specific. These are also old-fashioned in my eyes due to the gowned body. I like the super-slim waist combined with the broad manly shoulders and power-tool. It gives them a distinctive look. I continue to be a big fan of men with exposed armpits.

There wasn't much for me to do here with colour detail. The gowns resisted any kind of crease-highlighting that didn't look over-the-top. Originally I was going to confine the blood to the tools in a tasteful (but unrealistic) manner, but it left the gowns looking so sparse...

Number 3 got a bit messy. I figure when you're using a chainsaw there may be a little splatter. It's given him a distinctive appearance though.

The design of the tools is something I worked on for ages. The bodies are a little wishy-washy, but I like the business-ends. I don't think there's any other way to do a chainsaw in this style without a crazy line-count. With the nifty blood pattern on the rotary cutter, it might not need those extra "blade" lines.

Vial Fluids

I had no plans - just felt like making some vector peeps for the first time in a while - and these came out. I didn't even have a proper sketch of them. There was a scribble in the margins of a "proper" sketch and I decided to try drawing over it. Turned out ok.

I like the bubbles. Just white, 50% transparent circles. Silly really, but I like how it makes the bright parts of the tanks obviously 'orrible liquids without being so detailed as to show up the flat fills elsewhere. I'd still like to do something for the metal bits though. No experiments have worked out yet.

There's not many swappable bits here. Just the heads and the tanks. Shame. I'd have liked another detail, something secondary like the psychers' backpacks. Maybe hoses/plugs for the tanks? Unsure. Not heartbroken though: I'm glad to have made something kind of OK.

The colours need tweaking. I figure I'd best recolour all the hospital characters at once so they compliment each other so that's fine.

Mongo smash

A return to the hospital. Another example of what happens when the hideous surgical experiments go right. When I return to the psychoborgs I might re-use the technique of matching the skin tint to the colour of the vile fluid being pumped through them.

These brutes are almost but not quite annoyingly symmetrical. The legs give just about enough motion for me to let it slide - though some of that was lost from the sketch now that I stop and look.

I struggled for a long time with the hands. I spent too long on misguided attempts at fingers before remembering that there was a good reason I'm doing stickmen. So they have hideous mittens instead. If I decide they lack enough colour I'd add it on the gauntlets, maybe even hazard stripes or similar. Maybe even incorporate the shapes into the linework, sicne the gauntlets are the bit I'm least happy with.

I lost track of which bits are supposed to be modular while making these, so there's odd little bits that don't have counterparts; #1's pot belly for example. It doesn't strike me as a problem.

If I can give the hospital enough variety I might be able to subdivide it like I for the coastal cult. I could distinguish between cyborgs like these and pure fleshy nastiness like... hmm. I suppose I've not done any of those. I'll add that to the drawing board. I might also experiment with the "vile fluid" motif a little more. Some kind of chemical-wielding madman with a hose might work.

Not rocket science

Some victims of eccentric hospital experiments. These ones based around unlocking the potential of the human mind. This particular unlocking either kills you or turns you into a twitching imbecile, but a twitching imbecile with telekinesis!

I started these ages ago with the rest of the hospital guys, but they were crap and so I moved them to my fragments file and forgot about them. Last night I looked them over again and rescued them from awfulness. Now they're mediocre at worst.

#2's collar is unusually 3d. And so I judged it worthy of survival when I was de-awfuling them. The green things are meant to be holding tanks for some noxious chemical. Maybe I should try and make them shiny, or put bubbles in them, or make them partially empty? Something to make it more obvious.

The collars/devices and heads are all independently swappable. I wouldn't have been happy with just the heads, so I'm glad I managed to get another modular detail there. I briefly pondered different styles of manacle and, err, footacle, but decided that that would be reaching.

At the moment my eye is turning towards those natives again. I'd like to expand their ranks a little. Some kind of shaman/witch doctor seems a good move. Maybe totems, idols or fetishes of some kind? I might have a go at some kind of pet triffids or vine monsters. Or whatever. Masks are fun.

Thugs and brains

Generic dock toughs. They should fit nicely alongside the various sea cultists and mutants in the corrupt port town. Not exactly in line with my plans, but then little ever is.

I think it's the swaggering pose that sells them. They're also nice and simple in the design - a return to form. The lines of the jacket are a bit clumsy still, but you wouldn't know from the final output.

#1 had concerns. His cutlass hilt was a trial and I'm still not happy with it. His hat is fine on its own, but when colouring him any bright colours made him look like a YMCA member. It's probably the bare chest that does it.

Hmm - speaking of bare chests, I've just realised that #1's sling-strap-thing and #3's scar run the same direction. I should probably flip one of them so that it doesn't look like a pattern. #3, most likely, since now that I think about it that kind of scar would likely go top right to lower left, if inflicted by a right-handed opponent.

I also returned to the hospital of horrors. No variants though - I think these are the "boss monsters" of the area. Graft-spiderman's skeleton is too distinctive to reskin and I can't come up with any worthwhile ideas for scalpelwoman.

Spider-guy's really loaded for bear. Bonesaw, scalpels, syringe, trolley, even a cloth for his brow! A surgical genius who decided he could do so much better with an extra pair of hands.

Scalpelina's something I promised I wouldn't so. Leggy woman in heels. I tried so hard to avoid the sexy nurse cliché, but the sketch just... happened. And I liked it. I'm still wavering over whether she's too long and spindly, the leg is a little unconvincing and the swoosh of the coat is bizarre. But nevertheless, I like. At least she's flat-chested. Maybe I'll come back to her tomorrow and, with the benefit of fresh eyes, despair over the anatomy and start over.

Still, I can overlook dumbsexy a little for the sake of a boss character. And I do really like the pose with the scalpel and clipboard. If Dr Spider is the frothing nutjob, she's the obsessive badass. They could each support their own staff, or combine forces in the same hospital. Who can tell. She was originally going to have a fuckoff hypodermic, but that was harder to look cool than I expected. Happier with the scalpel.

Priests and nurses

These are some kind of priest/leader-type guys, I think? They don't have a good name, but I like them well enough. I'm fond of how they have differing torso-coverings with just one or two lines difference.

Charlie highlights a problem. Dark skin. Dark colours in general in fact. They don't work terribly well in areas of dense linework. His face is a blot. If it weren't for the gold mask, I'd have written him off completely. Not sure what can be done about this, apart from trying to stick with lighter colours.

Beta looks really pasty up there between the darker-skinned Alpha and Charlie, but I think he's fine when viewed on his lonesome. Especially with the less saturated purple robes.

These are probably your hero-types, so they get wildly different colour schemes. You'll likely only see one of these at a time, and if you do find a second, I want them to be as different in appearance as is practical. Which is why I was originally messing around with swappable heads and so on. Unifying colour schemes are for things I want you to be able to meet lots of - adding variety to a horde.

I wonder whether I've overdone the saturation here. I wanted a bright palette, but I could have used a few more neutral tones, especially on Charlie. I'm pretty happy with the gold though - cheap and easy-looking metallic there (though maybe a green/brown tone would make it even nicer...). I need to build up a library of those kind of texture tricks so that I can bring them out to play when required and maintaining a uniform style.

That's part of why I'm forging ahead rather than trying to make everything just right - forcing myself through a variety (ish) of stuff so that I pick up little tricks that I can use when i do it all "for real". If I ever do, that is. Meantime, this is just fun.

So - nurses. I am also fond of these guys. Lots of variety between them, but with a unified theme and colour scheme.

Trivia time: All colours for these guys were sampled from a burnt five pound note.

Very difficult to come up with three different-looking injecting devices, so Alpha and Charlie just have slightly different syringes. Bit of a cop out, but I felt that there was enough difference on the heads and torsos not to mind too much.

In fact, I'm a little worried that they outclass the mad surgeons too much, what with these meant to be lower in the hierarchy and all. Some of it I can put down to better colouring (including a primitive but passable technique for rubber gloves/boots) and less restrictions in the costuming (aprons don't leave much room for individuality) but still... I think the linework might just be better for these guys.

I'm at a loss for how I could bring the surgeons up to this standard. Maybe if I gave them some kind of outlandish costume element, like scary masks. I could alter the style of the dress from Apron+surgical gown to soemthing a little more vaired, but that sounds a lot like hard work. I might have to just re-draw them all and see what turns up. Or maybe a recolour will redeem them after all. Who can say.

Oh, and yes; Beta is taking his headgear cues from Faust. With his official clipboard and fancy shirt I needed a very obvious cue on the head that he is not a sane and balanced person. I've no idea why brown paper bag over the head isn't more popular amongst medical staff - it seems like the kind of trend that should have really taken off.

Walking wounded

Surgical failures. Stitch zombies. Unfortunate undead. And so on. I told you I was doing these and they finally got done. The basic template I did at the same time as I started the brine zombies, seeing how many zombie-poses I could do (the answer was two, at which point I gave up and started drawing barnacles).

I'm sort-of happy and sort-of not with these. I suffered a bit of block, which was nice to overcome, but they don't quite look battered enough. Especially Charlie. I think I've done all I can with linework - any more and the open areas will be overwhelmed - so that leaves colour. Maybe bruises? I could do a little good by swapping Charlie's head with one of the bandaged ones. I don't think the cartoonish flat shading helps here either

Still, I'll keep pushing on. Better is the enemy of done. I can always go back. Or, more likely, start over with the benefit of having failed once already.

Progress!

A lot of these recent guys have been made in the service of an idea. Which is not how I started doing things. It's been sort-of good and sort-of bad. It's different, which is useful. On the one hand it gives me something to aim for. On the other, I seem to lack a lot of the inspiration that gets me through the less planned-out ones. There's some electrokinetic "psiborgs" (who need a decent name) that seem adequate, but I felt like I was only going through the motions. They're done - three variants and coloured - but they lack je ne sais quois. Maybe I'll post them if I'm really bored.

I bring this all up, because today I was bricked by inspiration and managed to turn a scribble into something interesting and unexpected to me. I've almost finished vectoring it up, and then I'll have some fun with colours that aren't hospital-blue or dead-fish grey. I'll get some saturation going.

Sutured stalkers

This is the kind of nastiness that mad surgeons get up to in their spare time; they open up the brainpan and turn people into Voldos. I imagine it made sense to them at the time - in fact, the one on the right looks like he might have been a surgeon himself who got a little bit carried away with the self-experimentation and then decided to tape a bunch of scalpels to his surgical gloves.

These guys flowed pretty easily from the early scribble. I mean they're far from perfect, and I still have no idea how shading is supposed to work (might think about adding a shine to the middle guy's bondage-suit), but it wasn't a painful birth.

A little annoyed that I've unintentionally duplicated the pose of a character I did a while back. I can probably live with it.

Still to come: surgical failures aka stitch zombies. Also maybe some more fish-related mutantry. I took another look at some crappier brine mutants I abandoned and started wondering if they could be brought up to scratch somehow. I also have an acolyte-type person that may or may not be a part of a sea-worshiping cult. I suspect I'll need some thematic inspiration before I can call that one finished.

Likelihood of all of the above making it off the WIP board: uncertain. But those are my plans. It's not like I have deadlines to work to or milestones to meet. Right now I care mostly about keeping myself interested in the project so that I don't just say "meh" to the whole thing.

Not rich enough to be eccentric

Mad surgeons, eh? I'm pretty sure that cleavers are a surgical tool. Those are definitely doctor's spectacles at any rate.


So, I'm still mildly appalled at the colouring (oh god, the shoes! The shoes!). I think I'll just have to carry on screwing it up until I learn better, then go back and redo all the old abominations. The blood worked out better than I'd imagined. I mean, it's still not great, but it doesn't look quite as awful as it could have done.

I'm pretty sure these guys are evil; as I mentioned before I'm planning on a couple of hideously deformed experimental subjects. But the more I look at them, the more I think they're not irredeemable. Maybe I'll come up with some visual cue to make them more obviously evil - nastier surgical tools perhaps? The scissors and scalpel look a little vanilla next to the mad cleaver. Maybe just "evil-up" the colour scheme with purple and green.

Of course I could take it the other way instead and make them heroes (dodgy term). Maybe there's a way to double-dip. Redeeming a mad surgeon might be an ok idea. There'll likely be a pretty wide range of villains that could almost work as heroes, but if everyone can be recruited then the whole thing will look watered down and a bit "gotta catch 'em all".

So here's an idea: limited redemption. You can turn a mad surgeon into an eccentric surgeon. There might well be a dozen or two redeemable villains around, but there's a hard limit on how many you can recruit. Maybe two or three? It'll mean that everyone has different choices, which is nice. It runs the risk of there being certain optimal choices that everyone takes, and might end up being a lot of effort, but it might be worthwhile to give it a go.

Or, rather than limited options to recruit, make the redemption a super-rare event? Could even reduce the chances of it turning up based on how many you've already redeemed to even out RNG. Rarity can patch over a lot of problems and would certainly help with variety and potential player abuse - but at the cost of farming. A good mechanic might be able to overcome that though.

Too many options and it's too early to start deciding between them. This isn't the kind of feature that needs to go in at the start. Anyway. Badly coloured mad surgeons - woo!