Collectems - Clementine Concept Art

written by electricfleshlightorchestra

Hello all, this is the concept artist, Brittany Mezzo. Welcome to week 4 of the Collectems Dev Diary! This time, we wanted to talk a little bit about the female protagonist of Collectems: Clementine!

We’ve talked before about how important player choice is to us, and some of the ways those choices will matter. Who you play as is a big choice, so while we’re taking obvious inspiration from Pokémon, we wanted the choice of gender to be more than simply a cosmetic decision. We want these characters to be distinct from one another. They have their own histories and personalities, and that will change some of the ways in which you play the game.

Clementine is the baby of the family. Growing up, her older brother Aspen was her role model and absolute favorite person. She imitated everything, from his style of dress to the way he behaved. Being the younger of the two, she was often over-shadowed by her brother’s successes and given hand-me-downs in place of her own things, leading her to feel somewhat inadequate as she grew older. Even so, she deeply admires her brother, and strives to be as best as she can be.





Clementine’s design is the one I’m the most comfortable with, so she seemed like a better character to start with than her brother. She was inspired heavily by the main male protagonist of Harvest Moon 3, a cherished game from my childhood. I liked the simple design of the character, and felt something similar would translate well into sprite form. Things that stuck out to me were the bandanna and the anime cowlick (which I grossly exaggerated!!). I wanted to have a female character that was a bit tomboyish, someone who really looked like she was ready to set out on a harrowing adventure across the Tamota Peninsula. There’s nothing inherently wrong with overtly feminine characters, but I feel there’s often an overabundance of cookie-cutter cute girls in pink frills.

There’s also been a lot of subtle changes and additions to her design as my artwork has improved. We’ve gone from her simply wearing a tank-top in the first sketch to her having ripped the sleeves off of her shirt in the latest draft. Being a concept artist for Collectems has really helped me push outside of my comfort zone and refine my style in ways I never would have done on my own. Helping to design the characters and world has been both a challenge and an enjoyment! There’s still a ways for us to go before her design is finalized and implemented, but I hope to continue along this path and share with all of you what I have done in future development diaries! Next time you hear from me, I’ll be going over Clementine’s older brother, and our male protagonist, Aspen. See ya then!