Well then it’s time to introduce myself! I am one of the current Abbey Art Interns, Susana, expanding the Abbey Games team even more. I’m working enthusiastically on Renowned Explorers: International Society. So here’s an article on my first experiences at Abbey Games. My first day I arrived an hour early, quite normal for a nervous student. Really. Luckily, Abbey made sure that nervousness disappeared between the time I set my first step into the office and sat at my desk. (Really not more that 0.2 minutes). I got directed to a wikiguide that pretty much told me everything I had to know and once I had gotten myself adjusted I was good to start. Working on asset designs and learning about the game was what mostly held me busy for the first two week. The artists, Marlies and Peter, made sure to provide as much information and feedback as I wanted, which was quite a lot.

The week after, I got my hands on the characters, which I personally enjoy the most. And the game had more than enough to offer. I got the freedom to make adjustments as I saw fit, and oh boy, it was like standing in the candy shop and being told I can take as much as my pockets could fill.

This cheerful guy over here was one of my favorites to work with. Let’s just focus on his head for a quick walkthrough of the process.

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1. I got his initial design sketch, which everyone liked. But it just missed… something. To me the job to figure out what that something was without screwing up what everyone liked in the first place. He is a German psychologist, on whose spirit the many stories of his patients took quite a toll.

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2. Working with his story I started out small by cleaning him up a bit, giving him a bit more age with some wrinkles and more fitting clothing.

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3. So far so good, but still missing that something. Fine then. A quick google search for psychologists of his time showed beards were quite popular, how about some nice fluffy facial decoration? Maybe a bit of jewelry?

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4. Okay, no. It killed his pretty head shape. And he seemed more confused than depressed. Forget the beard, sideburns! The answer to everything.

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5. And yes it was. Quickly accepted I wrapped him up by adding eyebrows as beautiful as his sideburns, a nice ponytail and some final changes to his outfit. The final design sketch was done! Now only to make it all pretty but that’s another week’s work.

Currently I’m in my ninth week, and still enjoying the internship to the fullest.

Renowned Explorers will feature a wide variety of unique and interesting characters, let’s hope we will see this cheerful psychologist back in-game, and if so, I hope you’ll recruit him for your crew!

~Susana