{"id":249,"date":"2026-05-11T13:17:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/?p=249"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:18:56","slug":"week-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/2026\/05\/11\/week-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u03a0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u1fe5\u03b5\u1fd6 (Everything flows)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Heraclitus of Ephesus (535\/475 BC)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With the initial concepts out of the way, I moved on to designing the rest of the cast. I thought this would be straightforward. I had my references, I had my workflow. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I designed Nick, Cletus, Michael, and Doyle with the same approach I had used before. I focused on silhouettes, exaggerated features, personality read. I was satisfied. I sent them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feedback hit me like a freight train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don’t look English. At all. They look American. Every single one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had spent hours on these designs and somehow forgot the most fundamental requirement: the game is set in England. The characters need to feel like they belong there. They need to look like people you would actually encounter in an English village, not a Walmart in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a hard lesson in contextual design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Character breakdown and where I went wrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick – The “fatass”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I\u00a0based Nick loosely on Nikocado Avocado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big personality, bigger body, expressive face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought this was clever shorthand for a gluttonous character. What I failed to consider is that Nikocado Avocado is aggressively, unmistakably American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loudness, the performative excess, the specific brand of online fame all of it screams United States(no offense).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An English equivalent would carry themselves differently(maybe). There is restraint. There is quiet embarrassment(or pride).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a whole different relationship with food and shame. I need to look at British archetypes of excess. Perhaps a pub regular. Someone who has been sitting in the same corner for twenty years. The posture would be different. The clothes would be different. The tragedy would be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cletus – The veteran<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I gave him big muscles, camouflage clothing, dog tags, sunglasses. He was supposed to look like he walked out of an American action film set in the Iraqi desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name alone “Cletus” is about as American as you can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no excuse for this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was lazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A British veteran of Middle Eastern conflicts would not look like this (probably).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The posture would carry different weight. The uniform remnants would be different. Even the choice to wear dog tags visibly is a very American cinematic trope (I assume). I need to research British military aesthetics. I need to understand how British veterans carry their history on their bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: google search results for: Stereotypical army veteran)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael – The wanna be cool guy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This one stings because I almost had it right(I think).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A nerd attempting coolness is universal. But the specifics of how that manifests are cultural. An American nerd trying to be cool might emulate hip-hop culture or California skater aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A British nerd would emulate something else entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe indie band culture. Maybe football casuals. Maybe something I have not even considered because my reference pool is so thoroughly Americanized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drew a typical broccoli head, tiktok addicted, grass avoiding guy simply because I don’t like their mere existence and I assume they were nerds before they discovered clip farming in tiktok<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(source: google search for: gen z broccoli hair meme, gen z broccoli hair)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doyle – The carpenter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have zero excuses. Zero thoughts went into this one.
I got lazy. I was so done with trying to make new people and ended up making a person you would never find in a grocery store. You could find them in a Home Depot. Which isn’t British. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I think about it, he does remind me of Steve from minecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shame.
Shame on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u03a0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u1fe5\u03b5\u1fd6 (Everything flows) -Heraclitus of Ephesus (535\/475 BC) With the initial concepts out of the way, I moved on to designing the rest of the cast. I thought this would be straightforward. I had my references, I had my workflow. What could go wrong? Everything. I designed Nick, Cletus, Michael, and Doyle with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-semester-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jl9u24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}