Creator Insight 4: Creating a Protagonist in Two Days

You have your heart set out on an idea for years, crafting a story and protagonist over a long period of time, waiting for the perfect time to commit. Then one day you decide to act, but come up with an entirely different concept and get to posting within the week. Welcome to Tinderkell: Siltria.

8. Commit

There is quite the discussion to be had as to what made us actually commit to launching the project that we had been chipping away at for five years. There were a few motivations, ranging from building up an audience to garner attention to a future video game, to the escape from platform decay plaguing many social media sites. Long story short, the idea revolved around creating a story with an interactive element to it and could be mostly contained within a discord server at the time.

Given my experience with comics, a visual format was something that seemed natural, however we wanted something that could be more efficient than the comic strip format that would eat a ton of time. Jackie suggested a format inspired by quest comics that were popular during the mid 2000’s, with some exceptions still continuing to this day. A story in a similar style allowed for faster plot progression thanks to the use of text as a supplementary feature, and the reusability of character assets. The interactive element made it very fun and refreshing to be able to include the community more into the story than I ever could with previous works.

So, with this in mind, we thought about what would be the best story to tell in this format. We could’ve gone with the original Tinderkell concept that I’ve covered before, but the scope was just too large, and wasn’t the story we wanted to tell. So Jackie and I thought up a few different concepts, but two stuck out to us at the time.

The Fallen kingdom

You find yourself in a strange unfamiliar place, nursed back to strength by a hesitant ally. You are in the ruins of a great civilization, reduced to rubble by a malignant terror, inhabited now only by tribes, roaming hordes of bandits, and something worse. Work with your new ally to escape this forsaken land.

This Idea would take place in deep Gnomanya and would have a much darker tone than Tinderkell: Siltria. We did very much like the premise, but at the same time it likely would’ve not lend itself too well to this format, as the audience can tend to lean silly and that's something we’ve really enjoyed with Siltria.

War and Conquest

Experience the Qothic empire's war for global supremacy as they expand their influence westward into the continent of Hovehko.

Though Siltria might’ve made an appearance among the Qothic Empire’s campaign, the story would have been viewed from the lens of a Qothic soldier. The soldier would experience many battles, which would have been quite the spectacle… to a very large scope.

Free Sails

You are a smuggler working to deliver illegal cargo across warring maritime borders, but you catch the ire of the The Confederation of One Thousand Islands and their bloodthirsty commandos. Will you be able to fight them off and deliver the cargo or will you find you and your ship a new addition to the reef?

While this would have made a compelling story in the thalassic culture of Soryaban, I very much preferred the aesthetics of Qoth’s and wanted to have a story closer to their home.

The idea we ended up going with at the end of the day was one based in Siltria, a burgeoning land of opportunity. We felt it was the best place to introduce the world, especially with a character who was not from there. With a choice like this, the character would be able to discover and learn this new world alongside the audience.

9. Do What You Can Now, Fill it Out Over Time.

Jumping into this story, we could've had a character from any walk of life, but our favorite idea was some kind of hunter from the western realm, because whatever could make them stand out more the better. Here are such options, with a game-like presentation to them.

A moon catoxl, a sorrova, or a sorya. We actually ran this through a group of close friends to help us decide, and this is what we wrote out for the different species:

Catoxl -

Catoxl are a feline species native to Gnomanya, a rugged frontier of forests, steppe, and mountains, located in the northwestern hemisphere. Catoxl are an intellegent and hardy race sporting pronounced cheek tufts and the ability to grow hair on the top of their head. Due to their upbringing in the ruins of the Kingdom of Gnomanya, they are known to have a short fuse and can be unruly at times.

Sorrova -

Sorrovans are a vulpine species native to Gnomanya, a rugged frontier of forests, steppe, and mountains, located in the northwestern hemisphere. Sorrova are an intelligent and hardy race known for their resourcefulness in the ruins of a once great kingdom. They are unique compared to their Sorya cousins due to their ability to grow much longer hair. Due to their upbringing in the ruins of the Kingdom of Gnomanya, they are known to have a short fuse and can be unruly at times.

Sorya - 

The Sorya are a vulpine species native the grand archipelago of Soryaban, a collection of tropical islands and reefs spanning the entire western hemisphere. The Sorya are a curious and creative race, known for their many breakthrough achievements in technology, often by accident. Thanks to this and their adventurous nature, they have also obtained mastery over the sea, and are excellent sailors and swimmers. However, the Sorya’s cunning makes them untrustworthy in many parts of the world, whether justified or not.

After a bit of deliberation, we narrowed it down to two choices: The Sorrova and Catoxl, sketched here by Jackie.

There were a few arguments then made for either one, from small things like aesthetics and dynamics, to one of us pointing out that there is a famous interactive webcomic also featuring a feline protagonist. Ultimately, we went with the sorrova, and she immediately got to work with some concepts.

Then to color.

Then I took a crack at it.

Then she made the outfit concept.

In just two days, Glass was born. And mind you we wouldn’t have a name for her until the second installment, so she was just known as “The Protagonist” or “Tindy”. 

This was an extremely fast workflow, and that ultimately resulted in the knowledge that some aspects of Glass would be adapted on the fly, but just getting something ready so quickly felt invigorating. Would we deem it a “must do” in a story making guide? Probably not. But taking the leap of faith was ultimately responsible for so much of my artistic and writing growth. Growth that I doubt would’ve happened at the same rate had I decided to wait.

Join me next time where I'll talk in the final chapter in the creation of making Tinderkell, with the 2-month long blitz of chapter 1!