The Original Penguin Designs

When the game concept was still just an idea, it was originally a cross between Super Mario Sunshine and Plague Knight- both in terms of gameplay, and character design. This was supposed to be a small game that could be completed in under a year, so I wasn't terribly concerned with originality.

The character of this game would've been a crow that couldn't fly, but when equipped with a pressurized water gun, could get some serious height. Spraying the ground with water would also enable water sliding. (This would've been similar to Metroid Dread's slide, enabling squeezing into single-block gaps.)

After presenting this idea to a few friends, they suggested going with a penguin for a main character instead- after all, they already were a flightless bird species, and could slide on their bellies. I had no attachment to penguins at this point, but they were right- a penguin was a better fit for this concept. So I started sketching a ton of penguins! (And even a page full of water guns.)

I was told that this design was very Splatoon-y / Club Penguin, which wasn't really the vibe I was going for... so I kept designing a little further. I kept bringing up Katamari as an influence for the world, and a friend suggested just using a realistic penguin design. It'd be funny! Doing a realistic penguin design stood out to me a lot more compared to everything else, and having the eyes blend in to the penguin's black feathers was visually interesting. So I ran with it!

Nearing the final design! I never got around to adding the hat back in, though.

After animating a walk cycle and forward / up burst sprites, I tried prototyping the water spraying mechanic. I realized that it was a little too ambitious to implement at the time, so I focused more on the movement instead. Following this, RuddyDud (the composer) suggested using a soda bottle. This was a much better fit, and it would be a lot simpler to animate. And that's how we arrived at the current penguin design!

This last page is some design notes I wrote to myself on how to construct the penguin's form for future animations.

Some of the final sprite iterations to figure out a better shape / silhouette.