Pixelles – Character design

STELLA

Adventure puzzle game, similar to What Remains of Edith Finch

Third Person, 2.5D

 PLAYABLE CHARACTER

As part of Pixelles writing program, I created this character for a game concept.

Name: Stella
Age: 13 odd human years which is much older in dog years and makes her a sage.
Gender: Stella is a female dog.
Race/Origin: Black dog, mixed race, looking like a chubby labrador.
Important Visual: Stella is slightly cross eyed and she has a limp. With old age, she’s acquired white hairs on her chin. She always wears a collar but her owners change it depending on the occasion, her favourite is pink with bright yellow bananas on it.
Affiliation/Team/Organization: A member of the family
State: living and communicating in the first chapter, but then a ghost for the rest of the story.

Archetype/Inspiration Character[s]: 
– Mentor – Fairy godmother
Enzo (The Art of Racing in the Rain — for his ability to understand humans’ way and cleverly work around them),
Obi-Wan  (Star Wars) Stella guides you, teaches you, except she’s a dog version of that noble man and wears a bandana in place of a cloak,
Dug (in Up — it’s a plain character and loving, remember the quote: “I just met you, and I love you” Stella shares this extreme fondness).

3-4 keywords (personality traits): 
– Positive, 
– Cute, cute and awwww so cute, 
– Clumsy, 
– Will devour anything remotely edible (or just smelly)

Wants/Needs/Motivation:
Stella reached the end of her journey and passed away. She is totally fine with that and she expects to live in her owners’ hearts forever, except, they are dealing with grief. Stella understands sorrow, and sadness, and grief too of course, but it is not supposed to last, and it seems that for humans it does last much longer than she wished. Their heart has thickened like leather and until it softens again, she can’t rest in there! She needs them to be normal again so she can stop roaming the world as a ghost.
For her peaceful afterlife wish to come true, she has to accompany them through the various stages of grief as painful as this is. so their hearts can be soft and open to her again. 

Other character relationships: 
Owner #1 is Henry. Initially he did not want a dog, he’s more of a cat person, but his partner very much wanted to get a dog so after several years he budged, and they adopted Stella. “She’s very big.” was his first thought, but she won him over and 2 months later they were napping on the sofa together and she took most of the space!
Owner #2: Eyla is the one who adopted Stella. Initially she thought about adopting a puppy, but when they met, they both knew they belonged together. They go on walkies together and binge watch cooking competition shows.

Summary: The joyful companion

Voice Notes: Stella is an optimist, she does not use sarcasm. She is also very factual in her thinking. She has a problem and she does not worry about the outcome, she steadily works her way towards a solution. At the same time she is not cold at all, she is gentle and caring so her thoughts will always reflect these aspects of her personality. 

Audio Voice Quality: She has a lisp, her voice is young and rather high pitched but still soft.
Reference: (544) Upstream Color Clip – They Could Be Starlings – YouTube 
For the light lisp: (544) Storytime with Kristen Schaal | Disney – YouTube

Quotes: “If you rub my tummy, the world will seem a lot better you know.”
“I would never leave you.”

Biography/Background: Stella’s initial journey in life was a tough one. She was adopted on a whim. A present for a girl she grew to love so much. But things went south. The girl left and quickly her owner lost interest in her. They spent days without going out of the apartment. She did her best to cheer him up, but the more she tried, the more it upset him. Once she spilled a bottle trying to get around the coffee table and the couch. Vodka did not taste good. Her owner was furious. 
One day, finally, they took the car and went for a walk. She was on her best behaviour. She was a good girl, she wanted to run in the forest and roll in the lush grass with him. But they did not. He did not take her back to the car either.
She waited. For a while, she roamed in that same area.
She learnt to hunt, and then she learnt about traps, not without damage. Later she perfected a better way: big smelly trash cans and how to topple them over. Now she had food, but no shelter. The first winter was cold, the second lonely. It felt very long until a lady caught her, put her in a truck and brought her to the shelter. 
Food: Check! 
Clean water: Check.  
Sleeping out of the rain: Check!!
Life wasn’t bad. Someone would take her out twice a week, sometimes they even played fetch.

Until one day, a new lady came. There. With all her heart, she knew it. She was the one. But how to tell her? How to convince her? That night in her cramped kennel she could not sleep, but the lady felt it too and she came back and she never, ever left her. 

Strengths: Wisdom, experience, very observant.
Weaknesses: Cautious, she’s not the one to usually make decisions. Since she’s a ghost, she cannot be seen and she cannot express herself or interact directly with her owners. A lack of opposable thumbs…

Unique Look, Iconic Weaponry/Ability, or Core Gameplay:
Stella has 1 special ability. She can infiltrate her owners’ dreams and feed them, push messages, or images, depending on what information she collected on that day.

Gameplay: During the day she has to find information by solving puzzles and she has to observe her owners and capture moments, things they say, images… At night she can rearrange them while they dream to build a response to how they feel and push it to them in their dreams. If she succeeds, on the next day their heart will be softer, if she fails, it’ll be harder.

Additional Info:

1- Her limp comes from a trap she got caught in during her weeks in the forest. She got out of it but she will never fully recover her mobility.
2- When she runs in her dreams, her owners think she’s chasing rabbits or playing with her dog friends. No she’s not! She’s running after a pizza delivery truck and someone throws her pizzas like they were frisbees! *heaven*
3- She lost a lot in her life, owners she loved, friends, babies. But Stella never stopped loving, not for long. She knows it is when you don’t love that the sun never shines again. 
4- When you are a ghost, outside of your loved ones heart, you don’t sleep anymore. She misses sleeping, so sometimes she curls up against them and pretends to nap just to remember how good it felt. 
5- Forget nature documentaries, dog videos with ducks or seagulls, cooking shows are the best!

TRIGGERS	BARKS	V.O. DIRECTION NOTES
Enters a dream	Awwww	Like Summer’s hug response in Spiritfarer
Enters a dream	There there.	Soothingly
Enters a dream	Shhhh.	Like a puring
Captures a moment	I see.
Captures a moment	Mm-hmm.	appreciative
Captures a moment	Watching.	joyful
Collects an info	/sighs
Collects an info	Aha!	Realization, insight, understanding
Collects an info	Ooh…	A hint of curiosity