Proposal:

 

My character will be a (or the fictional equivalent of a) Mesopotamian/Iraqi gender-ambiguous but femme presenting late teen that iconically wears a headscarf. She will be robed in jewellery to evoke a sense of wealth, knowledge and fluidity, as well as the modest. Since she is not Muslim, her inclination to wear hijab religiously isn’t relevant, but she faces the same prejudice if she were. 

 

Her mindset internally reflects and challenges stereotypes for women, particularly surrounding intelligence and sexuality, and more specifically as a result of how people directly perceive her by the way she dresses. I hope that the game (at least implicitly) addresses common misconceptions and traditional representations of women in games. Aside from this, I want to foremost build on her as a complex character, and allow the player to explore through her eyes. 

 

I’ll create a profile for my character and use it as a base to draw from, like a mood-board. I’ve heard that this is a good practice and almost essential for building character. I’ll also use my Pinterest boards (a simple collection of images) for visual inspiration. I never work strictly to this however, so experimenting will be crucial. 

 

I’ll also work with colour schemes and colour theory. This is my favourite way to show character without having to outline it bluntly, and partner it with knowledge of shape and size for her physique. Nailing anatomy to a masterful degree won’t be incredibly relevant. since most of her body will be robed. It will be more useful to study how clothes sit on bodies, and practice drawing folds or fabrics. Jewels and rocks will be important to her design - objects I have never drawn before. I wanted to add this because the hijab as a means of fashion has an incredible range of potential despite most thinking it’s a ‘restriction’. I’d like to think of it as an extension - almost like an accessory but one that has a weighty amount of symbolism and relevance to many’s lives.

 

As stated before, I hope to fuse all my research and inspiration into one final design. Though the final character is mapped out in my head, the main challenge will be having her interact with a fully functioning and robust storyline/world. It will take much thought to build a complex and unique game concept with such little time, since I set out my main focus on the fashionable and surface level aspects. Unfortunately, I’ve had to focus more on selling and advertising than the storyline since the competition values the visuals more than having a fully written plot. Even though this is best for minimising workload, it means i’ll have greater difficulty designing any cultural (whether it’s fictional or not) patterns, symbols and mechanics that would be integrated into her outfit. 

 

Concerning the hijab, I thought it may be problematic because it seems like i’m taking away from Islam and using it for performative benefit (if people take it from face value).  even though it’s set before the religion was discovered. I can easily argue that making a Muslim characters’ appearance the centre of their design defeats exploring them as a complex identity, and reduces them to how people already understand and categorise them, in the same way reducing gay characters to their sexuality is incredibly undermining and is a poor reminder of our heteronormative society alienate them and thus making them seem ‘abnormal’ or simply ‘out of the norm’, bringing uncomfortable and unwanted attention. However, if I could adapt this story further, I’d set it so that the protagonist encounters and befriends a muslim hijabi, but due to time constraints I cant. 

 

 

 

 

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