One Week from Character Design to Implementation for the Assistant Character in

Hello. My name is Obi, the director of the new game Donutal at Arc System Works.

In this article, we’ll share the behind-the-scenes story of the creation of DOLPHIN, the assistant android to the admission examiner who appears in this game.

▶️DOLPHIN's Profile

Name: DOLPHIN

Race: Android (Earth-made)

Occupation: Entry Inspection Assistant Android

Affiliation: Space Joint Development Council

Gender: None

There is no specific gender. 

Also, my personal favorite detail of the outfit is the holes under the armpits. Did you notice these holes? Believe it or not... what you can see through them is bare skin. It’s a design detail I’m particularly attached to, so please keep an eye out for it when DOLPHIN appears in the game!

▶️Behind-the-Scenes Story

The name DOLPHIN was decided early in development. In fact, it was finalized even before the protagonist's default name.  

This is because during the planning phase, I told the team that as a presence supporting the protagonist's work, the character was envisioned as "resembling the dolphin assistant from former versions of Excel." In the early stages of development, we used placeholder phrasing like, "Shall we start creating the look of that dolphin character soon?" However, as our associations expanded—from "dolphin" to "blue" and then to "Earth and sci-fi themes"—it felt surprisingly natural, so we ultimately decided on the name DOLPHIN. The provisional working name ended up being officially adopted.

Although the scenario settings were completed at the very beginning of planning, the timeframe from DOLPHIN's character design to implementation in the game was actually only about one week. Since the 2D artist in charge was also drawing standing illustrations and animations for various aliens, it had to be finished in a short period of time.

▶️Character Design

Here are the three key design points we insisted on maintaining for DOLPHIN's character design:

• A hairstyle that doesn't feel gendered
• Covering either the mouth or eyes to convey an android feel
• Avoiding visual expressions like muscularity or pronounced body curves, given the lack of gender

Now, as part of the creative process in bringing these details to life, let us share some materials from when we were creating outfit drafts for DOLPHIN!

Materials from when we were determining the outfit direction and motif colors.

Starting from discussions that plain clothing felt a bit lonely, we went through trial and error in a short period—adding mysterious metallic designs or patterns to the outfit. However, since this initial idea didn't quite capture a "classic sci-fi" vibe, we decided to boldly aim for an outfit reminiscent of classic space-themed works. In addition, because the Interview room features orange accent colors, we decided to use blue as DOLPHIN's motif color while adding orange as an accent color so that DOLPHIN would blend in seamlessly with the Interview room.  

Materials used to decide the detailed design of the outfit. 

• Proposal A (Adopted): Selected as the base proposal because it had the best overall balance and matched the image of ISP* best.
• Proposal B: The armpit hole design detail was too wide, giving a somewhat explicit impression.
• Proposal C: The design was too simple, lacking distinct character personality.
• Proposal D: Although the decorative design was eye-catching, it strayed from the common design style within ISP, raising concerns that it might undermine the setting of being an android belonging to the organization.

*ISP: Refers to the spaceport in Earth's orbit appearing in this game (set as the former ISS).

As a final adjustment, following feedback from the art director that "the lower body design feels a bit plain," we added slits, settling on the current stylish look. Additionally, through the review process, the placement of the ISP logo was changed to the chest area.

To reiterate, it took about one week from when I compiled DOLPHIN's settings and concept ideas and handed the specifications to the 2D designer until the current standing illustration was completed. 

Completing the process from character design to standing illustration creation at this speed allowed us room to spend time improving the quality of other aliens. Of course, this doesn't mean DOLPHIN was treated carelessly. Prioritizing within limited resources and managing "time allocation" to create assets efficiently is also an extremely crucial element of game development.

■Today's Short Note

~ Development Blooper ~ 

Character Coordinate Specification Error: Sorry, DOLPHIN