The Defold's mascot - Collection of Assets made by the Community

[Dat_Indie]

Hey
I shared on twitter if we could make a pool or something to choose a Defold’s mascot made by the community. The Defold team and old users could share a vision / specs for the mascot and leave to the community to design it. But this is just the beginning.

with the design of the mascot in hands we could (the community) make open sourced assets to be used in prototypes, examples, templates. Available in the asset’s portal. For example, someone learning 3D could make a low poly version of it. Pixel artists do a 8 direction top down of it or a platformer version. A animated version using Spine file ready to be used and so on.

this could be useful for future tutorials, templates and examples.
Please share your thoughts.

[Pawel]

This is a great idea!

I could make pixel versions Earlier there was an adorable doggo in Newsletter, but I don’t know, maybe you have now another mascot idea @britzl, @Mathias_Westerdahl? Generally it needs to be simple, to fit all those styles (2D spine, pixel art, 3D) and perhaps - a humanoid-like? With two legs? There are also bunnies and the frog among tutorials. And of course following orange-blue pallete. Just my thoughts.

So maybe following an animal idea - which one would “describe” Defold the best?

P.S. @Dat_Indie can you paste Twitter link?

[Dat_Indie]

Dat Indie (Beingthisindie)

here but it was a just a random thought before sleep hehe

[gianmichele]

I have been meaning to ask about the bean character for a while, to understand if is something we could use in tutorials

[Pkeod]

Don’t forget about the character here, originally made for a very old Defold example project. It has a lot of charm and someone with artistic talent could bring it to the next level of appeal!

Old platformer example

This video was uploaded on Sep 7, 2012. A few years ago I asked for the project because the character is really charming. Now it has been found! [player] platformer.zip (40.9 KB)

[Mathias_Westerdahl]

That is our current “official” mascot.
However, I’m not a fan of its design, as it’s mostly an capsule shape.
I’d much rather have more “regular” bipedal character that we can also animate expressively in 3D. As for design I’d personally go for something gender neutral, and not “full height” but rather something like Link/Zelda.
Keeping it “simplistic” is probably a bit easier design wise. Some examples that comes to mind: Monument Valley, Astrobot or A Short Hike

[bryanrieger]

I’ve always liked the Defold bean character and wished he were a little more polished/evolved. I’m always amazed at folks will do with something fun and approachable when given permission, such as these Gophers from Maria Letta or these Gophers from Ashley McNamara — both are wonderful and based on the original artwork from Renee French.

The reason I like the bean is it’s simplicity and expressiveness. Using simple shapes that anyone can draw/create more folks can contribute, play, and express themselves with it. When things get more complicated it greatly reduces the number of people who feel comfortable working with those creations.

I like @Mathias_Westerdahl’s idea of something short and gender neutral - like Link, Pikachu, Chao, Pikman, Om Nom, etc.

[britzl]

I have been meaning to ask about the bean character for a while

The bean was created by @Axel. I don’t recall if we ever did something with the bean intended for use in a game?

Earlier there was an adorable doggo in Newsletter

That is Bengan. @sven’s dog.

such as these Gophers from Maria Letta or these Gophers from Ashley McNamara — both are wonderful and based on the original artwork from Renee French

I love those! Really fun and expressive.

I like @Mathias_Westerdahl’s idea of something short and gender neutral - like Link, Pikachu, Chao, Pikman, Om Nom, etc.

Agree!

[gianmichele]

Agree simple shapes are definitely going to help. I like the examples posted from Monument Valley and a Short Story, it’s the right direction.

It would be nice to have the same version of character in pixel art, higher res for spine anims and 3d (which I will happily animate).

[Pawel]

Gophers are already mascots of Go language Beans are simple, yet really powerful design (Among Us, Fall Guys). And simple to fit to any style

Something like Short Hike’s character (and MV as well, if you played it you’ll know why :D) gives me an idea of bird like character? Maybe a minimalistic character wearing a bird costume?

Or just a Hummingbird? Because they are small, lightweight, yet powerful and lightning fast? Like Defold is?

Ooor maybe something from Origami?? Origami hummingbird? Because, you know, Defold

Just ideas

[Pkeod]

Origami

Something origami inspired does make sense thematically!

Or even papercraft inspired since that has folding too.

Meanwhile I doodled a dead cat wearing a bronze age style outfit.

[Pawel]

But why dead, @Pkeod ??
Also it reminds me Github’s Ocotcat a little bit

Initially I was thinking about exactly something like this A guy in a disguise of a bird or a bird in a disguise of the guy, so yeah, like @Mathias_Westerdahl provided great examples:

Then I come with origami and hummingbird:

Because it is more related to Defold imo (as I explained above )

With more community versions it certainly should have a design with characteristic points that could be shown in pixel art or very simple, minimalistic, MV-like style, yet could have details for more detailed styles and 3D models - a range from very minimalistic to pretty complex

[bryanrieger]

I like the (non-gender specific) ‘guy’ in disguise, especially as it could be reinterpreted for various scenarios and genres (space, fantasy, kawaii, etc). The bird idea brings to mind Dominique Ferland’s @dom2D amazing game related work (see: below).

Brent Kobayashi’s @meowza work is also really fun and inspiring.

I’m not sure about origami as it feels very literal and is difficult to put in non-origami contexts. Papercraft is fun, but it’s also a rendering style that comes and goes. It would be really nice to have a paper craft version of the character (also 3D, pixel art, etc) but I’d be hesitant to have it be the default style.

I’m also really liking the idea of incorporating the idea of ‘craft’ into it somehow. It speaks to the DIY attitude along with care in your tools and techniques. Sets it apart a little from other technologies that are always chasing the ‘new shiny’.

[Klear]

I’ve always liked the Defold bean character and wished he were a little more polished/evolved.

Oh yeah. I always wanted to see a full game with that guy.

[gianmichele]

A long time ago I’ve worked on Disney Universe (it was actually my first lead job).

The simplicity of the design allowed the use of any costume on them and made them really cute!

[Pkeod]

Hummingbird is difficult to personify as a general purpose bipedal character to me… because of its unique long beak shape. The origami hummingbird shape is something common in logos.

I agree with @Mathias_Westerdahl that the character should be bipedal and a character that can be animated in 3D as a generally useful model.

Link, Pikachu, Chao, Pikman, Om Nom

+1 to that general direction too.

Simple, iconic, expressive, able to be animated in useful ways.

[Pawel]

I will spent rest of my day looking into those beautiful and calming birds
And look how color pallete of Defold logo can be applied!

Can’t fit it to bipedal character better than Short Hike did, and yes, I agree it’s:

because of its unique long beak shape.

But maybe that’s why I think it could be unique

[bryanrieger]

Hummingbird is difficult to personify as a general purpose bipedal character to me… because of its unique long beak shape. The origami hummingbird shape is something common in logos.

Yup, Tumult used a stylized Hummingbird for the Hype app icon for version 1. It was kind of interesting, but generally meaningless as it’s a fairly common idea in logos. They’ve since moved to an animation table which is a little better.

[Dat_Indie]

it looks amazing, Pkeod!

Simple, iconic, expressive, able to be animated in useful ways.

+1 for this

[Pawel]

Although, I would put bird in any game This is my ending of Cyberpunk 2077 for example:

But it’s offtopic - what would you say on another animal? Gepard? It is definitely not common, yet associated to speed and could be as cute as cats:

Can have orange fur with blue spots Allows for a lot of freedom regarding design - so to the direction of Pikachu and so on. And of course can have any kind of cloth!