Pet Character Design - Latitude 76: Land of the Onkilons

Excited to share work I’ve done for Latitude 76: Land of the Onkilons by Anisimov Games. It’s an adventure game inspired by the real-life story of the 1900-1902 polar expedition. The game tells the story of brave explorers who set out to prove the existence of a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean.
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This is a pet of the main protagonist of the game (Magnus Kalb), travelling in his backpack and helping him on his journey through the mystical island. The initial task put before me implied it was going to be something cute, with big eyes and monkey-like, but there was no specific idea at first. I collected and studied a lot of references of cute real-life animals that would be mechanically suitable for the gameplay intended for this creature – from marmosets and red pandas to raccoons and cats, as well as animal companions from other games and movies, then I made a lot of research and iterations trying both more realistic and more fantasy angles on the idea. I decided to go with the pure white color pattern, because it reminded me of a yeti, which enhanced the mythical feeling the creature was supposed to have.
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Tags: Concept Art, Character Design, Creature design, Stylized, Fantasy, Creatures, Game art, Character Development, 2D Art