Currently looking for artists to make character sprites for a visual novel. There are approximately one hundred (100) characters and they are all from different "worlds", so I'd like them to be drawn by many different artists in all different art styles!

GENERAL INFO:

• Currently only open to friends, mutuals, and friends-of-friends. If you're a friend-of-a-friend, please tell me which of my friends/mutuals you know! For the time being, I'm not interested in hiring anyone outside of my circle. This may change in the future.
• You can get creative with the art medium you use! I'll accept digital 2D art, traditional art, 3D models, photography, photo editing, doll/plushie making... Don't feel pressured to match with others' art styles!
• There is currently no deadline since all 100 main characters need to be finished before the game can release. Once we approach the last 10-20, I may set a deadline. But for now this is a casual project!
• The main project is planned to be a game that will be for purchase, but the sprites you make might end up being used in other (free) projects. Most immediately: I plan to make short VNs featuring all the currently finished characters every 5-10 characters just to toy with the medium and practice laying out all the existing assets. If down the line I want to use your sprites for a new/unrelated commercial project, I'll contact you to get permission for it.
• If you're unable to work on art in the immediate future but would like to reserve a character to work on eventualy, let me know! I'll mark that character as reserved to block people from taking it. But I may remove that block after a few months if you haven't said anything about it.
• You can do multiple characters if you want!
• You will of course be credited for all your work - let me know what name you would like to be credited under and if you'd like a link to your social/website to be included.
• You are free to use or publicize any art you make for me. This includes posting it on social media when you finish, streaming your progress on Twitch, including it in your portfolio, using it for commission examples, putting it in your own projects, et cetera!

WORK TO BE DONE:

• Each main character (100 in total) will have around 10 sprites total, roughly comprised of 3 unique poses with 3-4 facial expressions each. Certain characters may require more and others may require less. Most sprites will be hip-up, but certain characters and poses may require full body. This part is the most important and I would like to finish it first!
• There will also be minor characters who only show up once and will only have 1 pose with a few expressions. The total number of these characters will be determined while working on the game. If you would like to contribute to the game / get money but don't think you can commit to a main character, then this is an option!
• Splash art for each main character: used in their introduction and possibly in menus. An image that spans across the entire game window and would include the character themselves on a transparent layer to be used separately. Style will probably be left up to the artist, though the two ends of the sectrum I envision are "Danganronpa splash art" (full body character on transparent background) VS "Loading Screen CGs" (partial-body character with a full-ish background). I would only like to offer these for characters who already have their sprites done just so the designs are consistent across artists, but if you would like to do both a main character's sprites AND their splash art as a package deal then I would love to help make that happen!
• Currently I am not looking for help on backgrounds, CGs, voice acting, or music. When the game is finished, I hope to add voice acting after it's released once I have the funds for it.

MONEY:

• All prices in CAD (Canadian dollars)
• Main Characters: a minimum of $100 per character
• Minor Characters: a minimum of $40 per character
• Splash Art: a minimum of $50 per piece (would rise depending on complexity)
• Willing to negotiate prices to match your commission prices or if you feel your workload is worth more than the above prices.

GUIDELINES:

• NO AI ART!!!
• The game window will be 1920x1080 so please do your best to make your art fit in the window without needing to be stretched or compressed on my end. I don't want to lose any of the quality!! Additionally, the UI will change throughout the same where sometimes the text is in a box at the bottom and sometimes it is an overlay across the whole screen narrator-style, so keep that in mind when drawing details.
• References will be provided for nearly all characters and poses, but you are free to add details or make changes!
• As an exception to the above: there are a total of four characters whose gimmicks are that their appearance is based on the eye of the beholder, so if you would like to draw those characters then the idea is that you design them from scratch using the provided lore/personality descriptions.
• Excluding the above exceptions, any characters without visual references will receive mock-ups by me once someone is interested in drawing them. There are a lot of characters so I haven't gotten around to drawing them all yet, so unfortunately the reference list will likely be incomplete for awhile!

CONTACT:

• If you are interested in doing work or have any questions, you can contact me in the following places:
• Bluesky: yoshichao.bsky.social
• Email: tcalellis@gmail.com
• If you would prefer to talk through Discord but we aren't friends on it, let me know through one of the above avenues and I can give you my info.

Below are some examples for sprites that currently exist in the project as well as what sort of references you can expect me to give you.

• Green checkmarks means sprites for that character have been finished
• Yellow hourglass means that character is being worked on or has been reserved by someone
• Boxes with larger rectangles are for characters with alternate forms or who have some sort of tag-along character. Alternate forms DO need to be drawn by the same artist, but second characters do not.
• For more details about each character, head to this page!

ABOUT THE GAME:

The game is called Xalcian Showdown and is about a Smash Bros.-style fighting tournament that invites warriors from across the multiverse. Historians have documented infomation about the lives these warriors have lived and have turned those lives into popular "stories" across different forms of media. A mysterious benefactor named M has been using this popularity to their advantage and has run "Xalcian Showdown" four times now - with this fifth venture being the biggest yet, inviting a total of 100 characters to duke it out for the trophy.

You, the protagonist, are not one of these fighters. You are merely the one providing the lodgings for season five by using your reality-shaping powers to create housing and the backdrops these fighters are going to be duking it out on. As fate would have it, you are a massive fan of several of the stories being represented in this tournament - let's just say you have a personal connection to some of them - so this is an exciting opportunity to meet your favourite heroes, learn about their lives, and perhaps even... become friends with them?!

The story will also feature a second main character - a girl named Aqua who you befriend early on. She's a teenage girl who just got her magic powers and has only been at this whole superhero gig for about a week - not to mention she and her friends were among the fighters in the first season of Xalcian Showdown! However, when she arrives on the scene of season five, she discovers that none of her friends are from her time period, and that her future self (who has been a mainstay of the tournaments since season two) is loathed by everyone: including her crush, her mentor, her family, and everyone else she loves! As a wide-eyed girl full of hope and determination, she has two goals during these ~100 days: 1) win the tournament and 2) befriend all 99 fighters on the tournament roster. While you can't do anything about the former, perhaps you can help Aqua out with her second goal...

While the game will only have one ending with regards to the tournament, there will be an epilogues for each character you befriend as well as an alternate ending if you can manage to achieve Aqua's second goal. Choices in the game will be locked behind the amount of knowledge your character possesses about who you're talking to and the situation you're in. This information can be obtained either via your experiences talking to and mingling with the cast, seeing visions of a character's past, or by spending your time reading through M's personal notes about each fighter. Once you have this information, you will be able to go back to previous days and use it. Be warned however: not everyone likes you bringing up old wounds, so some choices may hurt more than they'll help...

Heroes, villains, monsters, Gods, and everything in between... who is the strongest of them all? And more importantly: what can you do and say to make them notice you??

Inspirations for the game include Super Smash Bros and the "Smash Mansion" AU, Higurashi, and Danganronpa. The game will be a visual novel about platonic bonds. There will be no adult content and there are currently no plans for romance.

Main Characters | Minor Characters

(The page for minor characters has not been made yet, but please contact me if you would like to do one! While the game is still being planned the selection will be very small and will range from characters with and without concrete designs and thus may offer more-than-average creative freedom, so keep that in mind!)