darkSpyro

A new French Skylanders video has Vicarious Visions showing off a behind the scenes look at few of the toy models and few of the characters' old designs, including Stormblade and Splat, that were changed during development due to the responses from the kid testers. We also have a look at Josh Duhamel voicing High Volt, but the commentator in the video below talked over that bit. Another video on High Volt's VA is posted with sound on the latest page in the SC General Discussion topic.




According the gamingtrend article on SuperChargers, Stormblade was originally going to be a peacock until a kid tester pointed out that female peacocks are brown. She went through a few design changes, including a concept idea of her being in the Dark element, until they finalized her into a Air lark Skylander.




Splat was originaly going to be a Dark Skylander, be blue colored, and use her staff-like brush to throw oil around. There's also a bit of gameplay of blue Splat throwing oil around at the 5:30 mark in the video above. The kid testers noticed that Splat's staff looked like a brush and asked why her brush could paint in one color. So VV decided to change Splat's design colors and standard attacks to paint-based for a more kid-friendly appeal.

Love the previous gold-white-blue paint job of dive bomber wish they had kept that in the final figure

Can someone help me? I am making up names for the yarn character and the jellyfish guy please l help

Does anyone else realize at 7:09 high Volts element on his shoulder is light? If he remained a light character his white suit upgrade would be a lot better than what it is now as a tech.

Loving the dark Stormblade. Wish they would have kept that design.

*looks at dark Stormblade* Jeez, now that's a more likeable bird character. Though I wonder what would've happened with Nightfall, maybe she could've been from Air instead and have cloud hair... hey, that could actually work.

Man, Splat would have been a ton better as a dark element. I much prefer her coloring and ink attacks.

dark stormblade tho...

Stormblade is a perfect example of how much better character design is without gimmick/theme restrictions.

And the more I see of those elemental engines the mire I despise the look of the final ones...

"Despise" is a bit of a strong word, don'tcha think?

Absolutely no.

I personally plain hate how those engines ruin the bases and the general look of the figure.
I love the fact we have such an important aspect of the lore in our hands but making them look all the same was both lazy and a bad choice.

That's simply how I see it.

I love Stormblade but totally would love her more if they kept her as a peacock.

Those little brats ruined everything for us real Portal Masters. Stormblade and Splat would have make such great Dark SuperChargers.

Quote: mega spyro

Loving the dark Stormblade. Wish they would have kept that design.

Quote: Deja Vu

*looks at dark Stormblade* Jeez, now that's a more likeable bird character. Though I wonder what would've happened with Nightfall, maybe she could've been from Air instead and have cloud hair... hey, that could actually work.

Quote: willster8

Man, Splat would have been a ton better as a dark element. I much prefer her coloring and ink attacks.

Quote: preciousawaken

I love Stormblade but totally would love her more if they kept her as a peacock.

Quote: TheShadowDragon

Those little brats ruined everything for us real Portal Masters. Stormblade and Splat would have make such great Dark SuperChargers.

Lots of people want dark element stormblade.

While I wouldn't say those brats, I do agree that these kids who are giving their inputs are sadly limiting the potential in these designs. The concepts for and were cooler for sure and even the concept characters looked so unique and interesting. It seems like we keep seeing cool and interesting characters full of potential wasted while we end up with the more ordinary and redundant designs instead. I still like most of the Superchargers, but these concepts were awesome and I hope to see more of these used in the future in some way.

Quote: GhostRoaster617

While I wouldn't say those brats, I do agree that these kids who are giving their inputs are sadly limiting the potential in these designs. The concepts for and were cooler for sure and even the concept characters looked so unique and interesting. It seems like we keep seeing cool and interesting characters full of potential wasted while we end up with the more ordinary and redundant designs instead. I still like most of the Superchargers, but these concepts were awesome and I hope to see more of these used in the future in some way.

Let's hope they pull a Krypt King with Dark Stormy

I think it would more plausible to guess they'd pull a Super Shot Stealth Elf with her.

Dark Element Stormblade would look too similar to her actual version (even the other two concepts wouldn't justify a brand new Skylander) but they could always create a revamps so she would have different abilities and look.

There are so many V.V. concepts I would like to see as full fledged characters...

I actually kind of hope we get some of these scrapped designs for the next game. A peacock would make for a pretty cool Life Skylander, I'd imagine. If they ever want someone like me to judge their designs, I'd be more than happy.

Hint hint any people at Activision monitoring the forums.

I'd pay THEM for me to judge the designs. The designer is really good,but if we're finding these amazing characters in the drawer and not in the game, something needs fixing.

Quote: Bifrost

I'd pay THEM for me to judge the designs. The designer is really good,but if we're finding these amazing characters in the drawer and not in the game, something needs fixing.

The corporate existence is full of regrettable and questionable decisions. Don't think this will change anytime soon.

It's as an incentive as any to have a career in character desgin for me :I A little idealism doesn't hurt to try to shoot far, even if it'll probably only be fully realized in indie games and not AAA industry.

Awesome, go for it. I do think they should have a program to allow people breaking in the industry a chance to get experience. They probably do, but they probably need to advertise it more.

It's funny when you think of all the animals that could potentially make great Skylanders that they haven't done yet. Like elephants, rabbits, bears, penguins... Even some mythical creatures like gorgons or gargoyles. Kind of makes me wish they go back to larger amounts of characters just so we have a better chance of some of these designs making it into the final product.

Though I don't know if I would give up Nightfall for a Dark Stormblade or Splat, they obviously can't do two as they prooved to us.

Stormblade was SOOOO much better as a Peacock. Wow, too bad they changed it. Still love her but that design is nice!!!

What a stupid thing to say, because a kid tester said "brown"? Yea ok VV, because all your characters are so realistic.

Yup, from the white-furred bear based on the dev with black hair to... Everything on the fantasy scale.

BUT WE LISTEN TO OUR FANS,GUYS! WE EVEN GOT THESE KIDS OFF THE NEIGHBORHOOD TO TELL US WHAT TO DO

I mean, I get their logic, who knows what appeals to kids better than kids?

The only trouble is kids don't know a lot about video game or character design.

Seriously, there's like a billion people on the internet that make concepts for their own fan-made Skylanders. Why not ask them for their opinion?

Thinks that if splat and stormblade can get reposed because vehicles are the gimmick mostly you should make dark splat and dark or peacock stormblade?

Quote: AdamGregory03

The only trouble is kids don't know a lot about video game or character design.

Pretty much. If we actually asked most kids to MAKE designs,they'd tell you about Eclipse the Dragon the skylander that can use two elements at once and had a dark past against the villain Darkevil.

Needless to say,get tips,but don't follow them to heart. Applies even to older fans' suggestions because sometimes people get too passionate.

What about a dragon skylander who's good during the day and evil at night, but soon will fall to the darkness?

Talk about cringe worthy.

Now THAT's what I call edgy!

If they wanted a kid with good design choices they should have gotten me there. Not these kiddies that don't know GOOD GAME design. I doubt they would think of having a 12 Year old there. A little too old

Came up with up Name and attacks for yarn character

Yarnbrawl

Motto: Bob and Weave!

Attack 1 Pinpoint or Needlepoint: Use Needle to dmg enemies (Upgrade combo and pins from her back are launched at enemies) (Pin Cushion)

Attack 2 Knitoff: Knit projectile and launch at enemies ( can charge when upgraded wool projectile gets bigger)

Attack 3 Crochet Clash: Turn into giant yarn ball and crush enemies

Soul Gem Wool War: Throw Yarn everywhere that tangles up enemies and eventually explodes

Not the best but what do you think?
Going to do the Jellyfish character next.

First attack and soul gem are pretty much Short Cut. Name is also very samey, just because it fights doesn't mean a brawl suffix will always work.

Plus, I hope this doesn't turn into a fan idea topic on scrapped characters. You can do that in Fandom.

Considering She has a needle in her hand it is kind obvious that at least one attack will be slashing and thrusting it at enemies I will work on soul gem and name i guess, Also Aura24 i will create a topic for this in fandom

Nope,by coloring she could be Magic(and it seems to be the go-to element for random powers, like Painyatta),and the needle could be like a staff or control rod to use the threads. Things aren't always so obvious,especially since this is an early sketch so it's more about the archetype than the mechanics.

Still she needs to have at least one melee or projectile attack (almost all skylanders do) and I think it is hinted that it is a melee slash attack based on the fact it has a point at the end and she is wielding it like a sword

Doesn't need to. Mechanic design isn't doing whatever sounds the easiest - say,she's got plenty of loose yarn. By using the needle as something to stand on,she could swing her body to the side and order the loose pieces to attack melee range.

It really should be taken to the Fandom thread,but just really bringing up gameplay design. There's no 'obviously' even if it might be the cheap route a dev might take. If it's crazy cool and can be done without taking too much time off the animators, it's a plus to the character over the others.
For example, for my game project I designed a slime fella with ice powers. It's very easy to say it's going to shoot ice projectiles or slap you with a slimey hand... But how about turning its entire body into ice and shrinking itself, shrugging off attacks and sticking out deadly ice spikes? There we go, it's not a generic slime or ice monster anymore.