I have been toying with many ideas for the characters and one of the constant thing I have to deal with is that the NPC sprites have a certain width limitation, so I can’t make any promises about centaurs (otherwise I would certainly have one of the bachelors as one of them).
Bachelorettes:
Emily: Fairy
Haley: Fairy
Abigail : Spider
Harpy Penny : Harpy
Leah : Alraune
Maru : undecided
Bachelors:
Alex : Minotaur?
Elliott : undecided
Harvey : undecided
Sam : undecided
Sebastian : Kelpie
Shane : undecided
So far I would like to avoid having Elliott as a merperson, there are two other mods that already do it and it is a very common trope so I would like something different, although I don’t mind keeping it on the back of my mind.
Alex is also very often placed as an orc, but I have thought of him as a minotaur. It makes sense to me to have him be strong and buff and play lots of sports.
Another very common one is having Harvey as a satyr. I actually converted his version from the old Monster Valley mod with the updated sprites for the Content Patcher, so feel free to check it out! (and Abigal and Caroline as onryos too). But, overall, I don’t have thoughts for him either.
So far I’ve been thinking about Sebastian as a vampire, as it had been suggested before. Just considering how to make it visually distinct from the vanilla one besides a paler skin.
Today I was also thinking: what about Sam being a half-elf and then having Kent be a full-elf? That would also have Vincent as a half-elf too. Unless Jodi is also something different so it could reflect on either of her sons. (maybe mermaid, as in Jodi Benson?)
I also don’t have any definitive thoughts on Shane.
At one point I thought about a bee person for Maru, which makes me think of Bumblebee from Teen Titans (not transformers) but idk.
In terms of the other villagers, for a while I was thinking about Marnie and Jas as minotaurs instead of Alex, but maybe sheep people would also be interesting? And I thought of Sandy to be a naga, although I did convert her djinn version from Monster Valley.
I also have a few other random ideas for creatures but I'm still struggling.
Spoiler:
Show
bat person
kitsune
nekomata
werewolf
demon
ghost/spirit
mermaid
cecaelia
jellyfish
medusa/lamia
mummy
slime
slime person
fire elemental
sphinx
It is also easier to reach me over at my tumblr or discord (you can send anonymous messages to my tumblr, so you don't need to register).
There are two different ideas for Maru (and Demetrius): a golem, which would explain her fascination for robotics; or aliens. Thinking a little I got lowkey worried about their races and “othering” POCs (well, Superman has always been an allegory of how people “other” immigrants, in his case a literal alien). In favor of the alien thing, I do enjoy the lore from The Sims 2, especially the approach from Strangetown and a family of an alien who married a human and have a bunch of kids, trying to fit in. As for the golem, I recall the Greek story of Galatea, so the thought of having Robin and Demetrius sculpt the perfect daughter -- so maybe a living statue, maybe from wood (so I can also keep her skin tone mostly intact too). I made a poll just in case, feel free to cast your vote or just post here, whichever is more convenient.
I started working on kelpie Sebastian design
The general idea is to have a human form and then use either Alternative Textures or the Adopt’n Skin framework to have his natural form as the horse. The obvious thing would be to have the horse have the same color as Sebastian’s hair and add said hair as the mane. Just working on the shading a little, removing the saddle, and so on. I also decided to have the same color as the human eyes. Or maybe I should change the eye colors of both to yellow or red? Now instead of just having the human Sebastian as it is I desaturated his skin color to have him paler and decided to take a page from Fate’s book and got inspired by Chiron from the Fate series. A tl;dr of the basic gist in the spoiler
Spoiler:
Show
For those unaware, the series is about legendary heroes and anti-heroes aiding mages as their familiars in a battle royale and keeping their own identities a secret. I mean, if you find out that your enemy is Achilles, you would certainly go for that tendon, right? In order to conceal his identity as a centaur, Chiron has a human form, but he has a tail.
I decided to give Sebastian a tail and a ponytail. Maybe I’ll revisit the horse form tomorrow and give it a longer mane too.
I'm also working on naga Sandy, I'm still trying to decide on the colors and the design in general.
It is a challenge to animate within the constraints of the template, but I think I'm doing ok. I'm unsure if I should have the tail be in a green tone, completely red following the tone of her hair, or should I have her entire body covered in scales. There was also the suggestion of having her be a gorgon, with snakes instead of hair instead.
And, of course, it seems the idea of Shane as a vampire is very popular. I also enjoyed LaLucela's ideas of a reaper-related creature for Harvey (need to do some research) and Sam's werewolf family. Maybe I'll work on a basic sprite of Sam and Kent both as elf and werewolf and see which one is more interesting, maybe put it up for people to pick one.
I’m not dead! I was just busy both with real life and with other stuff. And once the 1.6 teaser dropped with hints of the winter outfit I decided to sit back and wait for the update to see what changed. Technically speaking you can use the mod, but they would look “normal” in Winter.
So, the order of business will be to make the winter sprites for the existing characters along with those I was working on before
I was working on Willy as a kappa, which I'm still struggling to decide if I'm satisfied or not. Then I went for the old mariner and decided to make him a cecaelia. Not only that, but to be roughly similar to the mermaid we see in the show during the Night Market and Ginger Island on rainy days. At first, I tried to make her a little pirate-like but it didn’t look so nice, so I just had her with a slit-cut long skirt to “hide” the tentacles. I actually managed to change the lines so she wouldn’t be called “old mariner” or have an accent. The lines might still change but I’m roughly happy. And finally I also did Mr. Qi with a kitsune mask. I have no idea where I can find the sprites for Qi dropping the mystery boxes so I’ll have to pass that one for now. Ops?
Besides those that are ready to go because they are new additions, I'm adding the winter outfits for the characters that are already in here for the 1.6 update. So far the process goes as follows:
Abigail new sprite added
Abigail Winter outfit
Caroline new sprite added
Caroline Winter outfit
Haley new sprites
Haley fixed portrait
Haley Winter outfit
Leah Winter outfit
Marnie new sprite added
Pam new sprites added
Pam Winter outfit
Sebastian winter outfit
I'm still working on Emily, Jas, Marnie, Penny and Willy winter's outfits for the next update. I’ll lock on Harvey to be a plague doctor for the next update with a marriage candidate and work on a different sprite than the one I made, I wasn’t happy with that but right now the focus is to fix the existing ones. If everything goes smoothly, I should be posting the update on the weekend.
I'm alive! Just had to deal with a bunch of irl stuff! Next update I'll do the winter outfits for those already published and the current in progress stuff
I love this mod! So cool having this much variety in Stardew! Really good job!
I would like to suggest to make at least one of the characters a slime person. I think it'd fit with the theme of the mod and would make for some interesting interactions.
Some other suggestions I'll throw out - ignore all of them as needed, obviously, especially since what you already have is fantastic!
I think Elliott would make a great dragon, with his storytelling ways.
I absolutely understand your concerns re: Maru, but if you do decide to make her into a fantasy creature, with her intelligence and curiosity? I think a Sphinx would be a great fit. Similarly with Demetrius, with how protective he is? I think he'd make a great Griffin!
And Linus would be a great Yeti imo, but maybe that's too on the nose, haha
I think the life/death/rebirth connotations of a Phoenix would work well for Shane, as well, maybe?
I don't know how hard those would be with regards to the limitations of the game, and also you might just hate all these suggestions, haha, but I thought I'd mention them just in case!
Have you considered reaching out to DSV? It might be a good pivot if your stuck, and they'd probably have some insight on your concerns visa vi Maru? (They also have permission for a lot of preexisting art they might let you weld wings & stuff onto)
Moreover, your project fits their gig more than you realize. Because this caters to a lot of different kinds of people, but there's at least one niche in their that's a legit underrepresented group: nuerodivergents. It's a really common part of the experience to spend your entire childhood daydreaming about being something other than a human. Because we don't fit. Literally, the world is actually not built for us. When you get along with cats better than people, you picture having cat ears and a tail (this predates the anime craze by a lot). When you can't sit still, but you *have to* you dream about flying. When no one wants to play with you in the pool, you pretend your a mermaid the whole time till you have get out.
What I'm trying to say is, 'monsters' & fairy tale creatures are more than just an allegory for social issues. We can see ourselves in them, when it's us that doesn't fit the mold. Or if you have some kind of limitation, they were very good for a friend who was very sick throughout most of high school.
As to Maru have you considered an Alien/whatever-Robin-is Cyborg? I may have put this answer in your pole on the subject. Robecca Steam from Monster High is a good example of a robot that's explicitly coded as poc. Here's her wiki page: https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Robecca_Steam_(G1)
P.S. ...I didn't just psyche you out by extrapolating unintended profound meaning in the project, did I? I get carried away with my writing, I hope this isn't too overwhelming?
P.S.S. I will talk until the cows have come home, left for the day, and come home again about monsters and magic or anything even remotely related. I mention this because you said you were stuck? Talking helps sometimes? Or talk about monsters just cause, no one said you have to be productive during {Insert period of time}
Maru is a very special character, both as a very multifaceted girl in STEM (with multiple areas of interest too) and also a POC. Because of that I'm afraid of having her as an alien, because of the "othering" connotation it might have. I know most people will be like "aliens are cool!" (and I'm also a big fan of The Sims' aliens) and maybe I'm being too careful but I rather err on the side of being cautious and respectful than perpetuating harmful stereotypes. The cyborg idea could be interesting, I had forgotten that Monster High is a treasure trove of interesting and diverse representations.
Representing neurodivergency would be rather out of my scope, sadly. Maybe someone with the knowledge to rewrite the dialogue and it would be more respectful written/created by a neurodivergent, that isn't my story to tell but I would love to experience and read it! Maybe Maru has shades of it, with her interests both in astronomy and the medical field, maybe her special interests and hyper-focus on these could be interpreted as such? Or maybe I'm ascribing something that isn't there? And you are absolutely right about the monsters and fairy tales being allegories for social issues, like how the Changelings were actually neurodivergent children and werewolves is a whole can of worms that the more you study about it, more complicated it gets.
My project literally has no ulterior motivations or interpretations. I'm just making some fantastical creatures because I feel like exercising my creativity, sprite-making and the such. I love fairy tales and fantasy settings, that's all. But I also want to be as respectful as I can. I'm also not planning to turn all of the characters into mythical beings. For example, Pierre being a normie human while his wife and daughter are jorogumo fits with the general legend (although in theory Caroline should have gotten rid of him but this is a more light-hearted au...) and maybe Robin and Demetrius being humans using their combined knowledge to create an android to make the perfect daughter can also fits.
PS: DSV is an awesome project but I don't feel comfortable encroaching into someone else's project. Maybe, if there is interest, I could make variants fitting that project but my priority right now is to complete all the romanceable candidates and a few NPCs.
...but now you talking about cats actually gave me the idea of making Maru a Bastet, who is the "domestic" side of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess of war and love in Egyptian mythology. Or maybe a sphynx, because lionesses are cool and sphynx is a wise creature. Hmmmm
Just a suggestion, make Sam a Siren or a Muse. That or go full Sun Wu Kong myth. Oh, and for Alex I'd go with a Meso-American Giant or a Creature from Samoan Mythology to fit it with the Diverse Stardew Valley modified version of Alex, as a little shot-out to DSV.
Personal taste would have me suggest a "Booze" related Mythical creature for Shane... something like a Shojo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh?j?), I was gonna recommend Shane be a goblin, but SV already has a Goblin. I would honestly look outside of classic European Folk-lore creatures, and classical Greek and to an extent Norse mythological creatures. I also recommend Cryptids as a source for inspirations. Also, for Harvey, absolutely move away from Reaper related content. The implications are not that good with a reaper type doctor. I know I recommened to stay away from European myths, and that includes the Romans.... though for Harvey the Caladrius just screams "I am Harvey."
Unfortunately for Maru, most of the mythic creatures that fit her are found in either Greek or Scandinavian Mythology... You got the Cyclopes, Dwarfs, Hecatoncheires, Dragons to an extent...
Throw Away Joke: Elliot is a being made of Stone and that's it.
Edit: ALL OF THIS
Edit 2: What if.... and hear me out.... Giant Kaijus for Maru?
Chiming in with support for vampire!Shane. Drinking problem, sucks the life out of the people around him, stays out late and is super grouchy during the day. As for Sebastian, he rides a black motorcycle and lives next to a lake - kelpie? Just to subvert the popular expectations? Sam reads like a sweet sunshiney golden retriever to me, so I could definitely see him as a werewolf, but playing up the goofy doggy side. Kent as would also pull of the tormented growley werewolf thing really well (plus then we'd get tiny adorable puppy vincent) Maybe Elliot as the elf? Now I'm thinking about it, I'm kinda into the idea of Harvey as some kind of reaper, since you always end up in his clinic after you die in the mines, ha. Love the choice of minotaur for Alex, that definitely fits!
This looks like it's going to be great! Really love what you have so far!
The kelpie one is a fantastic idea! And I admit it grew on me even further when I got a lightbulb moment of making an Alternative Texture add-on to turn the horse into Sebastian's kelpie form. It is said the creature can take both human and horse form, right?
It seems that vampire!Shane is an absolute favorite so maybe I could give it a try. And Elliot indeed reminds me of the classic elf. Must admit I chuckled at the mental image of a literal golden retriever for Sam tho. Kent being a werewolf also reminds me of the "dogs of war" expression, and restless puppy Sam playing with potental sheepgirl Jas sounds adorable.
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So far I would like to avoid having Elliott as a merperson, there are two other mods that already do it and it is a very common trope so I would like something different, although I don’t mind keeping it on the back of my mind.
Alex is also very often placed as an orc, but I have thought of him as a minotaur. It makes sense to me to have him be strong and buff and play lots of sports.
Another very common one is having Harvey as a satyr. I actually converted his version from the old Monster Valley mod with the updated sprites for the Content Patcher, so feel free to check it out! (and Abigal and Caroline as onryos too). But, overall, I don’t have thoughts for him either.
So far I’ve been thinking about Sebastian as a vampire, as it had been suggested before. Just considering how to make it visually distinct from the vanilla one besides a paler skin.
Today I was also thinking: what about Sam being a half-elf and then having Kent be a full-elf? That would also have Vincent as a half-elf too. Unless Jodi is also something different so it could reflect on either of her sons. (
maybe mermaid, as in Jodi Benson?)I also don’t have any definitive thoughts on Shane.
At one point I thought about a bee person for Maru, which makes me think of Bumblebee from Teen Titans (
not transformers) but idk.In terms of the other villagers, for a while I was thinking about Marnie and Jas as minotaurs instead of Alex, but maybe sheep people would also be interesting?
And I thought of Sandy to be a naga, although I did convert her djinn version from Monster Valley.
I also have a few other random ideas for creatures but I'm still struggling.
It is also easier to reach me over at my tumblr or discord (
you can send anonymous messages to my tumblr, so you don't need to register).There are two different ideas for Maru (and Demetrius): a golem, which would explain her fascination for robotics; or aliens. Thinking a little I got lowkey worried about their races and “othering” POCs (well, Superman has always been an allegory of how people “other” immigrants, in his case a literal alien).
In favor of the alien thing, I do enjoy the lore from The Sims 2, especially the approach from Strangetown and a family of an alien who married a human and have a bunch of kids, trying to fit in. As for the golem, I recall the Greek story of Galatea, so the thought of having Robin and Demetrius sculpt the perfect daughter -- so maybe a living statue, maybe from wood (so I can also keep her skin tone mostly intact too).
I made a poll just in case, feel free to cast your vote or just post here, whichever is more convenient.
I started working on kelpie Sebastian design
The general idea is to have a human form and then use either Alternative Textures or the Adopt’n Skin framework to have his natural form as the horse.
The obvious thing would be to have the horse have the same color as Sebastian’s hair and add said hair as the mane. Just working on the shading a little, removing the saddle, and so on. I also decided to have the same color as the human eyes. Or maybe I should change the eye colors of both to yellow or red? Now instead of just having the human Sebastian as it is I desaturated his skin color to have him paler and decided to take a page from Fate’s book and got inspired by Chiron from the Fate series.
A tl;dr of the basic gist in the spoiler
For those unaware, the series is about legendary heroes and anti-heroes aiding mages as their familiars in a battle royale and keeping their own identities a secret. I mean, if you find out that your enemy is Achilles, you would certainly go for that tendon, right? In order to conceal his identity as a centaur, Chiron has a human form, but he has a tail.
I decided to give Sebastian a tail and a ponytail. Maybe I’ll revisit the horse form tomorrow and give it a longer mane too.
I'm also working on naga Sandy, I'm still trying to decide on the colors and the design in general.
It is a challenge to animate within the constraints of the template, but I think I'm doing ok. I'm unsure if I should have the tail be in a green tone, completely red following the tone of her hair, or should I have her entire body covered in scales. There was also the suggestion of having her be a gorgon, with snakes instead of hair instead.
And, of course, it seems the idea of Shane as a vampire is very popular.
I also enjoyed LaLucela's ideas of a reaper-related creature for Harvey (need to do some research) and Sam's werewolf family. Maybe I'll work on a basic sprite of Sam and Kent both as elf and werewolf and see which one is more interesting, maybe put it up for people to pick one.
I’m not dead! I was just busy both with real life and with other stuff. And once the 1.6 teaser dropped with hints of the winter outfit I decided to sit back and wait for the update to see what changed. Technically speaking you can use the mod, but they would look “normal” in Winter.
So, the order of business will be to make the winter sprites for the existing characters along with those I was working on before
I was working on Willy as a kappa, which I'm still struggling to decide if I'm satisfied or not. Then I went for the old mariner and decided to make him a cecaelia. Not only that, but to be roughly similar to the mermaid we see in the show during the Night Market and Ginger Island on rainy days. At first, I tried to make her a little pirate-like but it didn’t look so nice, so I just had her with a slit-cut long skirt to “hide” the tentacles. I actually managed to change the lines so she wouldn’t be called “old mariner” or have an accent. The lines might still change but I’m roughly happy.
And finally I also did Mr. Qi with a kitsune mask. I have no idea where I can find the sprites for Qi dropping the mystery boxes so I’ll have to pass that one for now. Ops?
Besides those that are ready to go because they are new additions, I'm adding the winter outfits for the characters that are already in here for the 1.6 update. So far the process goes as follows:
I'm still working on Emily, Jas, Marnie, Penny and Willy winter's outfits for the next update.
I’ll lock on Harvey to be a plague doctor for the next update with a marriage candidate and work on a different sprite than the one I made, I wasn’t happy with that but right now the focus is to fix the existing ones. If everything goes smoothly, I should be posting the update on the weekend.
Next update I'll do the winter outfits for those already published and the current in progress stuff
I would like to suggest to make at least one of the characters a slime person. I think it'd fit with the theme of the mod and would make for some interesting interactions.
Real life got in the way and once I saw the teasers for the 1.6 I decided to wait to see what I would need to add.
Some other suggestions I'll throw out - ignore all of them as needed, obviously, especially since what you already have is fantastic!
I think Elliott would make a great dragon, with his storytelling ways.
I absolutely understand your concerns re: Maru, but if you do decide to make her into a fantasy creature, with her intelligence and curiosity? I think a Sphinx would be a great fit. Similarly with Demetrius, with how protective he is? I think he'd make a great Griffin!
And Linus would be a great Yeti imo, but maybe that's too on the nose, haha
I think the life/death/rebirth connotations of a Phoenix would work well for Shane, as well, maybe?
I don't know how hard those would be with regards to the limitations of the game, and also you might just hate all these suggestions, haha, but I thought I'd mention them just in case!
Absolutely adore everything you have so far!!
Moreover, your project fits their gig more than you realize. Because this caters to a lot of different kinds of people, but there's at least one niche in their that's a legit underrepresented group: nuerodivergents. It's a really common part of the experience to spend your entire childhood daydreaming about being something other than a human. Because we don't fit. Literally, the world is actually not built for us.
When you get along with cats better than people, you picture having cat ears and a tail (this predates the anime craze by a lot). When you can't sit still, but you *have to* you dream about flying. When no one wants to play with you in the pool, you pretend your a mermaid the whole time till you have get out.
What I'm trying to say is, 'monsters' & fairy tale creatures are more than just an allegory for social issues. We can see ourselves in them, when it's us that doesn't fit the mold. Or if you have some kind of limitation, they were very good for a friend who was very sick throughout most of high school.
As to Maru have you considered an Alien/whatever-Robin-is Cyborg? I may have put this answer in your pole on the subject. Robecca Steam from Monster High is a good example of a robot that's explicitly coded as poc. Here's her wiki page: https://monsterhigh.fandom.com/wiki/Robecca_Steam_(G1)
P.S. ...I didn't just psyche you out by extrapolating unintended profound meaning in the project, did I? I get carried away with my writing, I hope this isn't too overwhelming?
P.S.S. I will talk until the cows have come home, left for the day, and come home again about monsters and magic or anything even remotely related. I mention this because you said you were stuck? Talking helps sometimes? Or talk about monsters just cause, no one said you have to be productive during {Insert period of time}
Representing neurodivergency would be rather out of my scope, sadly. Maybe someone with the knowledge to rewrite the dialogue and it would be more respectful written/created by a neurodivergent, that isn't my story to tell but I would love to experience and read it! Maybe Maru has shades of it, with her interests both in astronomy and the medical field, maybe her special interests and hyper-focus on these could be interpreted as such? Or maybe I'm ascribing something that isn't there? And you are absolutely right about the monsters and fairy tales being allegories for social issues, like how the Changelings were actually neurodivergent children and werewolves is a whole can of worms that the more you study about it, more complicated it gets.
My project literally has no ulterior motivations or interpretations. I'm just making some fantastical creatures because I feel like exercising my creativity, sprite-making and the such. I love fairy tales and fantasy settings, that's all. But I also want to be as respectful as I can. I'm also not planning to turn all of the characters into mythical beings. For example, Pierre being a normie human while his wife and daughter are jorogumo fits with the general legend (
although in theory Caroline should have gotten rid of him but this is a more light-hearted au...) and maybe Robin and Demetrius being humans using their combined knowledge to create an android to make the perfect daughter can also fits.PS: DSV is an awesome project but I don't feel comfortable encroaching into someone else's project. Maybe, if there is interest, I could make variants fitting that project but my priority right now is to complete all the romanceable candidates and a few NPCs.
...but now you talking about cats actually gave me the idea of making Maru a Bastet, who is the "domestic" side of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess of war and love in Egyptian mythology. Or maybe a sphynx, because lionesses are cool and sphynx is a wise creature. Hmmmm
'So far I would like to avoid having Elliott as a merperson, there are two other mods that already do it'
may i ask if you know which mods do this? been tryin to find a mer Elliot mod and idk if im just having troubles or what
Personal taste would have me suggest a "Booze" related Mythical creature for Shane... something like a Shojo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh?j?), I was gonna recommend Shane be a goblin, but SV already has a Goblin. I would honestly look outside of classic European Folk-lore creatures, and classical Greek and to an extent Norse mythological creatures. I also recommend Cryptids as a source for inspirations. Also, for Harvey, absolutely move away from Reaper related content. The implications are not that good with a reaper type doctor. I know I recommened to stay away from European myths, and that includes the Romans.... though for Harvey the Caladrius just screams "I am Harvey."
Unfortunately for Maru, most of the mythic creatures that fit her are found in either Greek or Scandinavian Mythology... You got the Cyclopes, Dwarfs, Hecatoncheires, Dragons to an extent...
Throw Away Joke: Elliot is a being made of Stone and that's it.
Edit: ALL OF THIS
Edit 2: What if.... and hear me out.... Giant Kaijus for Maru?
Sam reads like a sweet sunshiney golden retriever to me, so I could definitely see him as a werewolf, but playing up the goofy doggy side. Kent as would also pull of the tormented growley werewolf thing really well (plus then we'd get tiny adorable puppy vincent)
Maybe Elliot as the elf?
Now I'm thinking about it, I'm kinda into the idea of Harvey as some kind of reaper, since you always end up in his clinic after you die in the mines, ha.
Love the choice of minotaur for Alex, that definitely fits!
This looks like it's going to be great! Really love what you have so far!
It seems that vampire!Shane is an absolute favorite so maybe I could give it a try. And Elliot indeed reminds me of the classic elf.
Must admit I chuckled at the mental image of a literal golden retriever for Sam tho. Kent being a werewolf also reminds me of the "dogs of war" expression, and restless puppy Sam playing with
potentalsheepgirl Jas sounds adorable.-
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