Liora's Price of Dignity: Artist Applications
Added 2025-05-15 16:20:51 +0000 UTCIt's been a long time since we have done this: The search for an artist for our new game! A couple of weeks ago, I put out a call and received a lot of applications. Among those, I have picked 5 that I believed to have the most potential considering their ratio of portfolio quality and their pricing to participate in a test commission round.
In addition to those 5 artists, our artist for SKA also approached me that they could hire the assistant they hired some time ago when we were considering hiring a secondary artist full time in order to produce output for 2 projects. This kind of goes against the idea of trying new things for Liora, but on the other hand it also goes with the idea of building up on what we have and using past experiences to improve.
I gave our applying artists access to the game design document, links to the devlog posts here on Patreon, and also expanded that with some more reference material so that they could get to work and design their interpretation of Liora.
With their results now all here, I will be showing what they came up with and you can vote on which artist you prefer. Note that for me all polls are just "advisory". Let's say, artist A and artist B have a lot of votes and B has like 3 more votes than A, but I think A is better to work with, I will be picking A.
The polling will happen in a separate post:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/lioras-price-of-129036157
I will also post links to the artist portfolios or if they don't have a linkable webpage some images they used for their application in the Poll post. The reason I won't link them here is because Patreon doesn't like direct link to NSFW webpages.
Before I dive into the results of the application process, I will be giving a quick summary of the brief I gave them for Liora so that you can better evaluate how good they translated that brief into their design.
Liora Brief Summary
I used the character Aria Steelwind from the game Tyrion Cuthbert Attorney of the Arcane as a base (btw a very good Ace Attorney like) as she had a lot of character properties that I had in mind for Liora. The key changes would be for Liora to be more mature than the reference material and equipped with a sexier body.
While Liora is also intelligent, in contrast to Aura, the focus is less on nerdy/dorky and more on confident and serious
Sexy body but no slutty clothing to leave room for the corruption process of wearing sluttier clothing for the future
Morally strong, prudish, uptight, evoking the desire to see her corrupted
Furthermore, I gave them a link to Star Knightess Aura so that they could see in the screenshots how the character sprites would be used (facing slightly towards the viewer, but not directly, with their gaze directed to the other potential speaker in the scene).
As an additional note: The character designs below are not final. I gave our artists some feedback in case they strayed too far from the brief (mostly since everyone was immediately submitting highly sexualized clothing :'D which however goes against the flow of the sexual corruption). Otherwise I mostly let them do their things. After we have chosen the artist, I plan to have the selected artist iterate their design before we move forward to making additional artwork.
Now, to the results. In addition to the character design, I also asked the artists to create 4 expressions: Base, Angry, Embarrased, Lewd. For each artist, I will be posting the results, the price and how long they took. If there is anything special to remark, I will also add a note.
Applicant 1: Deniis
Price: 110 USD
Delivery Time: 9 Days
Note: A bit pink on the colors but something that can be easily adjusted.
Applicant 2: Emubi
Price: 320 USD
Delivery Time: 7 Days
Note: SKA's artist, Emubi and their assistant. They were working on this in parallel to the recent Richard Sex 3 H-CG. I don't think there is anything else to remark, it's our previous artist with both his strengths and flaws.
Applicant 3: Nirainini
Price: 180 USD (+50% Commercial License) = 270 USD
Delivery Time: 8 Days
Applicant 4: Vane
Price: 160 USD
Delivery Time: 6 Days
Note: I don't think the quality is there, which wasn't unexpected, due to their low pricing, which enabled me to commission them with expression dependent poses. Sadly you don't quite see it, but I didn't want to change the presentation format for this submission that will definitely not be chosen.
Applicant 5: Vourem
Price: 245 USD (+50% Commercial License) = 367 USD
Delivery Time: 11 Days
Note: The last artist to deliver - after I kept asking them to give me a estimated delivery date, and them telling me "tomorrow" a couple of times. In their application they said it would take 1 - 5 days for such a commission, so I have some concerns regarding their reliability. The background is grey instead of white as the anger effect was invisible on the white background.
Applicant 6: Weekun
Price: 80 USD
Delivery Time: 2 Days
Note: The delivery is quite removed from the brief. I admit that this is partially my fault as I did not sufficiently correct the artist - I didn't expect them to move so quickly to the shading stage. Since there was a lot off from the initial brief, I couldn't quickly reply to them and had to create a longer list, but by then they had already moved ahead and finished. I think this one is off my list because of the weak communication here, they didn't seem to properly process the brief material and so I decided to just leave the result as is and, well, they will be on the poll for completions sake, but I won't be considering them.
Feel free to let me know what you think of the applicants not just in the comments but also in Discord where we have a dedicated post in #commissions for the artist search.
Comments
take this with a grain of salt since i can't vote but personally i'm a big fan of deniis' style
Kris
2025-05-23 03:58:28 +0000 UTCVourem is cool but i think i prefer 1, deniis and a lot of more originality than the almost ctrl+c ctrl+v from the attorney of arcane, good body proportions and face. And even a far better price, which in long run gonna help a lot.
ayurai
2025-05-22 04:13:27 +0000 UTCI'd say Vourem has the highest ceiling, however of you can't trust their reliability i understand. She might need some small adjustments to her outfit, but her posing really sells her confidence.
andrew vinson
2025-05-20 05:12:30 +0000 UTC我也赞成让weekun重新试一下，喜欢vourem，但比较担心他后面会不会拖稿，除此之外vane算是我的第二选择
luommm yu
2025-05-17 23:15:58 +0000 UTCI think Vourem's is the best qualitatively. It's such a striking departure from the SKA style that it ensures Liora will have an entirely different identity from Aura. Their submission is probably too sexy to start with, but it really shows the potential of the character. The expressions are so much more dynamic than the others apart from Weekun who is even more expressive. They're let down a by their speed and portfolio. Their Twitter has several more interesting pieces, but they're interspersed with memes so I see why they didn't use it for their portfolio. I also like Weekun, for a combination of the low price, speed, and the character's facial expressiveness. The design is nothing like the request, however, but I'd have them try again. The top three, while having good quality look like they should be side characters in SKA. Deniis' character looks wholly too innocent (but perhaps that's desirable), and her expressions are understated to the point of not existing. Deniis is a known quantity and a reliable pick. Emubi's submission makes me think of Rose in a Halloween costume and is more expressive than Deniis' but I can't help but wonder how she eats with a mouth so tiny. Emubi's submission is solidly SKA in style, but it is solid. Nirainini's submission is more ornate than Emubi's, but the pose also looks very stiff, like she suffers from muscle pain in her shoulders and back, or is being constrained somehow. She's also lacking in detail comparatively with the skirt missing creases and folds where you would expect it to follow her body contours. In addition, the angle transition from waist to hip looks a little strange, noodle-y . The expressions are very, very subtle as well and would be easy to miss in a dynamic scene. All of the top three suffer from their facial expressions. None of them reach their eyes. Eyes alone, they look like they're taking my order at Wendy's, not chastising me for my behavior or sputtering in embarrassment. I hope whoever gets chosen, they improve their expression work. Vane's outfit is both detailed and ornate, I'd rate it as second best of the group qualitatively. It would need to be toned back significantly at the start, but could represent a midpoint design. The hair is very unique compared to the other submissions, and is quite detailed. The face, however, needs significant work. The eyes are very expressive, but that mouth is like nothing I've ever seen before. It's like a separate entity entirely is nesting upon her face and I worry about getting too close. I think you did a great job picking out these artists, each of them potentially brings something to the table, no matter who gets chosen.
Auros
2025-05-16 20:41:42 +0000 UTCDeniis fits best what it was asked for. Nirainini would be my second pick.
Ra Scher
2025-05-16 20:00:22 +0000 UTCFirst, third, and fifth are best. Personally Nirainini looked better, yeah style is a little different but its a good change in my eyes as different games should have at least slightly different art as this will give more freedom to artists and even in story telling to some level.
user120
2025-05-16 08:09:30 +0000 UTCI'm just really feeling for Nirainini. Vourem is drop dead gorgeous. And the others are pretty much incredible. But Nirainini takes my vote.
chocolate_prophet
2025-05-16 05:27:49 +0000 UTCI like Deniis, Vourem, and Emubi's work the best, but as you said Vourem's reliability is kinda low; and Emubi's work feels as someone else put it "corrupted by SKA". So I would have to vote for Deniis out of all of them.
Aaron
2025-05-15 19:33:39 +0000 UTCAgreed with thegaiden that Deniis seems best, fits a confident intellectual with a boyfriend but who's still prudish. Emubi's good, but think the SKA work corrupted theirs ;) - would work better with the milder pose+clothing of Deniis or Niranini. Vourem's definitely most striking, but too corrupted already. And the price and time issues for a test commission are major red flags.
Alex
2025-05-15 19:10:34 +0000 UTCYes, but only when it's done :'D
aura-dev
2025-05-15 18:54:12 +0000 UTCEmubi's looks fantastic as always, and they've definitely given it a strong look - I personally love the outfit, but I do agree that she could look a bit more main character-y; though I think we're just used to black hair and berets as side characters. Perhaps a re-jig of the uniform, and using this one as a secondary outfit. A close second would be Deniis, though I would chiefly be thinking of recognisability. SKA has a distinct art style, and for future projects, sticking with the same art style for Liora would mean people associate its visuals (be it in game screenshots, banner ads, etc) with the quality associated with SKA. That would personally be my pick, and my rationale for sticking with Emubi!
Pantheon Games
2025-05-15 18:53:41 +0000 UTC这一作还会上steam嘛
奈何九
2025-05-15 18:52:26 +0000 UTCWith my 'Lead Artist' hat on, I would agree your analysis is pretty spot on. I'd say from this sample Deniis is the strongest candidate. I agree that if the pink is replaced with more of the blue and trims of gold you'd hit that serious 'military academy' vibe you are aiming for. Emubi's work has been strong in the past, but I'm not a fan of this character. I don't think the character has enough interesting flair to be a protagonist. This character looks more of a side character. Niranini, Vane and Vourem all suffer from the same issue as their style is too far of a departure from your established brand. Changing style this drastically is a risk to your existing user base which I dont think is a wise decision. Weekun is probably the runner up in this series. Though their style is still a minor departure in style from your established style. I believe they are close enough that they can alter it. I also believe Weekun's facial expressions are the best out of the candidates, especially for a h-game. That's my quick thoughts on it, happy to go over this more in detail if you'd like to get a more technical review but I think your analysis is fairly spot on without it!
Thegaiden
2025-05-15 17:34:04 +0000 UTC
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