Using costume design to create cohesive worlds and compelling characters

What's the key to compelling costume design, and how will it benefit your game? Those are the questions asked and answered by PikPok artist and designer Victoria Smith in her recent Play by Play talk. 

Taking to the stage at New Zealand's very own international games festival, Smith explained why shoddy costumes can bring down even the strongest characters, and served up some practical tips on how to avoid some of those all-to-common design traps. 

For starters, she implored developers to take cues from Stoic's Norse epic The Banner Saga and create a cohesive costuming language (pictured below) that leans heavily on historical accuracy to inform and contextualize the world around it. 

"The Banner Saga obviously takes a lot of inspiration from general Viking mythology, and comparing the characters side-by-side you can easily see that they have very cohesive designs, and they all look like they belong in the same universe, offered Smith.

"When something like this is in place, it is much easier to keep coming up with new costumes that fit into your world. Instead of a simple dress tunic, the female character might have a version of the male tunic. Or instead of a cape, the character might have a hooded robe - but it would all still fit.

"A good costume language is going to help you so much. It'll help you with characterization, and it'll make it quicker and easier to come up with new designs for secondary or background characters. It will also make things look right, even if players only realize it on a subconscious level."

The full talk over on YouTube has even more practical advice and design tips, and is well worth checking out.