While working at Big Fish Games, I noticed a need for more diversity in the game, Cooking Craze. The original game featured a generic Italian chef that didn't represent the idea of traveling the world to explore a variety of food and cultures. I'm very passionate about diversity and inclusion being reflected in character design, so I saw an opportunity to create a passion project that I could use to improve my skill and explore more character design. I initially created a few new chef characters as an exercise for myself outside of work, but soon was encouraged to pitch the characters to the game developers. The developers loved the characters and decided to incorporate them into the game. They were used in special events, loading screens, and marketing assets.
I designed 8+ characters, though not all were used in the game. Initially, a few of the chefs were used for loading screens, marketing, Food Truck and Food Court events, and in the game's store window.
When Cooking Craze changed developers from Elefun Games to Matryoshka Games, the art style was redesigned. I decided to update some of the chef designs that were currently being used in the bundles section of the store using the new art style (old designs can be viewed below) Shown above are the updated versions, that I style-matched to the current look and feel of the game.
Pop-Up Interstitials
I also designed pop-up interstitials as a way to drive more purchases in the game. Since the chefs were mainly visible in the store window, I wanted to bring them out from "behind the counter" and utilize them in in-game marketing as a way to sell more in-game items by connecting to the player with characters. These interstitials were also a part of my passion project done outside of my day-to-day responsibilities.
Process Images: Chef Giselle
With the success of my previous characters, I was asked to design a new character to address a concern a player had with a lack of representation of modern black women. I was excited to have the opportunity to design a new character and address the issue. I worked closely with the Product Manager of Cooking Craze as well as marketing leads to create Chef Giselle as the newest addition to the Cooking Craze chefs.
Below are a few process sketches that show design choices, hairstyle options, color palette options and poses. In the end, the client chose to keep most of the initial design choices, but we worked out different hair styles and landed on a rosy color palette.
Older Versions & Additional Character Designs
These versions are a few of the initial designs done before the art style change.
