Employee-Tier Poll! - 1/23/25

(Please Read)

If you've read up on the latest post, then you know what this is about! If you didn't, then I'll TL;DR it even though it's like right there man

Basically, with my current shading style it's very cumbersome to line up the shading from the arm to the base body in a way that works. As such, I've been thinking about if I should swap up my shading style to make it easier to make these expressive ideas a reality.

In this poll (open only to Employee tiers since y'all have voting power!), I'd like to ask you all what you think I should go with.

Please keep this in mind:

If options B or C win, then it would enable me to consider even bigger sprite effects- things like sprite animations, in-between poses, and even more facial rigging. Probably more, I haven't look that much into it since I've got more to deal with on my plate right now.

Without any further ado...

Option A: Full Shading

Painted style, no change to what's in the game right now. Difficult to work with in regards to the arms, but it looks pretty good. Likely our "end point" as the style will complicate future attempts to liven up the sprites. It has the benefit, I think, of looking rather unique.

Option B: Cel Shading

Featuring hard shadows and localized highlights, this is what I'd consider the "in-between" of these three. It matches the style of the CGs, and is easy enough to work with that it should enable me to do creative things with the sprites later down the road.

Option C: No Shading

Ok, it says "no shading" but technically it has localized highlights and gradients when needed. For the most part, however, this would involve next to no shading. This would definitely be the easiest to work with and, like option B, would enable me to do creative things with the sprites in the future.

To be honest, I could see a world where I go with any of the three options. Even though full shading is difficult for a bunch of reasons, it does look rather good. The cel shading matches the CGs and I do love me some consistency, plus I'd love to do exciting things with the sprites in the future. No shading would be the easiest to do right now, so if it's "ok" that's honestly probably good enough? It's not particularly exciting, though.

Please vote for what you think is the best decision!