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| Pictured: A low resolution illustration of Kris Dremeurr from deltarune and Nima Lee from Am I Nima in their respective silhouettes and backgrounds relating to their games, both holding hand. Kris' grip is soft and limp whilst Nima's is firm.In Nima's background, there are underwater air bubbles and the skeleton of a shark. In Kris' background, the environment from the vessel creation screen lurks behind them. The art is captioned with "THE HEART GOES TO HEAVEN. THE HEAD GOES TO HELL", in reference to the album of the same name by That Handsome Devil. |
I played the demo for Am I Nima, a game developed by the Canadian/Southeast-Asian studio, Ho! Games. I fell in love with it.
I poured about 4 and a half hours into the demo and I haven't stopped thinking about it. The game's themes of identity and connection between the player and the player character got me thinking a lot about its similarities to deltarune and how that game incorporates that kind of relationship. In this piece, I've drawn Kris Dreemurr of deltarune and Nima Lee of Am I Nima, united in hands to show people how I believe their characteristics and relationship with us both compliment and contrast each other.
From the get-go, I wanted my piece to be faithful to the designs and styles of both games. A task like this would usually be easy if I were to stick with the original idea of the artwork being simple and quick. It was neither the latter or the former.
The phrase "The Heart Goes to Heaven. The Head Goes to Hell" was taken straight out of the album sharing the same name by That Handsome Devil. The album's name really stuck with me and I feel it's one of those sayings where depending on who you tell it to, their response would be confusion, indifference, or a real life pog. I was more-or-less inspired by the songs "Buyer's Remorse" and "My Pen is a Shiv" for this piece.
Looking at my planned sketches irked me. It didn't look right, it didn't look like it properly contrasted the differences between Kris and Nima. Do you have superpowers? I'll tell you mine; my superpower is called "Give Myself More Work Until I Am Satisfied". It is a very common superpower among artists and autistic people. It also sucks but also it doesn't.
It was at this point where I had to search online for a reference sheet for Nima Lee's proportions since I initially pictured her to be much shorter and stout not dissimilar to Kris. Then I saw how tall she actually was and I get it';s a stylistic difference but she was way taller than I initially thought, so whilst her height in this artwork isn't accurate to her in-game height, I think i achieved a good balance of accuracy and compensation for Kris' height (short idiot butt head hahaha). I also wasn't going to draw them hand-holding initially, but it looked too cool and I liked how Nima's hand was firmly gripping Kris' slightly limp hand. I think it aligns with Nima's more aggressive and emotional exertion compared to Kris' more stoic displays of personality.
Lastly, I added air bubbles and a shark skeleton in the background as the thematic elements for Nima's background, along with the split acting as an ocean shore. If you've played the demo, you'll understand.
Please check out the game on Steam now! I adored the demo and dearly hope it becomes big within art circles online.
Link to Am I Nima:
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