Character design is important

I realize that some of you may not be able to draw or can't think of a way to write out a whole list of traits, which is why I highly recommend using references.

thank you to the user whom I'm going to leave anonymous for pointing this out cause it's a huge problem and I apologize for not correcting it sooner.

That picture you choose for your characters' appearance should ONLY be used to see a basic design idea. It should help you design a character but your character should be different than the pictures. If you're going to show off how your character looks, DRESS UP GAMES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND. I'm going to take down Fern's image and replace it with one I created in gacha club rn. DO NOT EVER CLAIM THAT YOUR ART IS SOMEONE ELSE'S. IN FACT, NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT YOU SHOULD GET RID OF THE REFERENCE PHOTO WHEN YOU HAVE THE FINALIZED DESIGN.

If, however, you have a general idea of what you want your character to look like, character design apps will help you make it happen.

I prefer to use gacha life because it's easy to use
And yes I know gacha club came out, it has a ton more options, but I haven't downloaded it yet cause I'm a little lazy OwO

Anyways.

Today I'm gonna show you some examples of good and bad character design-based on actual gacha characters that I have created.

Prepare for cringe.

First round of characters

I...
I can't even defend these two.

Fairy looks like a pink human crayon and Kaden has a terrible color palette.
Also he doesn't even have a decent expression on his face, like what???
The video I found on my drive of these two is worse, Kaden's expression changes maybe once or twice.

However, I really wanted to explore their possible relationships with each other and other people, so I decided to give them a makeover.

(Pssst-does Fairy look familiar? That's cause she coincidentally looks like a certain video game character! Guess who here!)

As you can see, I've kept the theme of each character, but I've updated everything else.
Kaden is now the ultimate tomb raider with a younger sister named Kaida and Fairy is now the ultimate librarian with two younger brothers; Micah and Jonas.
They have each other's backs throughout the killing game, never failing to come to the other's defense when they fall under suspicion.
However....
The world loses these two beautiful souls come chapter six.

Second Round Of Characters

Why did I make them???  ;-;
Left-Candy
Right-Holly

Really the only thing I needed to change with these two was the color schemes, but I decided to update their hairstyles and outfits as well, because why not?

Here's an updated Candy. She's now the ultimate bakery chef and she has a lot more to her personality now. She loves fashion and the color pink, and she's incredibly bubbly and overly extroverted.
Yet, her voice is forever silenced come chapter five....

And here's Holly, the ultimate calligraphy writer.
She's one of my oldest characters, I've known her long before I ever made anything in gacha, so to have her back with an updated look is amazing.
She manages to survive the game. My heart couldn't take it if she didn't.

(Edit: ima add a bit about making related characters here ÙwÚ)

Characters who are related should, in theory, have a couple of similarities. However, you should avoid making all of their traits 100% alike, unless they're identical twins. Having a set of siblings in a killing game is really interesting cause you don't know if they'll survive together.

My latest set of twins, Nobuyuki and Miyuki Kajiwara, have the same shade of blue as their eye color but Miyuki's hair is light while Nobuyuki has dark hair.

Miyuki is the ultimate arcade gamer and like me, loves listening to music. Nobuyuki, on the other hand, is the ultimate samurai and enjoys quiet and peaceful moments. Hard to come by in a killing game, aye?
Anyways, in an unfortunate turn of events, one of the twins meet their end in chapter six.

You'll also see more similarities between them than just their eyes. They have a similar skin tone and are around the same height.

Fin.

What did you guys notice about their designs?

1. They reflect the personality of the person in question
—->When designing characters, it's always best to think of their personality first. For soft, shy characters, pastel is a good way to go, while mature, serious characters look good in darker colors. But that isn't always the case.

2. The designs didn't always spoil their talent
—->A character doesn't always have to reveal their talent through their appearance. Fairy and Holly are good examples of this. You can't tell what their talent is just by looking by them, but it's still a compelling design. Meanwhile, Candy's skirt has an apron, which might indicate cooking or cleaning. Kaden's design shows a tough guy character, without actually spoiling his ultimate; a tomb raider.

3. They had a relatively simple color palette
—->One of my biggest problems with the original designs was the crappy color palettes. When I remade the characters, I wanted to fix the color schemes first. A good way to fix this is to change the hair and eye colors. For example, Fairy used to have pink and white hair and pink and white eyes. In her updated design, her eyes are now golden brown and her hair is now strawberry blonde.

All of us have our own prefers for character designs, so you don't have to follow this guidance. However, if you are struggling with character designs, I hope this helped you. I wanted you guys to see that I had to grow, just like you. I went through a rough patch, but I've learned and now that I've gotten better, I wanted to help you guys get better as well.