New World Devs on Creating Memorable Female Characters, Including Fellowship & Fire's Grace and Skye

mmorpg.com:

This week, New World' s Forged in Aeternum features a behind the scenes look at creating some of the game’s memorable female characters. A highlight is Grace, one of the important characters of the first new season, Fellowship & Fire.

This week, the episode features members of the art team, with concept artist Kiana Hamm, and Associate Art Director Sojin Hwang. Hwang began her career as a concept artist, and both of the artists delve into the process of telling stories through art, and working with other teams to bring parts of a game to life.

While the video is themed around creating female characters, some of the details about character design and concept will apply to all characters.  Some of the factors that go into design include what role that character is going to have in the story and gameplay. Effort will be different if you are creating a character that's pivotal in a story chapter versus a shopkeeper or even a boss. In New World, additional factors includethe time period and place they’re from.

One example of this was the Siren Queen. New World’s first female boss, designed using the Greek mythological danger of luring sailors with singing. As you approach, you’ll hear her singing a haunting song. This is an example of how those factors work to create a memorable character. 

As for Grace, we’re yet to meet her (unless you’retesting the new chapter on the PTR), but she is a different type of character than the Siren Queen. Described as a pirate captain and anti-hero, surely in the new story chapter, she'll reveal her layers. Designing her also meant deciding how she fights, to her personality. This is influenced and also polished up by working with other teams, starting with the Narrative team, and then