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So far, we’ve talked about The Cel-Shaded Group and The Early Realistic Group, but now it’s time to dive into what we lovingly call The Transition Group, the era where we collectively stared at our project, shrugged, and said, “Okay… what if we tried something completely different?” All of this is mostly because half of our ideas were born from late-night scrolling and the other half from us poking each other with, “Hey, what if Firva looked like this?”
At the time, we still weren’t satisfied with Firva’s story or her origins. Every version felt like it was missing something important, like seasoning in a soup. So we took a break from our earlier concepts, let them marinate somewhere in the void, and started experimenting with a new direction.
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Out of this creative detour emerged a transitional version of Firva, slightly older, somewhere around twenty to twenty-two, and looking like she could absolutely survive in the wilderness without asking for directions. She kept her rogue-inspired clothing because, well, it just felt wrong to take away her trademark style. But we did give her a major upgrade: a two-handed bone sword.
This happened because, during a research session that may or may not have turned into a rabbit hole, we stumbled across a particularly cool bone sword model by Polo_EJ. Naturally, we all went, “Yep. That. She needs that.” We will eventually dedicate an entire devlog to Firva’s weapon of choice, assuming we don’t get distracted by fifty other shiny ideas first.
Until then, you can see the sword here:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/two-handed-bone-sword-744e7b8c4d6148d3b95cb0d540b015aa
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With this new design came our first experimental checklist. For the first time, we gave Firva black hair, removed her high-born background, and dropped her into a harsh winter setting, something Nordic, cold, empty, and aesthetically, “please remember your hand warmers.” It was an interesting idea… for about five minutes. Very quickly, we realized that this direction was dragging the entire project far away from its intended atmosphere. A Nordic winter? For Firva? We don’t know who approved that, but it was probably the same person who thinks “just one more redesign” is a healthy lifestyle choice.
In the end, this version of Firva was short-lived, but it taught us a lot. Even the abandoned ideas helped clarify who she isn’t, which is just as important as figuring out who she is. So despite lasting about as long as our collective attention span, she ended up being a surprisingly valuable phase in her development.
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Then we made this version. At this point, we were still testing Firva in a winter environment, mostly because we hadn’t fully admitted to ourselves that the winter idea was already halfway out the door. You can still see it in the video: the ground is snowy, the atmosphere is early winter, and the whole scene quietly whispers, “Enjoy this while it lasts, because the devs are about to abandon me.”
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But this version became the longest-lasting Firva we ever used. We stuck with her for nearly a full year—twelve months of designs, story shifts, victories, disasters, and the occasional existential crisis. She witnessed everything, both in our studio’s development saga and in the evolving lore of her own world. She was there when we built our first in-game setpieces. She was there during the creation of our first boss fight. She was there when an “Erman” (a Gient Mechanical Bossfight from a forgotten race) stepped back into the spotlight. And she was there when we crafted our first in-game cinematic. Basically, if our project were a documentary, she would appear in every episode.
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In this phase, we fully embraced the idea of making her older, actually, we may have gone slightly beyond what we originally intended. You could say she drifted into the 26-ish range, maybe a little older, depending on which dev you ask. But with age came refinement: we brought back her red hair, now richer and more vibrant, giving her a distinctly ginger, almost Irish-inspired appearance. Her wild survivalist lifestyle remained a core element, but we added a noble, handcrafted touch to her look, as if she had learned to create both tools and style from the harsh world around her.
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You can also see how her outfit evolved. She now wears polished leather and clothing that looks handmade, but in that “I’ve lived alone in the jungle for years and I’ve gotten REALLY good at crafting things out of fear and necessity” kind of way. We wanted her attire to reflect her story clearly, so we pushed the natural, animal-crafted materials much further than in earlier designs.
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And yes, the bone weapon stayed. At the time, we were deep into discussing the world’s technology level and the realities of weapon-making. We kept asking ourselves, “If you lived alone in the wilderness and had no forge, how hard would it be to craft a high-caliber weapon?” Answer: very hard. So it felt fitting—and far more grounded that she would wield a crude but effective bone weapon, fashioned entirely from the materials she had access to. In other words: animal bone.
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(And this final image continues to reinforce everything above, her refined wildness, her hand-crafted gear, and the version of Firva who shaped an entire era of our development.)
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