@@luvr381 And thus, such stuff like Concord is WHY escapism even exists at all. To balance out the bad stuff like Concord with the good stuff like Marvel Rivals.
@@Craig_Tucker48 that comparison reminds me of the most dreadful of "baby pop" in the 90s. One that soured the taste of music to me as a child... So I know that the threat of cocomelon is a sincere threat. A due measured one at that.
As a digital artist and graphic designer, I started playing Marvel Rivals BECAUSE the way the characters look. If I had designed the Concord characters, I would choose, out of shame, to never work in design ever again.
As an artist myself I would agree that it would feel absolutely horrible to be Concord Character Designer and getting that feedback. But truth be told it's hard to screw up so consistently on your own, especially if you work in such a huge industry with lots of competition. I would assume that people who literally make tons of money working professionally at least know what they are doing to some degree. Maybe it's not on the artist specifically but input from their coworkers/management. As someone who does commission work - sometimes commissioner wants details/ additions to the art, color, anatomy, pose etc changes that you know from your personal experience don't really work. Or you know YOU can't make look good. So you either convince them to change their mind or salvage what you have to work with. Maybe artists who worked on Concord really did try their best, but human resource / writers department really forced them to do it.
being a character design for concord should make you unhirable and make you get chastised from the industry. Designs that bad means they should be working in a restaurant, not in the gaming industry 😂 definitely model yourself and your ego to be NOTHING LIKE THEM, and good things will happen. I hope you the best, fam
You should never quit because you made a mistake, you should quit if you refuse to learn and treat a mistake as "unrecognized genius" and proceed to make more.
One of the people in the Concord Reddit really asked "why did Concord have to die, and Marvel Rivals gets to live?". I laughed my ass off. It's gone. No more ass.
I hate how there are people getting used to modern gaming slop that they'll look at Concord's characters and be like "Yeah, that's good.". Then wonder why it failed.
What I like about Magick's first and second design is where the focus or the attention of importance in the character. In the first design I immediately focused on the sword rather than the character, I think that it visualise that Magick isn't that dangerous compared to her sword. But when transformed into her alternate form all of my attention is on her and not the sword, the sword transformed into something darker it doesn't stand out like it used to and somehow Magick is more dangerous compared to her sword. It also helps that the sword is behind her, making her monstrous appearance stand out.
Having played the game a fair bit, I totally didn't realize how much I focused on her sword rather than Magik herself during my matches. Makes a lot of sense now.
No, there’s no way you could create designs that bad even in a few hours, a better example is these designs are what happens when the boss gives a brand new intern on her first day on the job an assignment at 15:30 on a Friday. And even then i think they still do a better job, this looks like they were designed by either an 8 year old who can’t use a computer, or a 75 year old who’s never played or seen a game before.
Honestly with how negative the concord community has been about marvel rivals, this video is well deserved. I wish the internet could just realize it’s okay to have different opinions, and that it’s okay to like things that are bad. There’s plenty of games that I enjoy that are considered bad by majority of players, and I know they’re bad lol.
Concord's character designs are interesting it's like a thought experiment on how to make characters unappealing and unexciting while not doing anything too crazy.
What makes this even more intriguing, is that the character designs in Concord's Episode from the "Secret Level" anthology series, did actually look fairly well (hell that entire Episode was surprisingly quite good in general). But that's probably becuase they were designed by actual artists and not people who only pretend to be them...
I saw some one on Twitter said: “there is no proof that MR is better than Concord”. I mean… the fact that one game is still thriving and manage to retain 90% of it playerbase after the honeymoon phase and the other is fucking dead is enough proof for that 😂
@@sungrandstudiosthat outfit was based on the House of X comic run, where Magneto would join other mutants in running a mutant nation on island of Krakoa. His outfit in that comic was plain white and kinda boring, the one in game managed to look a little more interesting. Also, that power button is a Krakoan alphabet letter "M", he also has it on his cape.
Also the key move these free to play buy the skin heroes games is to make the base costume close enough but not as cool as the classic look sou have to spend moms overtime to get purple magneto
I overall think the design is a bit bland, but still fitting and in character, since it’s meant to be very metallic, and the character is themed around magnets.
I will also mention since I'm working on my own game as well. your character design analysis videos have helped me understand better the importance of character design and color schemes.
Big Bertha vs Magneto: I understand your point of view and i can agree with Magneto one, however I would still choose him because looking at Big Bertha, I would presume she looks like an infected person in apocalypse world. Magneto may look antagonizing, but I trust him because he looks more human than Big Bertha.
I honestly think that's what they were going for. Like they were trying to come up with their own unique and pretentious style of characters and failed miserably. People like to say that the reason it failed was because none of the characters are conventionally attractive, but I think it comes down to the actual science of what's visually appealing to the eye. I'm straight, but a buff dude with cool armor on that has an interesting color scheme and design looks visually appealing to me still. People want heroes in these games to have some sense of style.
The worst part is that its a rad idea, Mad Max, Fallout, etc pull off this all the time. In comics you can sometime see "debut costumes" that made out of whatever hero or villain could find in their closet. But Concord suits didnt give the ~impression~ that it was a patchwork armor and not just some dollar-store generic trash. Executions was horrendous.
@@HaplessOne What makes those designs even worse, is that the producers of the "Secret Level" anthology series had to make a completely original Episode for Concord - and they stuck to that same idea, while working on their characters. Only they had actual artists working on it, who gave us designs that not only stand out, but also just look good in general, while being fairly simple...
The first time I saw the characters from Concord, my immediate assumption was that the character designers were trying to "subvert expectations" in their designs. Purposefully making their characters as ugly, unappealing, and outright harmful to the eyes as possible in order to be "different" and special. Another possibility I considered was that this is the end result of artists being told to redo character designs by execs who basically failed upwards. They probably started with decent designs, but were told they were too much like other things to to remake them. "Make them different, make them stand out, I don't want to see anything that anyone else would make."' - Some exec probably. And after dozens of iterations, the artists just gave up and slapped random stuff together. Trash cans, ornaments, R2D2 models, windbreakers, inflatable cushions, etc. Anything and everything they could slap on to the characters just to make the execs happy. After creating a blatantly horrifying character, the execs probably celebrated because it was so unique.
During the development of Concord, there was a "No negativity" policy when making the characters, thats why they look the way they do Watch a video from Big Boss, he made a good video on how the games was developed and what went wrong
Sometimes designers are just bad, and the Concord characters designs seem like an extension of the global homogenization art trend we've coming out of the leftist coastal cities for the last 10 years.
I liked the discussion about fidelity vs. expression. This made me wonder-- What do you think about the new "retro 3d" n64/ps1 art style that is in many indie games these days? I personally really like it.
I am VERY happy to see it. It means developers can feel comfortable focusing on making creative, interesting visuals and experiences instead of obsessing over hyperrealistic graphics.
I do like it but you have to remember that pixel art looked better back then because of CRT technology. It blends it better than what we can see on modern monitors. That's why it is advised to play retro games with some sort of CRT shader and some new games forget about it and dithering etc look just blocky.
@@IKvASSI feel like this mostly applies to 2D games (though I suppose you could argue PS1's unfiltered textures might) and not really 3D ones. The techniques back in the day of bilinear filtering and the N64's blurry "anti-aliasing" are artifacts that may have looked better on a CRT but we can replicate the art style faithfully still with modern filtering and anti aliasing techniques. I don't think the polygonal and low res texture aesthetics would look any better then than now on an HD display
I like your explanations, mr Dulay. As a professional character artist, I can add up one more point that puts Concord designs into unpleasant or awkward category. That is shape language. All of the characters utilise realistic shape language, the one that makes use of not just big/medium/small shapes but tiny shapes as well with heavy priority on the latter two. By itself it is quite a task to pull off. And if one manages to do so, the benefit will be highly detailed models and realistic (believable) graphics. And two things are at war with this concept: overly exagurated shapes (e.g. Just Jennifer`s shoes, NPC`s helmet, Hot Topic`s hat etc.) and bright or kitsch colours (pretty much every character). To illustrate my thought: take any Call of Duty character, resize one of their gear pieces into absurdly big and add some radically bright colours randomly. You will get exactly the same feeling.
I thought they were their real names lol. That’s how accurate the names were. I thought these characters were visually ironic so their names would be ironic.
"-So I'm playing this new game called Concord and I main Forehead and sometimes play as Tupperware. -Dude, are you OK? Is everything alright at home?" XD
When I got to Tom Bombadil I was like wait.. are these all made up? Cause up until then it all seemed just like something they would've named their characters.
Bro please make more analysis like this, I love learning from this kind of in-depth knowledge, most people teaching character design just go "make a unique silhouette and choose a good color palette" but you go into actual technical detail. Love that
I've never cared much about multiplayer shooter games, but looking through the roster of this game and others like _Overwatch_ and _League of Legends_ are rather fantastic, I have to admit. And I think they did a good job with Sue Storm and her alternate outfit that so many people got upset about, but was interestingly a bit toned down in the game.
There was some leaked early artwork for Concord and it wasn't bad. If those leaks are real, then there was at least one competent person at Firewalk Studios... and they didn't last long.
the more i see the concord designs again i'm reminded of what kind of twisted minds one must have to come up with such designs. I would never want to meet such people in real life.
I'll say, it's so weird that Concord has these contextless shots of its characters against such a blank backdrop. For a game where a very specific art aesthetic led to these characters why isn't it included as a backdrop to help provide context and setting that might actually help its characters pop? Like I've seen some more interesting half char view data cards of the characters, but no, the majority of character artwork is against this blank void.
The heroes of Marvel comics were inspired by entrepreneurs, scientists, explorers, adventurers and athletes. Near as I can figure, the entire released Concord cast are developer self inserts. Can actually tell who their Professor was (Haymark) in game with the face overlay. I guarantee there would be a warmer reception if Idris Elba was introduced first.
What Rivals does well is tell you what the character is and what they do, before you get into your first match with them. The character design expresses the character in such a good way.
I literally seen the thumbnail and said oh we gana go hard roasting these characters choices. Then jumped immediately to the point of the thumbnail where you said. You know what I got to make this video.
I just want to say that your point about fidelity is something I have been arguing for a long time now in regards to Bethesda Game Studios, specifically. It seems that they have traded intelligently designed features, characters and narratives for fidelity. I find that the way that BGS markets their products proves this: there is an emphasis on fidelity rather than player agency and gameplay to appeal to the more casual market. "16 times the detail." - Todd Howard
From what I understand for Magneto, the symbol on his crotch is probably krakoan which is a part of mutant culture and that culture is very important to Magneto which is why he would have it on display. The only reasons I can think of for the metal buttons is either to get the player to think Vanguard like Thor, or it is meant to distribute the circle shape throughout his suit that appears prominently as the metal ring behind him that he uses for projectiles. The lack of colours is likely to emphasise that his clothes are made of metal, though it definitely needed more red and colour break-up.
I have never in my life finished a 1 hour video about character design but dang you are entertaining! Learned so much and enjoyed the video at the same time. Keep up the good work!
I remember when you said you weren't going to make another Concord video. I guess the game was so good that it's relevant even after it's death. And yes i do enjoy Marvel Rivals, it even cured my Overwatch addiction. Keep making great content Mister Jerrel!
Well, people seem to keep attacking Marvel Rivals and demanding that it fails. This is the right time to address the topic from an educational perspective. The Rivals designs are enjoyable to take a look at.
Yeah, we shouldn't judge, but anyone that believes that the concord designs are better? lets just say if we we're outside they said it was raining, I would still look up to check because their opinions are that suspect. Anyways, glad you are doing this. Was the original break down of designs that got me subscribed in the first place.
What you seem to be missing is that with near absolute accuracy, the color palette of all characters are the same as the League of Extraordinary Mental Illness flag. They inserted the motif into every single character. Go look at the Freeze alts in SSKtJL. They were far more obvious about it, but the same hodgepodge goofiness was practiced there. Once you notice it, you cannot un-notice it. Always remember: The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.
yes i couldnt stop thinking that these concord designs are like a look into the mind of a queer person. Its like how queer people use the meme "all poisonous frogs have many bright colors to ward off predators." And the concord designs feel exactly like that, all the things we find appealing removed and many unnapealing elements are added to ward us away, as if were the predators in their eyes.
The symbol on Magneto's belt is a Krakoan word from the latest paradigm/status quo change of the X-Men during their revival series through the Powers/House of X storyarc. I can't remember what it means, but it's the now "native" language of all mutants and only they can read and communicate it.
the artists involved in creating the "hot topic" design, i'd like to hear what their thought process was, considering how much money and years it cost to develop concord
Not so hot take: Developers who try to force us to accept ugly characters do so because they simply lack the talent/creativity to make appealing characters. They want praise/rewards/acknowledgement as if they made you a Sonic, Mario, Final fantasy, or even marvel rivals character when in reality, they aren't and never will be talented enough to design a character worth that kind of praise.
Inability/ineptitude will NEVER be accepted. The only time it was "accepted" was in the last of us pt.2. Naughty dog tried to get away with it again with intergalactic and gamers already resent it. Ugly characters=Terrible character designers and that will not be tolerated. Also, ugly characters almost always mean the game will have an agenda, further making gamers resent the idea of settling their standards for these games because those games only gets worse from the start.
@@BTRshow i dont believe that its because of lack of talent. I think making an ugly 3d model is harder than making an attractive one. For the simple fact that the atractive character is symetrical and slim, while making a "realistic" imperfect human body with its bumps and fats and wrinkles is harder and needs additional work. Going out of your way to add additional undesirable things to the model screams something something body positivity self validation stuff. A counter point could be made to my argument - that the models are just made based 3d scans of normal people, then they can easily get the imperfect "ugly" normal human bodies.
Brother Jerrel your suit collection is crazy. This one makes me think of the 70's, the one you had on the other day made me think of Victorian England. What is your favorite style of suit, and would you ever do a video showing some of them?
I googled "Concorde Forehead" to see how bad her other outfits were - but I exclusively got pictures of the plane's cockpit from a frontal view 😂 These characters man - realy setting the world on fire...
Pretty sure it’s to evok a feeling of cold dead iron that reflects his personality of being master of magnetism which includes iron and the cold and dead parts to show his villainous nature
Another great video Jerel! I think an ugly design isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but it is still important to make your characters likeable. Also, thank you for breaking down the fundamentals in design to us laymen. There's so much that the average person doesn't know. This was very educational!
reaching starlord and starizard i spontaneously understood the design philosophy of concord. They tried to do Anti heroes who don't comply to social norms. They went above and beyond.
So you say those anti heroes in concord are on bar with Loki, Punisher, Moon Knight, Wanda in term of design? Bro, that was not above and beyond cause they went straight to hell
Big Bertha turning out to be a part of Magneto's villain origin story was not in my 2025 Bingo Card. Jokes aside, I think my biggest nitpick with Jaguar's character designs (particularly the models) is pretty much all of them seem like they're made by someone who just recently got into 3D sculpting. Their suits mostly look squishy, there's very little geometric shapes that resemble solid armour or machinery aside from their guns, and the intestines-like shapes really make me think of when I first tried on 3D sculpting and I just randomly ran the sculpt brush around a multi-res mesh to make "details", hoping that if it looked "complex" enough, it would look decent. Like, something tells me these characters probably didn't even go through the multiple process of early design drafts before they got green lit to be put into the game.
Oooh I love these character analysis videos of character designs, I'm not sure if you've ever looked into the Hellblade series, but they have some awesome character designs, my own opinion on those designs is it reflects the era and world it's in and in a way her designs kinda reflects her mental anguish, the game itself is thematically dark, and some don't even call it a game as it's focus is more on narrative and exploration with minimal combat, but I don't think that assessment is really fair, but I love how Senua's character (in the game) beautifully fits its world with its character design, I hope all I've said makes sense, if the game does pique your interest her character is phenomenally well designed and would love your opinion should you ever spot the chance to look into it, love what you've covered in this video, and as always, love the suits you wear, take care until the next video
If I remeber right, Stranges outfit in the game is mainly based on his marvel now where he didn't have the cape, and he wasnt the Sorcerer supreme. So the red belt on the black outfit is meant to invoke his cape but show this is a darker more rough strange.
Magneto's colors are such a weird choice in Rivals, his red and purple design is pretty iconic, why go with a generic metallic color, they could at least do the thing you did, add just a bit more color on his "pants", maybe the sleeves, basically the undercoat should've been that blood red color, and keep the Greaves, Gauntlets and Chest Armor metallic. It would've been such good layering of colors, highlighting the metallic parts
The armor of that particular Magneto is focused on gray tones to highlight his advanced age. That's why there's so little red-it’s because his armor has faded over time, or at least that’s what I think. 23:33
The first 15 minutes made me remember high school when an example spawned countless other questions and the teacher just had to sigh and move on or the class would never end. xD But it also made me remember months ago, when a friend of mine was grading some test (high school test with open folders) and the students still got the answers wrong. You can see him like 14:31 with the same reaction. I'll watch the rest of the video tomorrow, but the first 30 minutes already make my night (?
My knee jerk response over the start was to complain about it being unnecessary to be so bluntly talking down, but then I remembered just who we're actually talking about, and then I realized it really IS. And I cry, because even this might not be blunt enough to get the point across.
@@aboynamed666 Basically caring more about politically pandering to an audience that has never once existed via by way of making the characters look “realistic” and in-tune with “modern day sensibilities” aka it’s woke.
As someone who loves goth/metal aesthetics, as soon as you showed Magik i was like "😍!!! Omg i love her!" I think they did a great job with that aesthetic, I'd play as her for sure! WHOAA THE DEMON FORM!!! 🤯
2:22 I hope more people could be like you and I. Understanding the human subjectivity involved in evaluation and estimation of pieces of art and/or media is unfortunately not something everyone possesses. Thank you for tirelessly relaying this message to the audience!
I have to say this was actually really helpful. Like, I can tell if a character design is good or bad but not necessarily the why. That concept about evocation is probably the most helpful to me. I have noticed that people take things away from my work that I didn't intend and I now know the reason. There's something that I added whether intentional or not that evoked a particular feeling or thought. I love learning new concepts like this because it allows me to have more control over what I make and add far more intention.
I really enjoyed this video and found it very educational, I hope we can see more videos like these comparing between a successful game and a one that failed in the same genre even if it was in relation to gameplay or any other facet of the game itself. I personally would love to see a video similar to this on gacha games or games that sell skins where the main selling point is the character design itself.
Mr, you should be giving lectures :) I mean, these vids pretty much are lectures, talking about the fidelity vs artistic expression bit for instance, but you got a LOT of valuable wisdom to share with an audience willing to listen *points to himself* :)
I appreciate that. I stepped away from lectures, speeches and training so I can focus on my own game development. I will resume those jobs now since it seems the industry is in need and people have been asking me for lectures and speeches.
The Concord color palette looks like it is was created when the designers were standing in line at an ice cream bar that had lots of flavors but no toppings.
4 dislikes? The entire Concord playerbase is out in full force on this one
This is a top comment contender. 👌🏼
@@apex_prey thanks
@jonklemenc although you you did misspell "entire." 🫣
@@apex_prey oh thanks, I didn't notice 😅 (it should be fixed now)
No way, all four concord players are hating on this???
Life is ugly enough, we don't need ugliness forced into our escapism.
@@luvr381
And thus, such stuff like Concord is WHY escapism even exists at all.
To balance out the bad stuff like Concord with the good stuff like Marvel Rivals.
Yeah but we don’t need to coomer all the time either.
@@WolfWood893 Yes we do.
@@crowbar_the_skull What a sad sad existence no better than our chimps cousins. You know every guy has had their way with squirrel girl right?
@@crowbar_the_skull squirrel girl is a no better than condom when everyone is cooming to her.
That cocomelon threat was the most threatening ive seen you 🤣🤣
Hahahaha
Cocomelon?!
@@zhaohuangsfm An animated baby show. A really bad one at that; oversaturated addictive garbage.
@@Craig_Tucker48 Yeah... Cocomelon. I don't like Cocomelon but I still meme it
@@Craig_Tucker48 that comparison reminds me of the most dreadful of "baby pop" in the 90s. One that soured the taste of music to me as a child...
So I know that the threat of cocomelon is a sincere threat. A due measured one at that.
As a digital artist and graphic designer, I started playing Marvel Rivals BECAUSE the way the characters look.
If I had designed the Concord characters, I would choose, out of shame, to never work in design ever again.
As an artist myself I would agree that it would feel absolutely horrible to be Concord Character Designer and getting that feedback. But truth be told it's hard to screw up so consistently on your own, especially if you work in such a huge industry with lots of competition. I would assume that people who literally make tons of money working professionally at least know what they are doing to some degree.
Maybe it's not on the artist specifically but input from their coworkers/management. As someone who does commission work - sometimes commissioner wants details/ additions to the art, color, anatomy, pose etc changes that you know from your personal experience don't really work. Or you know YOU can't make look good. So you either convince them to change their mind or salvage what you have to work with. Maybe artists who worked on Concord really did try their best, but human resource / writers department really forced them to do it.
You can't succeed without failure
LMFAO
being a character design for concord should make you unhirable and make you get chastised from the industry. Designs that bad means they should be working in a restaurant, not in the gaming industry 😂 definitely model yourself and your ego to be NOTHING LIKE THEM, and good things will happen. I hope you the best, fam
You should never quit because you made a mistake, you should quit if you refuse to learn and treat a mistake as "unrecognized genius" and proceed to make more.
One of the people in the Concord Reddit really asked "why did Concord have to die, and Marvel Rivals gets to live?". I laughed my ass off. It's gone. No more ass.
RIP ass.
I hate how there are people getting used to modern gaming slop that they'll look at Concord's characters and be like "Yeah, that's good.". Then wonder why it failed.
They're mad cause marvel rivals proves its not hero shooter fatigue that killed their game but the game itself
Are you enjoying Marvel Rivals? Which characters are you playing?
Oh, I’m maining as one of the characters…
I think this one character is rather…fantastic, you can say?
Been using Peni Parker personally.
Love the game.
I don't play it since I had no platform such as PC or PS or XBOX. But...
AGAIN!
I'm a Captain America, Mister Fantastic, and C&D/Mantis main.
I downloaded it, but haven't tried it yet. I'm not a fan of live service obviously, but I'm going to play it a bit.
What I like about Magick's first and second design is where the focus or the attention of importance in the character. In the first design I immediately focused on the sword rather than the character, I think that it visualise that Magick isn't that dangerous compared to her sword. But when transformed into her alternate form all of my attention is on her and not the sword, the sword transformed into something darker it doesn't stand out like it used to and somehow Magick is more dangerous compared to her sword. It also helps that the sword is behind her, making her monstrous appearance stand out.
That's a great observation! Thank you for sharing that.
Having played the game a fair bit, I totally didn't realize how much I focused on her sword rather than Magik herself during my matches. Makes a lot of sense now.
Those Concord designs are like when the boss gives you a last minute assignment at 3:30pm on a Friday.
The concord designs are of a toxic positivity that never redos or refines character designs
😂😂😂😂😂 spot on
no, these look like they spend 2 years designing each character, and everyday, the designing team rotates to place 1 thing they like.
No, there’s no way you could create designs that bad even in a few hours, a better example is these designs are what happens when the boss gives a brand new intern on her first day on the job an assignment at 15:30 on a Friday. And even then i think they still do a better job, this looks like they were designed by either an 8 year old who can’t use a computer, or a 75 year old who’s never played or seen a game before.
@@InfamyOrDeath-__- To be fair, I'm positive that my hypothetical design would've been even worse.
That suit exudes class & quality. This man is on another level.
Suits, he is cooking. ^^
It exudes 1960s communist eastern bloc.
I wish I could pull off wearing a suit at all times in any setting like he does.
Reminds me of the Joker.
Thought it was a bathrobe.
Honestly with how negative the concord community has been about marvel rivals, this video is well deserved. I wish the internet could just realize it’s okay to have different opinions, and that it’s okay to like things that are bad. There’s plenty of games that I enjoy that are considered bad by majority of players, and I know they’re bad lol.
'concord', 'community' lol
@@klammyvagikarp7578i was surprised they have an active subreddit as well. Lol
Where were the concord fans when the firewalk fell?
Does Concord even have a community?
sounds reasonable, but at the end of the day, if you tend to like things most people find disgusting, you're not "different" - you're just distasteful
Concord's character designs are interesting it's like a thought experiment on how to make characters unappealing and unexciting while not doing anything too crazy.
It is a fascinating case study, isn't it?
What makes this even more intriguing, is that the character designs in Concord's Episode from the "Secret Level" anthology series, did actually look fairly well (hell that entire Episode was surprisingly quite good in general).
But that's probably becuase they were designed by actual artists and not people who only pretend to be them...
I saw some one on Twitter said: “there is no proof that MR is better than Concord”. I mean… the fact that one game is still thriving and manage to retain 90% of it playerbase after the honeymoon phase and the other is fucking dead is enough proof for that 😂
But the 3 people that liked Concord still exists and think marvel rivals is trash
Retain? Rivals peaked at like 140% of the launch players like this last week. It GAINED players!
I think the red addition to the Magneto suit improved the overall look immediately.
I'm a fan of the 90s character looks so I like seeing them with more color.
@@sungrandstudiosthat outfit was based on the House of X comic run, where Magneto would join other mutants in running a mutant nation on island of Krakoa. His outfit in that comic was plain white and kinda boring, the one in game managed to look a little more interesting. Also, that power button is a Krakoan alphabet letter "M", he also has it on his cape.
"crotch power button" 😹😹
Also the key move these free to play buy the skin heroes games is to make the base costume close enough but not as cool as the classic look sou have to spend moms overtime to get purple magneto
I overall think the design is a bit bland, but still fitting and in character, since it’s meant to be very metallic, and the character is themed around magnets.
Master class in shade. You never fail to entertain mate.
Thank you for enjoying the videos!
I will also mention since I'm working on my own game as well. your character design analysis videos have helped me understand better the importance of character design and color schemes.
That's great! Do share your game too.
And don't forget silhouette, that can be very important too, if you have a cast of characters. TF2 would be a prime example.
Big Bertha vs Magneto: I understand your point of view and i can agree with Magneto one, however I would still choose him because looking at Big Bertha, I would presume she looks like an infected person in apocalypse world. Magneto may look antagonizing, but I trust him because he looks more human than Big Bertha.
Whoa, you are right. She does look like an infected zombie or something.
@@sungrandstudios And it actually a first time i seen a character that almost make me threw up.
The pustules... daddy Nurgle approves
Big Bertha is just a Nurgle chaos space marine
Ohhhh I see it.
With the all the exposed intestines that Papa Nurgle demands!
The gift of the Grandfather: cooties
Big Bertha could be a good tank actually ngl
real i had the same thought
why does concord use those weird ass intestines texture
Those Concord designs look like they intentionally made them look patchwork, like those characters had to outfit themselves from the trash.
I honestly think that's what they were going for. Like they were trying to come up with their own unique and pretentious style of characters and failed miserably. People like to say that the reason it failed was because none of the characters are conventionally attractive, but I think it comes down to the actual science of what's visually appealing to the eye. I'm straight, but a buff dude with cool armor on that has an interesting color scheme and design looks visually appealing to me still. People want heroes in these games to have some sense of style.
The worst part is that its a rad idea, Mad Max, Fallout, etc pull off this all the time. In comics you can sometime see "debut costumes" that made out of whatever hero or villain could find in their closet. But Concord suits didnt give the ~impression~ that it was a patchwork armor and not just some dollar-store generic trash. Executions was horrendous.
They needed to study the "Derelicte" fashion movement (Zoolander)
@@HaplessOne
What makes those designs even worse, is that the producers of the "Secret Level" anthology series had to make a completely original Episode for Concord - and they stuck to that same idea, while working on their characters.
Only they had actual artists working on it, who gave us designs that not only stand out, but also just look good in general, while being fairly simple...
The first time I saw the characters from Concord, my immediate assumption was that the character designers were trying to "subvert expectations" in their designs. Purposefully making their characters as ugly, unappealing, and outright harmful to the eyes as possible in order to be "different" and special.
Another possibility I considered was that this is the end result of artists being told to redo character designs by execs who basically failed upwards. They probably started with decent designs, but were told they were too much like other things to to remake them.
"Make them different, make them stand out, I don't want to see anything that anyone else would make."' - Some exec probably.
And after dozens of iterations, the artists just gave up and slapped random stuff together. Trash cans, ornaments, R2D2 models, windbreakers, inflatable cushions, etc. Anything and everything they could slap on to the characters just to make the execs happy. After creating a blatantly horrifying character, the execs probably celebrated because it was so unique.
Given how smug and arrogant they were acting on twitter, I wouldn't be so sure.
During the development of Concord, there was a "No negativity" policy when making the characters, thats why they look the way they do
Watch a video from Big Boss, he made a good video on how the games was developed and what went wrong
Sometimes designers are just bad, and the Concord characters designs seem like an extension of the global homogenization art trend we've coming out of the leftist coastal cities for the last 10 years.
@@VincentTehlaTbh there should've been some negativity at least
Not upset but mind tossing me a cocomelon link? This juice box and mozzarella stick isn't gonna finish itself
I've actually never even seen a cocomelon video. If you're taking a mozzarella stick break then I'll take one now too.
Now I feel like going to the store for mozzarella sticks and capri suns lmaooo
Hey, Jerrel. Congratulations on your unintentionally gained milestone. You deserve it dude.
Hahaha thank you for that. We all earned it together as a team.
I liked the discussion about fidelity vs. expression. This made me wonder-- What do you think about the new "retro 3d" n64/ps1 art style that is in many indie games these days? I personally really like it.
I am VERY happy to see it. It means developers can feel comfortable focusing on making creative, interesting visuals and experiences instead of obsessing over hyperrealistic graphics.
@@sungrandstudios With Pseudoregalia being one of my favorites N64 looking games
I do like it but you have to remember that pixel art looked better back then because of CRT technology. It blends it better than what we can see on modern monitors. That's why it is advised to play retro games with some sort of CRT shader and some new games forget about it and dithering etc look just blocky.
@@sungrandstudiosI would love to see you talk about some of the designs in the souls games
@@IKvASSI feel like this mostly applies to 2D games (though I suppose you could argue PS1's unfiltered textures might) and not really 3D ones. The techniques back in the day of bilinear filtering and the N64's blurry "anti-aliasing" are artifacts that may have looked better on a CRT but we can replicate the art style faithfully still with modern filtering and anti aliasing techniques. I don't think the polygonal and low res texture aesthetics would look any better then than now on an HD display
I like your explanations, mr Dulay.
As a professional character artist, I can add up one more point that puts Concord designs into unpleasant or awkward category. That is shape language.
All of the characters utilise realistic shape language, the one that makes use of not just big/medium/small shapes but tiny shapes as well with heavy priority on the latter two. By itself it is quite a task to pull off. And if one manages to do so, the benefit will be highly detailed models and realistic (believable) graphics.
And two things are at war with this concept: overly exagurated shapes (e.g. Just Jennifer`s shoes, NPC`s helmet, Hot Topic`s hat etc.) and bright or kitsch colours (pretty much every character).
To illustrate my thought: take any Call of Duty character, resize one of their gear pieces into absurdly big and add some radically bright colours randomly. You will get exactly the same feeling.
Well said. Very astute. Thank you for sharing that.
Great observation
"Marshmallow Armor" all I thought of was demolition man with the foam safety car collision system.
😂😂
I thought of the Stay Puft Marshmallow man.
Your names for the Concord characters are killin me, haha.
Headcanon is the most important canon.
I thought they were their real names lol. That’s how accurate the names were.
I thought these characters were visually ironic so their names would be ironic.
Concord’s character make me depressed. I think the designer might have MDD or something
"-So I'm playing this new game called Concord and I main Forehead and sometimes play as Tupperware.
-Dude, are you OK? Is everything alright at home?"
XD
When I got to Tom Bombadil I was like wait.. are these all made up? Cause up until then it all seemed just like something they would've named their characters.
Bro please make more analysis like this, I love learning from this kind of in-depth knowledge, most people teaching character design just go "make a unique silhouette and choose a good color palette" but you go into actual technical detail. Love that
I love how you found a way to make Concord character designs perfect. They are perfect to use as an example of what not to do.
I demand my coco melon link video. lol
😂
I've never cared much about multiplayer shooter games, but looking through the roster of this game and others like _Overwatch_ and _League of Legends_ are rather fantastic, I have to admit. And I think they did a good job with Sue Storm and her alternate outfit that so many people got upset about, but was interestingly a bit toned down in the game.
I haven't played Rivals since I don't really play hero shooters but GOT DAMN the character design is great
You can start off playing games VS AI and the game is free, might as well give it a go
I will never believe that a single competent artist worked on Concord and there's nothing anyone can do to convince me there was.
There was some leaked early artwork for Concord and it wasn't bad. If those leaks are real, then there was at least one competent person at Firewalk Studios... and they didn't last long.
the more i see the concord designs again i'm reminded of what kind of twisted minds one must have to come up with such designs. I would never want to meet such people in real life.
I'll say, it's so weird that Concord has these contextless shots of its characters against such a blank backdrop. For a game where a very specific art aesthetic led to these characters why isn't it included as a backdrop to help provide context and setting that might actually help its characters pop? Like I've seen some more interesting half char view data cards of the characters, but no, the majority of character artwork is against this blank void.
The heroes of Marvel comics were inspired by entrepreneurs, scientists, explorers, adventurers and athletes.
Near as I can figure, the entire released Concord cast are developer self inserts. Can actually tell who their Professor was (Haymark) in game with the face overlay.
I guarantee there would be a warmer reception if Idris Elba was introduced first.
What Rivals does well is tell you what the character is and what they do, before you get into your first match with them. The character design expresses the character in such a good way.
Absolutely right.
This was really cool and I hope we get even more content looking into Marvel Rivals designs, thank you and have a good day!
I literally seen the thumbnail and said oh we gana go hard roasting these characters choices.
Then jumped immediately to the point of the thumbnail where you said. You know what I got to make this video.
I just want to say that your point about fidelity is something I have been arguing for a long time now in regards to Bethesda Game Studios, specifically. It seems that they have traded intelligently designed features, characters and narratives for fidelity. I find that the way that BGS markets their products proves this: there is an emphasis on fidelity rather than player agency and gameplay to appeal to the more casual market.
"16 times the detail." - Todd Howard
It seems we feel similarly on the topic.
In regards to Magneto, I would prefer the classic purple cloak, boots, and trim.
I love hearing your thoughts about good and bad character designs, I learn a few new things too.
Thank you for watching. I'm glad the video was interesting.
The first character on the left. The trim around the belly area resembles male anatomy.
Oh noooooo!
Kinda off topic but was wondering if you have seen the Secret Level 40K animation....It's incredible. Right up there with Astartes.
I haven't seen it. I'll take a look, thanks!
@@sungrandstudios it has concord in it lmao
@@sungrandstudios it's really good 👍
"... we have a hoodie ..." was the moment I lost it.
I also lost it there too.
Comparing the design of a green teletubby to Black Widow was not fair
All the designs won't even be close to black widow in good design
From what I understand for Magneto, the symbol on his crotch is probably krakoan which is a part of mutant culture and that culture is very important to Magneto which is why he would have it on display. The only reasons I can think of for the metal buttons is either to get the player to think Vanguard like Thor, or it is meant to distribute the circle shape throughout his suit that appears prominently as the metal ring behind him that he uses for projectiles. The lack of colours is likely to emphasise that his clothes are made of metal, though it definitely needed more red and colour break-up.
That makes sense. Thanks for sharing that.
I always end these videos feeling so calm and relaxed.
Just Jennifer looks like someone is cosplaying a diaper wearing celery . 🤣🤣
Hahaha what a description.
I have never in my life finished a 1 hour video about character design but dang you are entertaining! Learned so much and enjoyed the video at the same time. Keep up the good work!
you know it gets real when he pulls out the joker suit
Lol, this guy is a beast! That intro was savage! The whole video is... ***chef kiss***
I remember when you said you weren't going to make another Concord video. I guess the game was so good that it's relevant even after it's death. And yes i do enjoy Marvel Rivals, it even cured my Overwatch addiction. Keep making great content Mister Jerrel!
I think it is because there is actually a Concord subreddit that was talking bad about the character designs in Marvel Rivals.
Well, people seem to keep attacking Marvel Rivals and demanding that it fails. This is the right time to address the topic from an educational perspective. The Rivals designs are enjoyable to take a look at.
Concord is a case study.
The just Jen bit killed me 🤣💀 Love your videos as always Jerrel, keep being you!
Yeah, we shouldn't judge, but anyone that believes that the concord designs are better? lets just say if we we're outside they said it was raining, I would still look up to check because their opinions are that suspect.
Anyways, glad you are doing this. Was the original break down of designs that got me subscribed in the first place.
What you seem to be missing is that with near absolute accuracy, the color palette of all characters are the same as the League of Extraordinary Mental Illness flag. They inserted the motif into every single character. Go look at the Freeze alts in SSKtJL. They were far more obvious about it, but the same hodgepodge goofiness was practiced there. Once you notice it, you cannot un-notice it.
Always remember: The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.
yes i couldnt stop thinking that these concord designs are like a look into the mind of a queer person. Its like how queer people use the meme "all poisonous frogs have many bright colors to ward off predators." And the concord designs feel exactly like that, all the things we find appealing removed and many unnapealing elements are added to ward us away, as if were the predators in their eyes.
The symbol on Magneto's belt is a Krakoan word from the latest paradigm/status quo change of the X-Men during their revival series through the Powers/House of X storyarc. I can't remember what it means, but it's the now "native" language of all mutants and only they can read and communicate it.
Bro, your reactions about the Char design was hilarious lol, good video, a very good explanation with a cool suit for this ocasion
I just started playing Marvel Rivels this weekend. I love it so much.
I'll try it soon too! It looks awesome.
"Never put hot lime on soft lime"
woah this is good advice
How the heck do I know that the obese character is a healer?
@@verysadcatc7897 you'd think a healer would be healthy
if your dedicated healers aren't hot babes, 99% of the time you're doing it wrong.
@logandunlap9156 disagree healers should just be fashionable as hell being a hot babe is just a plus
Those disclaimers in the intro, you earned my like and subscription 😂👍🏼
The Concord characters looks like they raided a second hand shop in a furious rush, basically grabbing what was near.
the artists involved in creating the "hot topic" design, i'd like to hear what their thought process was, considering how much money and years it cost to develop concord
I bet "The Professor" screeched something like this at this at the (already apathetic) designers and artists: "METH CHIC! REEEEE! MORE METH CHIC!"
Great video! I always love the design breakdowns, I appreciate the fact that you take the time to tell people that it's okay to disagree.
I think anyone that does not understand why concord failed but marvel rivals succeeds should automatically be classified as legally blind.
or willfully ignorant
Your deadpan humor is top notch man, very entertaining vid
Not so hot take: Developers who try to force us to accept ugly characters do so because they simply lack the talent/creativity to make appealing characters. They want praise/rewards/acknowledgement as if they made you a Sonic, Mario, Final fantasy, or even marvel rivals character when in reality, they aren't and never will be talented enough to design a character worth that kind of praise.
Inability/ineptitude will NEVER be accepted. The only time it was "accepted" was in the last of us pt.2. Naughty dog tried to get away with it again with intergalactic and gamers already resent it. Ugly characters=Terrible character designers and that will not be tolerated. Also, ugly characters almost always mean the game will have an agenda, further making gamers resent the idea of settling their standards for these games because those games only gets worse from the start.
@@BTRshow i dont believe that its because of lack of talent. I think making an ugly 3d model is harder than making an attractive one. For the simple fact that the atractive character is symetrical and slim, while making a "realistic" imperfect human body with its bumps and fats and wrinkles is harder and needs additional work.
Going out of your way to add additional undesirable things to the model screams something something body positivity self validation stuff.
A counter point could be made to my argument - that the models are just made based 3d scans of normal people, then they can easily get the imperfect "ugly" normal human bodies.
Even the simple message about art and communication vs. fidelity is something that many have forgotten. Excellent video.
Brother Jerrel your suit collection is crazy. This one makes me think of the 70's, the one you had on the other day made me think of Victorian England. What is your favorite style of suit, and would you ever do a video showing some of them?
That would be a good idea. My favorite style of suit is from between the 60s and 70s. I've just ordered a new suit from a tailor.
@@sungrandstudios Nice!
@@sungrandstudios i feel like you're on a first name basis with a bunch of tailors haha
I googled "Concorde Forehead" to see how bad her other outfits were - but I exclusively got pictures of the plane's cockpit from a frontal view 😂
These characters man - realy setting the world on fire...
You're 100% right about Magneto being the worst design in the characters. Even a little more color made it better.
I'm sure they had some thought process behind the default Magneto design. I wonder what their reasoning is.
@@sungrandstudios His Alternate costume in the store is fantastic imo, wish it was the default.
Pretty sure it’s to evok a feeling of cold dead iron that reflects his personality of being master of magnetism which includes iron and the cold and dead parts to show his villainous nature
Another great video Jerel! I think an ugly design isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but it is still important to make your characters likeable. Also, thank you for breaking down the fundamentals in design to us laymen. There's so much that the average person doesn't know. This was very educational!
reaching starlord and starizard i spontaneously understood the design philosophy of concord. They tried to do Anti heroes who don't comply to social norms. They went above and beyond.
More like below and behind. XD
yeah but most anti-heroes are cool. even shrek is a cooler anti-hero at a glance than these guys
So you say those anti heroes in concord are on bar with Loki, Punisher, Moon Knight, Wanda in term of design? Bro, that was not above and beyond cause they went straight to hell
Big Bertha turning out to be a part of Magneto's villain origin story was not in my 2025 Bingo Card.
Jokes aside, I think my biggest nitpick with Jaguar's character designs (particularly the models) is pretty much all of them seem like they're made by someone who just recently got into 3D sculpting. Their suits mostly look squishy, there's very little geometric shapes that resemble solid armour or machinery aside from their guns, and the intestines-like shapes really make me think of when I first tried on 3D sculpting and I just randomly ran the sculpt brush around a multi-res mesh to make "details", hoping that if it looked "complex" enough, it would look decent. Like, something tells me these characters probably didn't even go through the multiple process of early design drafts before they got green lit to be put into the game.
Would it be worth a video to go through Rivals vs Avengers (2019) models?
That may be a good idea. Thanks for the request. I will see how much time my work schedule leaves me for these videos.
@@sungrandstudios please do. its tiring to see that dei shills say that rivals is doing good just because of the marvel brand
Oooh I love these character analysis videos of character designs, I'm not sure if you've ever looked into the Hellblade series, but they have some awesome character designs, my own opinion on those designs is it reflects the era and world it's in and in a way her designs kinda reflects her mental anguish, the game itself is thematically dark, and some don't even call it a game as it's focus is more on narrative and exploration with minimal combat, but I don't think that assessment is really fair, but I love how Senua's character (in the game) beautifully fits its world with its character design, I hope all I've said makes sense, if the game does pique your interest her character is phenomenally well designed and would love your opinion should you ever spot the chance to look into it, love what you've covered in this video, and as always, love the suits you wear, take care until the next video
1:27 SO BASED LMAO OMG COOKED THEM, BURNT TO A CRISP 😭✨😭
When the suit goes on, I always know I’ll get very evenhanded but well deserved brutal comments.
@@Alberto-wu1mj EXACTLY I love him 😂
If I remeber right, Stranges outfit in the game is mainly based on his marvel now where he didn't have the cape, and he wasnt the Sorcerer supreme.
So the red belt on the black outfit is meant to invoke his cape but show this is a darker more rough strange.
uncle jerom, plese give link cocomelon, momy and daady busy
Magick does EXACTLY what you said, she has so many bright particle effects that they made her dark to contrast.
Can I still get that link… for my kid?
Hahaha
Magneto's colors are such a weird choice in Rivals, his red and purple design is pretty iconic, why go with a generic metallic color, they could at least do the thing you did, add just a bit more color on his "pants", maybe the sleeves, basically the undercoat should've been that blood red color, and keep the Greaves, Gauntlets and Chest Armor metallic.
It would've been such good layering of colors, highlighting the metallic parts
The armor of that particular Magneto is focused on gray tones to highlight his advanced age. That's why there's so little red-it’s because his armor has faded over time, or at least that’s what I think. 23:33
That pink alt outfit change was such a classy move 🎩
The first 15 minutes made me remember high school when an example spawned countless other questions and the teacher just had to sigh and move on or the class would never end. xD
But it also made me remember months ago, when a friend of mine was grading some test (high school test with open folders) and the students still got the answers wrong. You can see him like 14:31 with the same reaction.
I'll watch the rest of the video tomorrow, but the first 30 minutes already make my night (?
Thanks for the comment and sharing the fun memory!
I don’t care about the characters in this video
I really like your suit, it looks so fluffy and I love it!🗣️
My God man, you've beaten this dead horse so much you've turned it into pink slime and glue!
never
It's still moving a little
My knee jerk response over the start was to complain about it being unnecessary to be so bluntly talking down, but then I remembered just who we're actually talking about, and then I realized it really IS. And I cry, because even this might not be blunt enough to get the point across.
Lmfao the woke art is so bad
"woke art" ?
@@aboynamed666
Basically caring more about politically pandering to an audience that has never once existed via by way of making the characters look “realistic” and in-tune with “modern day sensibilities” aka it’s woke.
@@aboynamed666 don't pretend you don't know what he meant
@@aboynamed666 you cant handle his comment,imma right💀
bro roasted the whole online community with that intro respectfuly
Early gang rise up!
As someone who loves goth/metal aesthetics, as soon as you showed Magik i was like "😍!!! Omg i love her!"
I think they did a great job with that aesthetic, I'd play as her for sure!
WHOAA THE DEMON FORM!!! 🤯
2:22 I hope more people could be like you and I. Understanding the human subjectivity involved in evaluation and estimation of pieces of art and/or media is unfortunately not something everyone possesses. Thank you for tirelessly relaying this message to the audience!
I have to say this was actually really helpful. Like, I can tell if a character design is good or bad but not necessarily the why. That concept about evocation is probably the most helpful to me. I have noticed that people take things away from my work that I didn't intend and I now know the reason. There's something that I added whether intentional or not that evoked a particular feeling or thought. I love learning new concepts like this because it allows me to have more control over what I make and add far more intention.
It's great to hear from you. I am glad the video was helpful! I'll keep making videos like this so I can help more.
I like how you point it out the fact that BULK is holding his(their? Its?) weapon in a manner that nobody with weapons experience would.
I really enjoyed this video and found it very educational, I hope we can see more videos like these comparing between a successful game and a one that failed in the same genre even if it was in relation to gameplay or any other facet of the game itself. I personally would love to see a video similar to this on gacha games or games that sell skins where the main selling point is the character design itself.
Thanks for the feedback. I will keep that in mind for the future.
2 minutes in on my introduction (my first video watching you) and I already like this. That's a subscribe from me
I was so disappointed to not find a link to cocomelon in the description.😁😁
Hahaha
28:00 The hourglass refers mostly to the spider itself because black widows have a red hourglass on their abdomen.
Mr, you should be giving lectures :) I mean, these vids pretty much are lectures, talking about the fidelity vs artistic expression bit for instance, but you got a LOT of valuable wisdom to share with an audience willing to listen *points to himself* :)
I appreciate that. I stepped away from lectures, speeches and training so I can focus on my own game development. I will resume those jobs now since it seems the industry is in need and people have been asking me for lectures and speeches.
The Concord color palette looks like it is was created when the designers were standing in line at an ice cream bar that had lots of flavors but no toppings.