For about 8 - 10 weeks, I had the rare (and frankly, awesome) opportunity to just go nuts. We didn’t have anyone on the team with any real experience in character development. I had my background in illustration, and I had done a tiny bit of character concept work at EA, but that was about it.
So I was basiically given free reign to brainstorm, explore, experiment, be creative, have fun, and see what I could come up with.
Something I did not have going in to this project was a creative brief. As a team, we were wandering into uncharted territory. So I adopted a “try everything you can think of and see what resonates” approach.
At day 1, all we were thinking was that “Polygon” might be a fun name for this character, and it stuck.
With that in mind, I set out to see if Polygon should be a geometric shape, a robot, some kind of animal (real or otherwise), or a person. And if Polygon was a person, is it male or female? Young or old? What’s his or her story?
What would Polygon represent? Is Polygon some sort of embodiment of our technology or products? Would Polygon be there as an insider to deliver system messages or answer your questions when something went wrong?
Or is Polygon one of us? A gamer who has just a little more behind-the-scenes knowledge of the products than the average person on the street? Should Polygon be just like us, someone we can all relate to? Or should Polygon be more of a hero figure, someone we all aspire to be as awesome as some day?
Ultimately, the idea of Polygon representing the kid inside all of us who still loves playing video games was the idea that felt most appealing.
Style explorations for Polygon character
In an effort to introduce a little bit of whimsy and personality to some of NVIDIA’s function-before-form gaming products, we attempt to create a unique character that can serve as the face of the brand.
“Polygon” Character Development