A while ago, I found an old sketch of a Fakemon I made, and I figured I'd try to redesign and reinterpret it to fit in with other monster-taming games! Some of the iterations have different names either to fit in with the game's naming scheme or because the design changed significantly. Redesigns and their respective games are listed below!
Pokémon:
I'm mostly happy with how this came out. That said, I probably didn't need a second set of highlights for most of the drawing, and I'd like to find a brush that looks more pencil-like for the line art. When I originally drew this guy, I wanted to put a twist on the more typical mimic-mon design by having it striking from boxes and crates instead of the now-expected Pokéballs.
Temtem:
This is probably one of the furthest abstractions from the original I've drawn so far. There don't seem to be any creatures in Temtem that are especially inorganic looking (even the Cyber types are cyborg-like), so I figured I'd model it after a garden eel since they basically behave like an organic jack-in-the-box.
Nexomon:
This was the first time I decided to change the name. To fit in with Nexomon's type system, I based the design off of the French name for Jack-in-the-boxes, "Diable en Boîte" (Devil in a Box". By the time this design was finished, I figured it didn't fit the name Jabbox anymore, so I changed it to "Seeldevil" (from "Sealed Evil" and "Devil").
Cassette Beasts:
This one was the most like the original in design and behavior. The real gimmick to this iteration is that it'd be the only naturally occurring Glitter type in the game, being partly based off of glitter bombs. I also wanted to change the fist-head to an abstracted peace sign to fit the game's overall vibe, and it calls back to the slapstick trope of poking someone's eyes out ala The Three Stooges. I may also make a sprite from this drawing complete with bootleg recolors!
Siralim:
This was the first sprite-based design I made. I leaned a little into the monster-clown motif here so it could fit in with Siralim's more brutal takes on monsters. Moreover, this will likely be only one of two or three designs to not have a portmanteau as a name. In lore, these creatures would be crafted from the severed arm of a lesser demon and a few arcane machine components, now doomed to serving as both a babysitter and as a living toy. Variants of this design will have to come at a much later date cause making one pixel art hand was bad enough, making 5-6 extra would've broken me.
Monster Crown:
Speaking of drawing more pixel art hands! I wanted to lean harder into the monster-clown flavor since the denizens of Monster Crown are much more violent in their behavior. Making this sprite was a fun challenge since I was limited to a 4-color palette, and I intend to make the five other variant forms at a later date to go along with the game's cross-breeding system.
Coromon:
This is the last design I've made for now. I was initially intimidated by the prospect of imitating Coromon's art style as it's not only detailed but also smoothly animated. After axing the idea of replicating the animation style, I felt more comfortable working on this sprite. The overall design is derived from a theory that the original jack-in-the-box was based on a folktale about a demon getting sealed in a boot. I also threw in a few Muppet-esque elements so it'd better fit its Normal typing. The head is shaped like a "Devil Horns" sign, with the actual horns serving as the fingers and the single paw in place of the thumb. Making the Potent and Perfect recolors should be a much easier process and will likely be the soonest of the variant sets to come out.
Other planned designs:
Digimon, Dragon Quest Monsters, Ni No Kuni, Yo-Kai Watch
Lemme know if there are any other monster tamers/creature collectors with unique styles I should tackle!
