Design Notes: Gutshot, Gutslinger, Entrailgun
I wanted to make a line based on the Krasue or Penanggalan of Southeast Asian folklore for a long time. Similarly, these have been cooking in the oven for an extremely long time. Even by my standards of how long it takes to finish a fakemon line.
Naturally, I struggled with a hook to justify making a fakemon that is a severed head with organs hanging out. My most viable plan was a poison type siphonophore, a very "me" idea but still a copout. Then one day, I was spitballing names and trying to shoehorn words like "gut" "organ" "krasue" into portmanteaus. The name Entrailgun came into my mind like a message from on high, and everything was reverse engineered from that point.
The line became a three-stager because I wanted to use all three names I came up with. Gutshot and Gutslinger flowed too easily once I had the firearm connection.
As the line progresses, its assortment of viscera becomes larger and more detailed while the "rear canon" (which anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of anatomy can identify as the rectum and anus) upgrades from a pistol to a gattling gun to a sci-fi laser canon.
So yes, when it fires its rear canon, it is from a technical standpoint defecating. #RealShitters understand.
The hair on all three has patterning meant to evoke a brain. This culminates in Entrailgun having, uh...flesh folds that resemble not only a brain but also the Bride of Frankenstein's hairdo. This connection is present throughout, with the green skin and stitches. This is also why Entrailgun has glands on its neck like Frankenstein bolts.
I guess technically this counts as a Halloween fakemon then.
It also "grows up" as the line progresses, going from a small child with a bob cut to a teenager with long hair covering her face to a mature woman with a beehive hairdo.
The stitched mouths evoke shrunken heads, tying to the Southeast Asian roots.
I originally had more elaborate detailing on Entrailgun's "brain", but I decided to scale it back so the thing wouldn't be completely overdesigned. This is a huge reason why I still use 80x80 pixels as a soft guideline, it keeps me humble. Of course, some of my best designs are ones that are so intricate I had to go slightly over. The final canvas size for sprites (gen 5) was 96x96 anyway.
My original idea was to make Entrailgun's large intestine wrap around its small intestine like a bandolier, but that didn't pan out with how the small intestine ended up being shaped. And again, this is a really complex design, so I eventually opted for the simpler option. It loosely resembles a power cable going into the energy gun.
On the same note, Gutslinger's large intestine resembles an ammo belt.
Something something women's suffering
I can finally delete all the stuff in my reference image folder that makes me look like a serial killer!
