Roger Wilco, Reinvented

[deadsuperhero]

This is a concept sprite I've been working on for the past few hours. I wanted to try and redesign the "traditional" Roger Wilco (usually of the SQ4 variety) into a somewhat different character design.

Roger has always been depicted as something of an airhead, and a dork. The earlier Space Quest games actually showed Roger in a far more favorable light, while the later games seemed to treat Roger as a socially-inept character with only momentary bursts of higher thought.

I wanted to take a stab at creating a somewhat different idea behind who Roger Wilco is. Rather than make Roger stupid, I figured he'd be more fun as a character that is simply lazy and careless.

We have to ask ourselves: why is it that Roger ended up as a janitor? It's always assumed that Roger was stupid and only capable of cleaning tasks, but suppose it were for a different reason? Suppose Xenon was going through a recession by the time Roger got out of school, and Roger had chosen a Master's degree in Philosophy? Maybe he's only a janitor as a result of past mistakes, and doesn't have a way out.

So, without further ado, this is a re-imagining of Roger Wilco. He's clever, devilishly handsome, and a total smartass. He's also something of a slob.



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I have some cosmetic things to fix here and there (such as the far leg), but so far I really like how this came out. What do you guys think?

[Ghost]

The feet are terribly thin in the 3/4 side view, but apart from that I like the looks. Very faithful to the original, too.

I also agree that Roger has been reduced to an almost unbearable "airhead" in later games, when the first games often showed him having some competence. It got annoying to play someone who regularly saves the universe... but always messes up as soon as the player isn't actively controlling him. So best of luck with the "reinterpretation"!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

His posture and appearance don't portray 'handsome smartass' as much as a wary stance in the front view and a more slack one in the side views.  Also, nothing about the design would indicate he's handsome, so to try and maintain the image you're after while sticking more or less to your colors and dimensions I came up with this:

1.  Gave Roger a slightly smaller head and longer, more defined arms.

2.  Altered his posture to be more cocky.  He's got a more confident, upright stance now.

3.  Reduced some colors and altered the skin shades slightly to give them more contrast and bring them more towards pink rather than yellow.

4.  Added some superficial detail to his face to bring out some features as well as altered the boots slightly to make them a little less boring.







Ideally, I think you should ditch his traditional colors altogether and go with a more space-piratey or captain look if you want him to appear more confident.  Afterall, this is going to be your interpretation of the character and will probably not be immediately recognizable as Roger, anyway.

[deadsuperhero]

Thanks for the edit and the critique, Progz!

I played around with the posture more, and I think I've got him to more of a point that I'm happy with. He stands upright like a man now!

I also took some various lessons from the way you did your variant's face, especially with the coloring of the five-o-clock shadow. I think the shading is much improved now, after looking at how you did it.

I decided to go with a different face in the front view, ultimately. He kind of looks a little more like how I pictured him: sideburns, a goatee, a peak of hair that curls over in the front. Honestly, he looks a little bit like a stoner in this version, and I can't say that I'm at all displeased with this particular "I don't give a fuck about my job." Roger Wilco.

Anyway, a more summarized changelist:
-Adjusted posture and shading to make him look less like a fat, timid slacker.
-Altered the boots with Progz's paintover; it gives him a more "futuristic" look in my opinion.
-Made his legs closer in the side view. He just looked like he was slouching before.
-Added better outlining to his pants.
-Added some gold trim to his shoulders. This is somewhat reminiscent of the SQ6 Roger, as well as the SQ7 designs.



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On an unrelated note, scaling images in different browsers can really suck sometimes. I guess these look way better in Paint.

[Scorpio82]

Very nice design. I think the short-sleeves and the hands in his pockets sell it for me.

As a character, he always seemed to me as a regular blue-collar Joe with an unfortunate lot in life before the popularity of "Monkey Island" gradually evolved him into a wise-cracking buffoon with a gold of heart. Personally, I find he's one of the hardest characters to write, and almost every piece of fan-fiction has a different take on him.

In a way, he's the adventure game "every-man".