Mind Games

Narrow face, sharp cheekbones, she thought as she sketched. Long-lidded eyes, as green as the forest shadows. Tip them up a little at the outside corners, she decided. Another nod to the elf inside him.

She sketched the face straight on, in profile, drew the back of his head, and decided to layer on a braid over the shaggy, down the center.

As she finished a sketch, she pinned it to the board beside her desk, studied, went back to drawing.

Full-length, and she dressed him in mud-brown breeches, darker brown boots that folded over at the top just below mid-shin. The shirt—not quite a tunic—fell at his hips. She belted it, added a sword. After some debate she decided to color it green, like his eyes, like the forest shadows he could slip through all but unseen.

Sitting back, she stretched her cramping fingers and studied the dozen sketches on her board.

Maybe a tattoo. Biceps, shoulder blade, back of the hand? Not sure, she admitted. Should she add a thick leather bracelet, given to him by his elfin mother, as his human father forged his sword?

She didn’t only need his physical appearance, but his background, lineage, history, power points, and weaknesses to create a full character and detail it in the GDD.

Tye, son of Gregor the smith and Lia the elf. A warrior born, a wanderer looking for a battle, a cause, his place.

“Maybe, maybe, maybe. But I know one thing. You’re in love with Mila, the farm girl. Is that a problem for you? I think it is, at first. Should be fun for me.”

Time to start with the basics, she thought, and swiveled back to her computer to start the document.

As she worked in the blissful quiet, she heard someone coming up the stairs. Not Grammie—too heavy in the feet.

“Working, Rem,” she said without turning around.

“Yeah, and you’ve hogged the Den for about four hours.”

Hands in his pockets, he wandered over to her board. “Hey, who’s this? New guy? You know, he looks sort of familiar.”

She’d just keep the prototype to herself. It was a little embarrassing.

“Half human, half elf. Nomadic warrior and defender of Endon. Badass, romantic interest for Mila.”

“That’s cool. Look, we have to outline our strategy for the meeting tomorrow.”

“We need a strategy?”

“The fact you have to ask proves you need me.” He dropped onto the couch. “Take a break. First thing, tell me what you want, exactly what you want, so we can work toward getting it.”

“I’m already getting more than I expected.”

Legs stretched out, Rem crossed them at the ankles of his battered high-top Chucks.

“More proof you need me.”

When she gave up, saved her work, then swiveled around, he shot a finger at her. “What do you want, Thea? A job at Milken, sure, but what do you want to do?”

“I want to design games, like I’m trying to do now. And I want to develop them.”

“What’s the difference?”

She sent him the pitying look only one sibling could give another. “The fact that you ask proves you don’t know enough about the industry.”

“So educate me. Give me a thumbnail.”

“Fine. The designer, that’s … like an architect. They draw the blueprint. The idea, the concept comes there, the creative process of designing every element of the game. The developer’s like the contractor, see? They build it from the blueprint—the game design document.”

“Got it. You want to do both parts?”

“Developing’s more than one part, really. It’s usually teams and departments.”