This is one of the first images I drew while brainstorming concepts for the chapter. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to have enemies with electric sockets for faces...

(This idea is so good that the new Mario & Luigi game is also doing it!!!)

These are just sketches and not real designs so none of them got used. I really like the plug guy drawing lol.

These ideas precede Virovirokun, Spamton, and Maus.

Ultimately they were not used because their existence conflicted with those characters.
Seems like Mad Mailer's tie would have been prehensile.

Not sure what the top thing's supposed to be. A Kirby enemy?

A flying enemy character inspired by a computer fan.

This was created before Chapter 1. The character is merely a placeholder concept and not intended to be an actual character. It's just an example of how we could use the shop visual real estate to have a cool character.

This ended up being used for Rouxls in Chapter 1.

"Maybe the shopkeeper could be some sort of cool cyber robot?" I never designed his body or thought anything past this.

It took me a very long time to figure out Queen's design. I wanted her to be intimidating and cool. Inspirations included, Hexadecimal from Reboot, the alien queen from Alien, Power Ranger bad guys, and Rosemaster from Cucumber Quest.

I wanted her head shape to be unique so that it wouldn't overlap with those other existing characters too much. But, it was difficult...

After I began writing her dialogue, she shifted into being a more humorous character. I decided to reflect this in her design.

Realizing simple might be best.

Initially I was trying to draw her sprite with her head facing straight-on, but it was ultimately lacking in personality.

Here are also some last-ditch attempts at a different head shape.

I thought a handkerchief-like head shape with giant hoop earrings would make her seem more like a crazy aunt / crazy mom type character. I still don't dislike it.

In the end though, simple is best (and easiest to draw.)

Nothing fits computer virus better than a small imp or devil creature. Creation was trial and error.

Originally, the cars would have been fightable. I still like the poses.

By the way, the car with legs is inspired by a default 3D model from Mario Artist Polygon Studio.

Originally, "TASQUE" was going to be called "TUSQUE", and be a lion. (You know, "Tusk".) It would've been controlled by a lion tamer, "TASQUE" (who eventually became Tasque Manager). That's why she has a whip. See, there's a good reason for it.

I like the detail of their tails being a pointer which turns into a hourglass when they get overwhelmed.

The idea of petting something so much it gets overstimulated comes from a childhood memory of mine. We went over to my cousin's house and they had an Aibo robot dog toy. Me and my brothers all pet it at the same time and my cousin was like "Stop, you're killing it!" That was a nice memory.

Details on how the plug enemy works.

Originally I imagined Queen controlling various characters using plugs (as seen in some of the very early concept art). However, I ended up restricting this idea to mostly one character.

I wasn't sure if the wires should attach to the top of the screen or shrink into a "nose." I re-used the "wireless" idea with Werewerewire.

Am I allowed to be proud of this design? lol

Various NPC's. Most of them were directly included in the chapter.

The Addisons' designs were created in relation to Spamton. So in the end, the in game versions look even more similar than this concept art.

Printor was not used, but his sprite and dialogue were created, as well as a printer-based song that he could play? I just thought… there's too many NPC's already.

Swatch's initial art... what was going on there? By the way, I'm pretty sure his overworld sprite was based off of my concept art instead of Gigi's redrawn version, so that's why it looked a bit off in the Cafe.

... Did I really just draw all this stuff directly without any sketches?

Chess drew the original concept for Berdly's dark world outfit so there it is in the top left. She drew the original sprite too.

I simplified it slightly by removing the cape.

That sad Berdly in the bottom left is so good.

Reference for various poses.

My friend Samanthuel (aka Splendidland) did a ton of concept art for Chapter 2! Sadly I couldn't use all of it because many of the concepts didn't end up aligning with my final vision for the game, but the designs themselves are super amazing! I'm thankful I got to use any of them.

Specifically I really wanted to use the paint enemy as a miniboss, since I thought it would be really fun mechanic.

Below were her notes on all of them! She also provided ideas on how she thought they could be used.

I was given the broad theme of "cyber world" and told to pretty much just design whatever I wanted, expecting only a handful to actually make it in. I made all of these within a couple days, just making whatever came to my mind.

01:Hacker Guy (idk what their name is), wants to discover the secrets of the world and has special abilities, though they aren't aware of them. "Hacks" by randomly smashing keys and even swinging their mouse around in the air, could keep escalating in silly ways.

02:Handsome Face...

03:When they stand over a spot that can be "hacked into", their cursor shaped head turns into a pointing finger. They don't notice this change, so it's up to you, the player, to help them.

04:heheh....

05:Funny Egg, their body contains a virtual pet. Can the fate of this pet be altered? Maybe not... Has an existential crisis if the pet dies, as their body is a battleground of life and death.

06:Broken Image, their life is in ruins

07:Recycle Bin

08:Trash Fly, represents uncollected "garbage data"

09:Kiss-kiss

10:Painter, would basically be like Adeleine but with crude ms paint effects, especially the airbrush.

11:Diskette, spins in place until talked to. "despite my looks, i am totally unable to save your progress"

12:some kind of "internet" thing idk

13:"Data", little icon like creatures who march onwards with unknown purpose. they take part in the festival.

14:Popup. hides underneath a tile and springs upwards annoyingly. touching its forehead makes it return underground temporarily. a pest.

15:Virus, its head sways back and forth as it tries to hover in the air

16:Anti Virus, is it a cop or a doctor? maybe they see you as an enemy as you're an "outsider"?

17:Corrupted data or something

18:"Cyber World", a rough vision of what a world inside a computer could look like

19:Cyber House

20:Masked Dancers, they participate in the festival, each colour has a different movement pattern and dance style. very rough concept

Concept art of Berdly's armor designs in the Dark World by Chess.

That Noelle is really cute also.

Chess also drew Berdly's original Dark World sprite.

(... And provided an option for his Dark World outfit to just be him with an extra shirt pocket...)

Temmie's concept art of Queen's chair. You can see her weird old head here as well.