itch.io

Hey! No worries, personally I don't think your comment comes across as rude at all <3 

I do think it raises some interesting questions about the nature of gender perception and how painting a linework drawing can alter appearances. This also happens to be a topic I think about a lot in my day-to-day life, so please bear with me as I write you a spontaneous essay haha:

On the linework to painting question- I too have had times when I prefer the original linework or sketch to a more finished or polished look. It's the artist curse unfortunately! x' ) One thing I can say about this is that the character art in CGs has been altered to be a little more painterly and have heavier shadows, but it's not as huge of a difference as the portraits. As for character sprites- the new design actually minimizes the use of them, but when they do appear, they also have the same high-contrast solution applied. Basically in order to read the finer details of character emotions, the game now relies primarily on the portraits. This was an intentional choice, made in part as a response to player complaints that it can be hard to figure out who is who/tell the characters apart with seven characters speaking on the screen at once. I do however hope that you'll find the portraits are actually *more* expressive than the original sprites, and the way in which the characters express themselves also has a pretty gender ambiguous quality (e.g. if they're looking a little too pretty now, you may change your mind when they're getting angry or sarcastic!)

Ultimately though, I think the question of gendered perception is a bit more complicated to answer. I'll use a personal example to illustrate my thoughts: I happen to be a very androgynous person irl. I know this because I will walk down the street or into a store and have different people in the same space on the same day gender me differently on a regular basis ("Excuse me, miss!" "Hello, sir!") Because I rarely bother to correct them any more, this has resulted in some bizarre real-life situations. The most interesting is when two people who perceive me as being of a different genders interact with one another. Both have committed to their perception, and are equally certain of their correctness. I have even heard people say "I can't imagine how anyone would see you any other way." or when corrected by another "I have no idea why I thought you were (x gender)!" They will often attempt to rationalize it: "My friend has hair like yours..." "If you just changed your glasses..." "It was something about your eyes."  

The key point is that regardless of their position on my gender, it seems the person in question is always utterly convinced of it. And to bring this back around to the game: I've witnessed a similar thing with player/viewer interpretations of the characters. One player will tell me all the characters look like women. Another will give me a funny look when I tell them this about the other player and say something like "I know you said they're neither, but in my mind, I've been reading them all as men."  I've also witnessed players spontaneously assigning different genders to different characters, despite there being no gender pronouns anywhere in the narration. And more interesting still, those who do have a tendency to gender the characters this way don't even share the same opinions on which character has which gender!

Incidentally, I've noticed this tendency both with the original art and the new art (I feel I could write an entire dev log on this aspect of the game alone). I have come to believe that at the end of the day, just as it is with people witnessing my existence on the street, their perception of the characters has less to do with the characters themselves, and more to do with the way their own individual experiences have shaped their subconscious perception of men and women. 

Have you ever seen this drawing? Some people see both the duck and the rabbit. But for others, once they see one, they find it "impossible to unsee." They will even get frustrated when others see it another way (because who among us likes to have our reality questioned?) "How does that look ANYTHING like a rabbit?" "Are you crazy? Where do you see a duck?" 

Of course duck/rabbit drawing aside, I'm sure we've both seen how gender in the human world is a much more sensitive topic. It involves systemic impacts, affects how an individual is treated, and can have significant consequences over the course of their entire life. As for the goblins themselves- they have never met men or women. They have no experience of interpreting gender at all. Imagine what they must think of a group of humans trying to categorize them by a set of seemingly arbitrary rules! It would be like having a group of aliens argue over whether you are a "Zoop" or a "More of a Beezle, actually." "I'm sure if your arms were a little longer, you would look just like a Zoop..." "Your chin is just like a Beezle chin." etc.  

tldr; I think your concerns are very reasonable! While I draw, it continues to be my goal to portray the characters in a way that is unfettered by conventional gender norms. But (for better or worse) my perception of gendered appearance and behaviour is also shaped by my own life experiences, often in ways that are invisible to me. It's quite possible that as individuals, or subconscious biases diverge. What I think looks like a masculine feature your brain may pass over while focusing on what looks to you like a more feminine feature etc. But I hope that regardless of how our perceptions may differ, both of us will continue to find ambiguity in the new art, even if we see it in different ways! <3