What a first week of our campaign! We still can’t believe that we’re 348% funded, thank you all so very much for the excitement around Devil’s Due! We’ve got a packed update today, read on for an art reveal, an upcoming interview, and our next stretch goal / achievement that we’re only 13% away from!

Hi everybody, I’m Kyle Tam, one of the writers on the Devil’s Due team and the author of the adventure framework Double or Nothing, our focus for today’s update. Let’s talk about the creation of a mysterious figure on the planet, and the central character of that piece.

It began with the mechanic: High risk, high reward—tacking on extra conditions in order for you to achieve a better payday, or to lose big if you can’t fulfill them. Double or worse. But why would you make life harder for yourself than necessary? The answer I arrived at was twofold. Either you were cocky, or you were desperate. The mechanic itself wasn’t enticing enough to be more than a footnote. So I thought a little bit bigger: a den of desperation, a god of two faces, and a prophet.

When you think of prophets, it’s easy to think of stoic men in robes or bedraggled hermits sitting atop stone pillars and mountains. But this is fiction—we have license to make our prophets hew more closely to the vision of their gods. And a god of two faces must then be represented by a prophet with layers upon layers.

I wanted Nes’s art to suggest secrets, to give off the impression that this is somebody with a lot to hide. So in the art notes, I deliberately gave a design briefing that would be hidden by a large poncho. Enough that there are strange edges and bits that are only suggested by Nes’ silhouette. A little bit of early General Grievous for you.

The mask was inspired not by regular masks or even robots, but specifically by wearers of digital masks. The most prominent of these is Rina Tennoji from Love Live Nijigasaki, who utilizes drawings and her own masks to express the emotions her physical face cannot. Then there is the protagonist of Neon Revenge, the cutest expression on his digital mask underscoring and contrasting the brutality of his actions.

Now, you might be asking yourself, why these secrets? Why these features? Naturally, the god Tavado is a god of reward… and risk. To pledge yourself to his service, to even partake in his wagers, means to be willing to take and receive. So when you look at Nes, the question is—what have they lost? What have they gained? And how proficient have they become, now that the player has become the dealer?

This character’s depth and recondite background felt naturally suited to Strega Wolf van den Berg’s artistic style. Strega Wolf has a number of illustrations across Devil’s Due, and we can’t wait to share more. They had this to say on the creative process of bringing Nes Aveda to the page:

We’re excited to bring another piece of Devil’s Due to you in our next Art Reveal update. Let us know in the comments what mission or pirate crew you’d like to hear about next!

Later today, November 21, at 5pm PT / 8pm ET / 1am GMT Carson Brown will join Cameron Strittmatter on The Panic Table. He's going to discuss all things Devil's Due and answer live questions as part of Bark After Dark. 

We’re only 13% away from our next big achievement, adding full, two-page illustrations for each of our missions! With more art, we can bring much stronger visuals to an already illustration-packed book. Every mission, pirate crew, mechanic, and roll table has illustrations to bring more of Devil’s Due to life, and this puts a cherry on top of the already tasty sundae.