Throwback Thursday: Juliet Margaretta Hillingham XII

Our 4th week of Throwback Thursday! In case you missed one of the previous ones, you can always take a look at them with the links below! Have a look and enjoy learning a little extra about your favorite character's growth during development! ^^

[Miki]
https://www.patreon.com/posts/throwback-miki-57980399

[Nova]
https://www.patreon.com/posts/throwback-nova-58304733

[Rachel]
https://www.patreon.com/posts/throwback-rachel-58563348

When the project first started, it began with placeholder 3d assets. Something that we of course can see in the first image above! I think it goes without saying there's quite a bit of difference between the initial Juliet compared to how we see her today. :P

Fun fact #1: Did you know? Originally Juliet's personality was completely different? Early before MA became a visual novel. Juliet was going to come off more snooty, stuck up with a bit more of a cold aura about her. Quite the big difference compared to what we see today, but you could probably guess how things would've been based on her placeholder design and this information. :P

Looking at the 2nd image preview, we can see the progress of Juliet. From left to right: The first 2d concept sketch of how she'd look, followed by the more refined adjusted look and sticking with it. As you can see, the concept sketch was a tiny bit different and still based around the 3d placeholder design and the previously mentioned personality for her. Luckily? I decided against that and did some adjustments.

Fun fact #2: Did you know? Juliet was planned to be a side character? That's right! Early in the game builds for a while, it was set in mind that Lola, Juliet and Zoey would be considered side characters. Which meant they'd be extra characters to date, but just less time spent with them initially. As things progressed in development though, it felt like Juliet had a bigger story to tell compared Bridget who was originally part of the main cast and so they swapped main/side roles around.

Of course the difference these days between main vs side characters mentioned above doesn't mean too much. :P

[Design concept]

The concept for Juliet, taking some info from above in mind. She underwent a bit of changes along the way, as MA first started as a mini comic using 3d assets. At that point in time, my thoughts for Juliet as a character was that she'd still be a princess. Just that we'd see a more snooty, stuck up and cold refined version of her.

This almost made it in for the visual novel as plans for her didn't end up changing until the very first scene that Juliet would show up in. At the time I recall not being too fond of how Juliet felt and almost seemed a bit too similar to Heather, just in a more rational cold refined way and it just didn't seem suited.

So some last minute drafting ideas came about for her changes to her personality and even visually as we didn't quite have her sprite done yet by that point luckily. The one thing I knew from the start with Juliet was that she'd no matter what be known as the princess and try to revolve her personality around this concept.

With this princess concept in mind, it came down to taking a hard look into what her past and childhood was like for someone like her. I've always imagined she'd be a bit more prim and proper, imagining that for her upbringing, that she'd spent most of her time with a handful of activities to better herself within the royalty hierarchy around her. This seemed pretty good to introduce some things like Juliet's interest in spreading herself out over many interests at the academy when we meet her. (Gymnastics, Piano playing, Student Council, etc.)

When it came to thinking about how things affected her while growing up, I like to imagine that her upbringing has kept her very sheltered when it comes to even simple things that most people within her age groups would now how to do or what to do, etc. (Example being not being very understanding of how to operate her mobile phone device at the academy, being sort of pampered unknowingly back home with servants and caretakers.)

This would naturally bring us to the concept of giving her some aloofness in situations when it comes to knowledge of more common folk things. At times these moments would maybe give off the impression that she's above others, when in reality she's really just that aloof from lacking the experience with certain things that comes second nature to other students.

Overall trying to piece together Juliet's character, personality had to consider just what kind of girl was raised into royalty status and how it affected her. I'm very happy with how she comes across as in more recent days, as she seems like there's more going on to learn about and pick up on subtle moments for her that'll make sense later on. :P

Not to spoiler too much, but for some fans/supporters who played older builds. You might recall Juliet's adventure into cheerleading and this ties into her aspect of wanting to spread herself across and pick up more talents, helping build herself as a princess in her mindset. We'll see this mini story arc return, but it's just more examples of trying to piece her character together.

Speaking of that, I've mentioned it a bit in our previous Throwback Thursday post featuring Rachel that the two are a good fit for each other in friendship. I think one thing that I failed on a little bit with this story element in the past builds is that there wasn't enough focus in this relationship seen around Juliet and how it helps her out in ways. So without saying too much, we can expect a bit more of this thanks to the way the route episodes will give more time focused on a set character. ^^

One little mention that comes to mind to add for Juliet's concept and helping build up her character. I used to have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi growing up that I've brought up in some posts in the past 2 years and sadly she passed away suddenly right around the start of the MA project, making for some bumpy times during the time. But one little fun fact is that I wanted to dedicate a little tribute of sorts in a way into the game based on my real corgi. So for those who have played older builds and recall Juliet's love of corgi's, that sort of helps explain it. ^^"

That and also it seemed fitting for her character, probably because my family has a good bit of family from Wales on my mother's side. So when I think of royalty, I can't help but think of the queen and her army of corgi's. :P

That about does it for this throwback! It won't be too much longer before we figure out more about Juliet's upbringing and possibly help her in more common folk problem solving? Guess we'll have to wait and see!