Sarah Kisor, Minecraft skins artist, speaks!
Our parents always told us never to talk to strangers. Ah, but what if we talk to people about strangers? Pretty smart loophole, huh, mum and dad? Oh, that's right. They're still not talking to us.
Anyway, one person who is still speaking to us is Sarah Kisor, a Minecraft artist who worked on the Strangers skin pack!
Living in the far-reaches of the Minecraft universe - from the depths of the ocean, the abyssal End, and all the way from the impossibly broken Farlands - come the Strangers skins! With this pack, we had the opportunity to really push the envelope creatively and do things that wouldn’t really work with other themes we had done in the past.Sarah Kisor
Not familiar with the Strangers Skin pack? Check out Marsh's guide and gallery here.
Now making a skin pack doesn't just involve locking an artist in a room for 24 hours with a crate of energy drinks (that's just how we write the website). Sarah and the other artists sketch designs, then continue to develop and edit the skins throughout development, making sure each individual skin is consistent with the pack.
"The Farlands set of characters was especially fun to make," explains Sarah, of the freaky Farlands settlers. "Because of how broken and glitchy the Farlands are, coming up with characters that lived there and were 'warped' or 'corrupted' by it was a delight. One of my co-workers adored the Farlanders so much he would lovingly refer to them as “Sarah’s Wonks.” They have a special place in my heart - especially the Farlands Zealot. I just want to boop his little teeth and make baby noises at him. Ahem, anyway..."
Things got no less strange or sinister when it came to designing the Ocean Biome Settlers. "With the Ocean dwellers, we have folks who grew fishy qualities to them to help them live underwater," explains Sarah. "You’ll see some familiar faces with some of these guys - many were directly inspired by what already lives in the water."
"The Ocean Zealot, for example, is so far advanced in his tidal transformation that he’s beginning to look like a Guardian himself! The Ocean Tamer is another great character in this set. With his bulge-y, panicked eyes he’s a fella after my own heart."
"The End guys are super, super cool," says Sarah, of the work that went into designing the End settlers. "The End feels so mysterious and dangerous as a location and we really wanted to have that quality come across in the designs of the skins that were meant to live in this realm of permanent darkness. They each have this ageless, mysterious quality to them behind these neat masks and robes that conceal their identity. The End Hunter is my favourite here. This guy totally assassinates in style. I love his mask and stylish purple hood."
"Don't forget," says Sarah. "Some of these charming little guys are free and need homes!"
'Charming?' That's not the word this coward would use to describe such a sinister collection. But if you're made of sterner stuff, then you can find the Strangers Skin pack on Windows 10/Pocket edition now!
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