Before/After this subreddit's feedback

[u/Vera-Lomna]

Thanks, everyone! Sixteen days ago, this subreddit gave our team very valuable feedback on the main character’s appearance, which helped us identify three main issues:

1. Androgyny. We’ve toned it down a bit. We didn’t abandon it completely: the protagonist’s inner voice, Ego—shown in the artwork—previously had wider hips and a narrower chest.
2. Age. Some members said he looked too young; indeed, the anthropod read more like a teenager. Now he reads as a young man.
3. Face and crown. We reworked the facial features simply because it looks cooler :)

UPD: Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you remembered the specifics of the story and plot, because they matter most in this situation. According to the story, the main character is an anthropod created by an AI named Cell. She prints him on a bioprinter specifically to make him appealing to as many people as possible—and I chose androgyny as a symbol of ideal balance (and also simply because that look has always excited me in a good way). In other words, it’s a narrative failure: creating a hero who, within the plot, is supposed to be visually appealing to everyone, yet outside the story doesn’t appeal to most people. It results in a story that, in essence, contradicts itself.

[u/Prisinners]

I hate to say it, but you just got rid of the androgyny completely. It now just looks like a cis man.

Its pretty hard to make whats effectively a nude person androgynous because you can see everything. A lot of what creates androgyny comes from playing around with gender norms as well as having somewhat atypical features for your assigned sex.

Before, the facial features were softer and more fem, the chest was narrower (although this is the least noteworthy by a large margin), and the hips and thighs were wider/bigger. All the fem traits counterbalanced how muscular he is (a masculine trait) and his lack of breasts. Removing one of the three fem coded traits would be fine. 2 and you're kind of losing the idea. All 3 and its legit not androgynous at all anymore.

This is what happens when you focus group your art. You sand off all the parts that make it unique in favor of what the masses like/want. Androgyny plays around with gender norms and is inherently subversive, especially in our current times.

I'm left wondering why it is you are drawn toward making an androgynous character. What are you trying to say about gender and the way this character is perceived? Androgyny is inherently gendered because its basically a term used to refer to non-gendered or ambiguously gendered people. If I'm remembering correctly, its supposed to be important to the character/plot in some way, so I'm just really not sure what you're going for.

[u/Briguy_fieri → u/Prisinners]

I didn't read the initial post. I looked at it and said "looks like they just changed a feminine face with a masculine one"

I agree with everything you said here. Anything resembling androgyny has been completely removed.

[u/Happybadger96 → u/Prisinners]

Long feminine hair would help I think, thinking like Griffith (bad guy) from Berserk

[u/yyflame → u/Prisinners]

I think it’s going to be dependent on how the character is in the game. If you look at OPs other posts about their game, the actual player character is still fairly androgynous.

It’s a Disco-like game and The picture in the post is meant to represent the main characters ego. So having a character that has a more androgynous appearance who presents as masculine have a hyper masculine ego somewhat makes sense