The #Habboween design blog: Spirits of Japan!

Spirits of Japan was soooo much fun for the designers. Click to read their experience of the campaign and for some FANTASTIC Habbo...

Campaigns & Activities

So we did Japan this year for Habboween and it was a blast! With such a rich theme to use, the artists on the design team really went to town this year. We talked to four of them about their work and how they found the design process. They also chose four Habbo avatars to sketch:

Sparkaro – @_ESAndreA
Sillimanite – @KoriHB_es.
DollsEyes – @ceceperiod
Kukuyit – @nightmare4habbo

See all the sketches in order here: https://imgur.com/a/DXaKCf4

All Habboween items

Anyway, on with the design blog!

How much fun was it to draw for this theme?

Sparkaro: I had a lot of fun designing creatures and environments based around traditional Japanese folklore. It was really interesting to research different Yokai and looking into things like ancient and abandoned villages, which held a lot of great inspiration!

Kukuyit: I love all things Japan so when we got the chance to do a Habboween for the theme, I was really excited. Too bad our scheduling was on the shorter end of the stick for this, so we couldn’t fit in everything we wanted.

DollsEyes: I love the yokai theme and I always enjoy sketching for halloween anyway, so it’s a winning combo for me!

Sillimanite: I love Japanese history and folklore, so it was really fun to be able to design a more rustic and historical setting for this theme!

Have you been to Japan? Do you want to go?

Sparkaro: I have been there on holiday once, after wanting to visit there for ages and really enjoyed my time there. Some of the highlights of my trip were exploring the traditional Japanese streets of Kyoto and walking through the ‘Fushimi Inari-taisha’ which has a pathway of thousands of shrines. Walking through Tokyo was also a really fun and surreal experience.

Kukuyit: Yes! Been once and have been thinking back ever since. I really want to go when they have their summer/spring festivals and soak up the festive fun! Go away Covid!

DollsEyes: I’ve never been, but it’s definitely high-up on the list of places I’d love to visit!

Sillimanite: Unfortunately I’ve never been, fingers crossed for the future! It would be amazing to go to Kyoto or one of the other more historic sites that I’ve been so inspired by.

Any other games or movies that inspired you heavily when designing the items for this campaign?

Sparkaro: Researching ancient artwork depictions of traditional Japanese yokai were the main inspiration. Also seeing how games like Animal Crossing, Pokemon and Yokai Watch had interpreted characters from folklore.

Kukuyit: We didn’t stray too far from the traditional folklore, so we already had a good base to work with. Games like Okami or Yokai Watch came to mind when getting additional inspiration.

DollsEyes: I was definitely inspired by the Fatal Frame series - the environmental atmosphere and character designs have the perfect vibe for this theme.

Sillimanite: Sekiro was a big influence for me, it’s a gorgeous game with a fantastic sense of visual style. I also really love the work of Junji Ito, so we drew on that for some of the more spooky designs.

What do you think the community is going to like the most, and what are you looking forward to seeing their reaction to the most?

Sparkaro: I think the Grand Pagoda LTD is likely to be popular with the Habbos. I really like the design of it and I think it’s design is quite unique as an LTD.

Kukuyit: I think the most interesting items are definitely the Yokai (Japanese folklore spirits) themselves. There’s a lot of personality in the way they’re drawn.

DollsEyes: The yokai for sure, especially the Kitsune and Nekomata (though maybe I’m just biased because they’re my favourites haha).

Sillimanite: I hope that the users have fun putting together a spooky rural Japanese scene with all the building pieces and backgrounds we’ve made for the campaign! I think the architecture is really unique and it’s a very atmospheric setting.