Here's some more of the visual design progression, with the latest stuff at the bottom. We've since discarded the idea of doing the characters in 3D, trying to find an interesting abstract style for the visuals, that would be more bold and eye-catching. At one point the characters became more cartoony as I thought the tone for the game might be interesting as something less serious. Then as things evolved even more I thought about visuals that would be unique and with an inherently Japanese flavour. At present we've settled with a Japanese brush style for the characters, with abstract shapes and colours for the backgrounds.