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Designing a Splatoon OC

Solar

Solar

— 5 min read
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Designing a Splatoon OC with Solar Sunrise
This Octoling’s gonna guide you through the city of Inkopolis!

With Splatoon Raiders coming out soon (as of this article), it’s finally time for me to spread the word about one of my favourite games! Besides the basics of kids and squids, designing an OC for Splatoon gives you so many design options; both anthropomorphic and humanoid characters exist in the world beyond the weapon-toting battlers seen in player vs. player Turf Wars. There are anemones that run shops, jellyfish hiveminds that mimic the average family, and even vocalists made out of seaweed! So, let’s dive into the world of Splatoon!

Splatoon Lore

If you’ve never played Splatoon before, don’t worry; I’ll give you the basic run down, spoiler-free! Splatoon is set in the far future, after the apocalypse and global climate change wipe out all mammals on Earth… except one, Judd the cat. But besides being an immortal creature capable of perfectly calculating the ground coverage of wars, he’s not important to this article (and neither is his clone, Lil Judd, who schemes to replace him).

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, something strange happened… sea creatures began to evolve, yearning to see the sky! Discovering the remains of humanity, the creatures modeled their lives and cultures after them, and some evolved to resemble humans. The most famous of these human-like sea creatures are the Inklings and Octolings, who are the playable characters in Splatoon (with Octolings being playable in 2’s DLC Octo Expansion and onward). Locally, the Octarians and Inklings had a conflict called the Great Turf War 100 years ago, but around the world Inklings and Octolings get along (though, in the first Splatoon, Inkopolis’ Inklings thought that Octarians were extinct!). 

The story mode of the first two Splatoon games focus on the conflict between the Inkling New Squidbeak Splatoon and the Octarian army; the conflict comes from the echoes of the war long ago, and are led by two leaders of that conflict (Craig Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio respectively). You play as an Inkling recruit (Agent 3 or Agent 4) and you work to battle the Octarians. Eventually you bring Inkling music and culture to the heart of Octarian society, and become the catalyst for Octolings to enter Inkopolis. Music is a major aspect of Splatoon, and each game has a group of idols that are popular at that time and lead news broadcasts and Splatfests; but you can discover all about that on your own!

Besides all that, there are all sorts of evolved sea creatures that exist in Splatoon’s world, best seen with merchant NPCs and the fictional bands that make the music you hear in battles in game. Some look human, and some look like their real-life counterparts but with clothes, but all of Splatoon’s denizens are inspired by and designed after real-life sea creatures.

Solar’s Splatoon OC, Amaryllis
Your OC doesn’t need a weapon… mostly because they’re hard to draw.



Designing a Splatoon OC

If there’s one thing that any Splatoon fan can tell you, it’s that fashion and culture are the cores of Splatoon’s world. Subcultures thrive on the graffitied streets of the cities, whether it’s the modern Inkopolis or the rough and rapidly growing Splatsville. The denizens of these places will do a lot for the sake of fashion, and body modifications can sometimes go to wild extremes (Fred Crumbs is something of an exception to the rule of realistic designs…). So besides picking some interesting fish for your OC, you should be sure to explore the fashion side of things too! 

Besides having the same body types and wielding the same weapons, Inklings and Octolings have a few basic design rules you can see in their designs. Inklings have 6 hair tentacles, Octolings have 4. Inklings have mask-like facial markings, while Octolings have markings only around their eyes. Inklings have suckers on the inside of their tentacles, while Octolings have them on the outside. There are more little differences here and there, but if you dislike designing characters with rules but you still want to make an iconic character, I’d recommend Salmonids. 

Salmonids are based on salmon, which migrate up and down rivers to mate, and change their appearance during their life cycle. Salmonid are inspired by this, and are the species with the most variety in appearance in the entire series. They can be giant Kaiju-like abominations, or as small as the the plushie-sized Small Fry. Salmonid have a unique culture inspired by Vikings and the Roman Empire. They live to fight, and to die an honourable death in battle and be eaten and return to the life cycle is the ultimate reward for any Salmonid warrior. Thus, they use cookware as weapons and build food-like structures and towers to make themselves seem tastier. They’re really a unique species in the Splatoon world.

Other fascinating creatures are the denizens of the deep, bizarre travelers on the Deepsea Metro. They’re inspired by sea creatures from the bottom of the ocean, which have some of the strangest appearances in the world. 

Here are some interesting creatures you could make an OC out of!

Old art of Solar’s Octoling persona
Ready to get into a turf war?

Naming Your OC

After you have a design (check out my other articles for help with building backstory and more!) the next thing to do is to pick a name. In the Splatoon manga, the Inkling and Octoling characters are named after their clothing and gear, but in the games most characters are named for puns, ocean related things, and seafood. I’ll use the idol characters as examples: Callie and Marie together make the squid dish calamari when their names are said together, Marina and Pearl are named after the sea and pearls which suit their appearances, and Shiver, Frye and Big Man are named after a group of sharks (a shiver of sharks), a group of eels (a fry of eels) and… well, Big Man is a Mantaray. Need I say more?

Looking into your creature of inspiration’s Latin name, common name, and name in other languages might help you discover the perfect punny name for your new OC!

Community OCs

Let’s check out some community OCs from the Splatoon hashtag!

As always, feel free to share your Splatoon OCs (finished or concept art) in the Unvale-Blog community! Anyone can post, as long as it’s relevant to Whim and my articles. 

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