With a game vision in place, the next milestone was developing the lead character Daisy from where the work in Bustle and Flow had taken it.

Brainstorms aplenty with David, The Dead Daisies Manager; many sketches, visuals and conceptual ideas were developed. Daisy was the lead and she needed to be all encompassing. She was also to be on the Daisys Revenge logo so needed to be attention grabbing and edgy, with wide appeal.

Extensive research was undertaken to define Daisy’s vibe, with Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider, Game of Thrones’ Daenerys, Charlise Theron and Sigourney Weaver all strong influencers. In the end the final character was drawn from the DNA of Natalie Portman, using tools like Daz Studio and Zbrush to refine the character sculpt.

Daisy was to be strong and independent, mysterious and tough, beguiling yet appealing to both men and women. There was also a supernatural element to Daisy’s character as the Princess of Hell, so thought was put into special effects; do her eyes glow red or does she have a face tattoo for example? All these ideas started to shape the character concept being created.

Exploration continued with Creative Works’ designers and 3D modellers into all the character details – red lipstick, black lipstick, does she have a raven tattoo, piercings, is she wearing a necklace, short hair, long hair, purple hair? Starting from a T pose, Creative Works visualised the character exploration with paint-overs and pose tests, and were able to whittle down the character design with David from there.

Along with Daisy’s character consideration, thought needed to be given to the gun she would be wielding. The hunting rifle, shotgun and pistol were all original concepts which continued into the final game. An Uzi was added in the bonus round as an added game play element.