By JUSTINE OBANDO and HAZEL P. VILLA
COSPLAY (short for costume play) has recently become a popular hobby among Filipino anime, manga (Japanese comics) and games enthusiasts. For many fans of established characters, there is great appeal and fun in transforming themselves and portraying the characters they love.
However, while it is common for cosplayers to portray their favorite game characters, the opposite—that is, when cosplayers are turned into game characters— is quite rare.
Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) Teen Edition 4 winner Myrtle Gail Sarrosa gets this rare opportunity to be featured as Bazooka Fairy— a character in the upcoming game, Comic ConQuest, by Sleepy Giant.
Myrtle, one of the more popular Filipino cosplayers, was chosen together with six other international cosplayers to inspire characters in the new video game set to be launched in November this year.
The other featured cosplayers and the game characters they inspired are: Linda Le (more popularly known as Vampy Bit Me) as Shining Fist; Alexandria the Red as the Red Archer; Amie Lynn as Silver Scythe; Abby Darkstar as Crystal Fury; and Ani-Mia and Le Anna Vamp, whose characters have yet to be revealed.
Comic ConQuest is the first video game to be created by Sleepy Giant, a videogame company based in Orange County, CA, that has worked in partnership with such firms as Disney, Fox, Activision/Blizzard, SeaWorld and Margaritaville.
“It’s unbelievable! I was chosen alongside world-renowned cosplayers,” says Myrtle, an 18-year-old Ilongga taking up Broadcast Communication in the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City.
Aside from attending regular classes, Myrtle juggles her free time taping for the ABS-CBN comedy show, “TodaMax,” and does cosplay photoshoots and guestings.
“Before, I just used to cosplay characters from games, manga and anime, and now they’re actually going to base a character on me! It’s really exciting!” she gushes.
Fred White, one of the producers from Sleepy Giant, says: “Comic ConQuest is a videogame (PC, mobile, and tablet) that takes place at a comic con and embraces all the craziness that only a comic con can bring. It is currently in the beginning stages of development and launch is slated towards the end of this year.”
Fred adds: “The early designs and concepts for the game are truly awesome, and have received some great feedback in the media and the folks we talked to at San Diego Comic-Con a couple of weeks ago. We are all fans of the comic convention scene here, and we are working hard to do justice to the game.”
For this project, Sleepy Giant tapped Jeff Matsuda, a highly acclaimed veteran comic artist, as the lead artist and executive producer. He is well-known for his works like “Batman,” “Jackie Chan Adventures,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and “Wolverine,” among others.
This was how it all started, according to comicconquest.tumblr.com:
“The idea, hatched over a few beers at Comic Con International in San Diego, was to feature the chosen cosplayers actually cosplaying the characters they helped create. Our minds were blown.
“We started with a list of over 100 popular cosplayers and eventually narrowed it down to our seven all-stars (including Myrtle) for the initial phase and got to work. The following weeks were full of emails and phone calls, sometimes even office visits, with some of the world’s most awesome cosplayers. We were floored at the response we got – they seemed as excited to be a part of the project as we were to have them.”
Jeff and Myrtle then collaborated to create her character, Bazooka Fairy. Myrtle and the other featured cosplayers designed their own costumes to help bring their characters to life.
“I’m working with a lot of internationally renowned people in the gaming and comic industry like Jeff Matsuda who, I had a chance to have an online meeting with where he let me pitch in my ideas for the character,” shares Myrtle.
“I’m really thankful for this opportunity. Never in my life did I imagine that I would one day see myself animated for an international game. I guess the impossible is really possible, you just have to believe,” Myrtle says. “I’m really excited to see the over-all outcome by the end of the year which you can download on your PC, Mobile Device and Tablet.”