Crews are a new addition to the Dance Central franchise. These crews are made up of new characters and familiar favorites, and it’s up to you to decide which crew you want to rep in Dance Central 2. Dance Central 2’s Crew Challenge will give you the chance to show off your dance skills to impress each of the game’s crews, earn respect, and rise through the ranks leading to a finale you don’t want to miss.
Lead Artist David Battilana and Lead Character Artist Matt Perlot share a few design tidbits on how they brought the characters and crews of Dance Central 2 to life. Read on for a closer look at Emilia, Bodie, Mo, Glitch, Taye, Lil’ T, Miss Aubrey, Angel, Jaryn, Kerith and their respective crews!
Matt Perlot: With Riptide we took what we established with Emilia in the original Dance Central to create an athletic, sporty, and competitive crew. In Dance Central 2 Emilia’s been paired with a new character – Bodie. He’s the everyman who’s super positive, friendly, and outgoing. To reflect athleticism, we gave him attire that suggests he’d probably spend his time hanging on the boardwalk, shooting hoops, or enjoying time on the beach.
Perlot: Riptide’s crew outfits represent their pairing and image as a crew. They wear matching colors and have a similar sporty style. Characters in Dance Central 2 will additionally have outfit unlocks showing off their street style that will reflect their unique personalities outside of their crews. In the case of Riptide’s outfit unlocks, Bodie might sport something casual while Emilia’s tomboyish-ness will come out.
David Battilana: We put a lot of detail in each of the crew’s respective logos and clothing style. When you consider a crew named “Hi-Def” it’s only fitting that Mo and Glitch’s clothing is bright with patterns that are a modified version of color bars.
Perlot: We’ve always said Mo is the networker. He knows everyone. We’ve positioned Mo as a pro at promos. In Dance Central 2 he’s found this child prodigy, Glitch, and he’s showing him off to the rest of the dance world.
Battilana: Glitch is the “hype man” to Mo. He’s sort of like, “Hey, ladies and gentlemen! We’re performing on this train car! Please give us your attention…and money.” Even though Mo always gets all of the credit, Glitch is always happy to help.
Perlot: If you just take a look at Glitch’s dialogue you can see that Glitch looks up to Mo, but is also taking digs at the same time – whether or not he knows it. One of Glitch’s lines is: “It’s like Mo always says, ‘Get me some water, Glitch!’”
Perlot: The theme of Crew Challenge is repping for crews and earning respect among the city’s best dancers, so crews are all matched based on personalities we either already touched upon in the original Dance Central or new relationships between characters in Dance Central 2. In the case of Flash4wrd we have Taye from the first game and her little sister, Lil’ T, who along with Glitch represent younger dancers in the game. She’s following in her sister’s footsteps.
Battilana: Flash4wrd is a crew with lots of attitude. You probably remember Taye from the original Dance Central as one of the more strong-willed characters in the game. With the addition of Lil’ T we now have these young superstars that not only reflect younger players, but also help break things up visually from a design standpoint. In the original Dance Central all of the characters seemed to be the exact same size since you never really saw them togetherstanding side by side.
Perlot: As far as Flash4wrd’s outfit design you can see the amount of detail we put in for both individual character designs and their crew. If you recall Taye’s hat from the original Dance Central you’ll notice Lil’ T’s now wears it. Lots of little design touches.
Perlot: Miss Aubrey is the rich girl and she’s part of Lu$h, which is the luxurious crew. They’re all about image and how they’re perceived. Angel was really well-dressed in the first Dance Central and has that cool man vibe about him. We like to think of Angel as the romantic type so we figured the fun opportunities we could have pairing him and Miss Aubrey together were too good to pass up. Miss Aubrey is of course too good for anyone so even though she’s both flirting and shrugging him off, Angel is still up for the pursuit.
Perlot: We originally had this theme that Lu$h would be upscale and we discussed giving them a vintage yet modern look so we kept messing around with that. Once we pinned them down to the yacht venue the nautical theme surfaced and stuck. I think it works pretty well.
Perlot: The Glitterati are my babies. Bodie was our attempt at the most approachable character in Dance Central 2 and The Glitterati are by far the least. With this crew we’re building a narrative of an ultimate crew in the city – an elitist crew. They have plenty of great dialogue that reflects that as well. One of Jaryn’s lines is: “I’ll take a mental picture of you…and then burn it with a match.” We actually had to cut a line that had to do with poisoning.
Perlot: When designing them we thought, “What would best represent synchrony for the perfect crew?” We decided on identical twins. Both Jaryn and Kerith are very tall and have runway/military inspired clothing. As twins they’re the ultimate crew since they’re always on the same wavelength and are most in unison.
To check out Dance Central 2’s characters and crews in action, and for more interviews with the development team, check out our behind-the-scenes video.
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