Are you sad you didn't get to spend more time with your dad? Have you been thinking "If only there was some kind of fashionable and super duper stylish article of clothing capable of carrying stuff?" Wow slow down there partner, however you're in luck! We've done YOU the favor and combined both, in this latest installment in buddy carrying technology!

This cosmetic for the 72 hour jam was a collaboration between
Stovepipe (https://steamcommunity.com/id/scungybingus)
Jabe (https://steamcommunity.com/id/youknowyoulikeit)
Sander (https://steamcommunity.com/id/Alexanderfull1)
Nami Kupo (https://steamcommunity.com/id/namikupo)

Workshop link here, though might not work until we've finalized it x3

Credits for custom assets used for the SFM render are:
Pooling Blood Animated Prop by Mickyan
meet the medic beta props by TheGameChief

For those interested, I'll provide a short description of our process in coming up with the idea and developing this cosmetic.

It started with an impromptu tf2 MvM session on the potato.tf servers, where we then began spitballing ideas to potential cosmetics or weapons we could make for the jam. Stovepipe had suggested the original idea of participating in the jam. We eventually talked about the idea of a body-bag cosmetic of sorts, with a class carrying around a body on their back, or portions of it. We talked for a while, seeing if the name and concept had already been done (closest being the Bio-Bagged, however as stylistically it was quite different we judged our concept to be distinct enough that it would be okay to continue), and eventually I made a rough sketch of what the cosmetic could look like:
It got the basic idea across. We decided to go to bed for the night, before deciding to reconvene the next day with some more concept art and discuss the the next step in the process. We reconvened the next day with renewed inspiration and Jabe provided the following beautiful piece of concept art:


I also provided some alternative designs for the shape of the bag itself:
We decided after researching how scout back cosmetics work in regards to the scout's duffel bag being static in game (meaning difficult to remove), and looking at other scout back cosmetics to see what they'd done to circumvent this problem, that the duffel bag option was the best. Most scout back cosmetics either wrap the cosmetic around the bag (Half-Pipe Hurdler) or made a bigger bag that goes on the outside of the original bag (Dillinger's Duffel). Due to this factor, the slightly-bigger-than-original duffel bag seemed the best for our concept. We decided to each start on parts of the cosmetic, Stovepipe with the modelling of the cosmetic, Jabe with a more refined concept art and SFM render, Me with the audio that we imagine should play when taunting (Spy's cries of anguish from inside the bag) and Sander with potential item descriptions for the Workshop page.
Jabe Proceeded to draw this more refined, beautiful concept art, emphasizing the duct tape and janky nature of scouts personality:

Jabe also went and looked for potential maps for the render, setting the basic scene elements:

The map we ended up with for the shot was snakewater, which had this nice looking building interior, very barren but ripe for prop placement!. The initial idea was pl_badwater or a location similar to where Meet The Medic takes place, and to create a set with a similar aesthetic.

Yes, spy's entire body is beneath that table. It's called movie magic! I had in the meantime also edited a couple of Spy's voicelines to sound more ghostly and muffled, for use with the cosmetic. Sander provided alternative descriptions to the item like:
"Craft your very own sidekick with this brand new Spy Covert Cuddle Kit! Because nothing says 'friendship' like assembling a secret agent, limb by limb."
Or
"It's just like building a bear, but with a Spy! Customize your own espionage companion with the Build-a-Spy Buddy Bag. Mix and match limbs for the ultimate secret agent snuggle buddy!"

We reconvened later that evening to discuss our progress and what remained to be done. Here's some WIP screenshots from our call:

Stovepipe's blender wizardry is truly magnifique! The very strict polygon limit was a challenge in the modelling process, as there really isn't a lot of space for excess tri's!

Jabe had to reinstall SFM and relearn it for this project (In the process also learning to hate it again), but as you can see the major posing and idea was mostly done! The Dillinger's Duffel was a temporary prop while the model was being made. It was super cool seeing it all come together in one, cohesive vision!
But as they say, polish is truly what takes the longest, and true to the word it took a bit to get the model fully crispy and clean (from a modelling perspective, the bag is very unsanitary)

Jigglebones and the bag's sheen are very important. Especially the jiggle. The sheen is really important for communcating the plasticy nature of the bag, and how it's not a high-quality briefcase or the like.
Jabe also considered putting a battery in the scene of the SFM render for the spy's head, but after discussion and experimentation, they decided it would be too noisy in the already-crowded scene. If it had been kept, it might've looked a little like this!

Here you can also see the bag being added, although still a temporary version as we didn't yet have a version with blu-spy body parts.
Eventually Stovepipe finished the model and unfortunately also concluded that paintable capabilities were too much for the scope and would require serious redesign of the model, so we decided to not have the cosmetic paintable. Here's what it looks like!


Wow! Truly a very cool cosmetic!! Stovepipe also from here worked on creating the workshop thumbnail:

Starting out with the basic pose and lighting, adding more detail after.

Jabe also proceeded to finalize the render:


And that's the short gist of how this cosmetic came to be. There were lots of discussion on Discord about feedback to the parts we'd created, and a really good vibe about making it happen. I thought yesterday that the deadline was 24 hours shorter, so I made everyone panic briefly, but luckily they were all smart enough to look at the time!

Special thanks:
to the creators of the workshop items for the render
to Emily for keeping us company in the discord
Blender, Photoshop, Discord devs for making us able to make things
Valve for making TF2 and SFM, 'preciate it