At the start of the High Boy project, when Vini was putting together the early prototypes of our ultimate pentesting tool, we weren’t thinking about creating a little creature to keep users company throughout their projects. Octobit came about as a demand from the community following the project. Fast-forward to now, and we’ve grown so fond of him that we’ve put him on every piece of material we can.

However, Octobit didn’t start out with his current design. He went through many stages of development before arriving at the look he has today. And that’s the process we’re going to talk about today.

The First Design

Back in the early days of High Code, we didn’t have a design, art, or marketing team, everything was done by a handful of tech enthusiasts giving their best to solve needs in the most DIY way possible. Octobit was no different. He was designed in October 2024 as a pixel art character to match the retro gaming style that High Boy had in its early stages. He had a larger, flatter head and wore stylish dark sunglasses.

Six months later, he returned, but at first only his head appeared in the High Boy UI. He had lost his sunglasses, gained two metal plates on his head, and a tech gem in the middle of his forehead, constantly emitting energy, transmission waves, and thought bubbles. That whole psychic cyborg look reflects our inspirations for creating High Boy.

He even went back to a more biological style in some celebratory posts, but for a long time, he was forgotten. The focus was on more urgent tasks, and our friendly little octopus was something that would have to wait further down the project road.

Then, at some point, the newly formed marketing team made an illustration of Octobit for a post, and it became clear to all of us that he needed more love. That’s how we started a complete mascot redesign project.

The Redesign

Before creating any design, you have to define the attributes of what you’re working on. The core idea for Octobit as a character is that he’s a resident of High Boy, and since he knows everything about the device, he’s there to help you use it. Since we have a community of hackers, pentesters, developers, and enthusiasts, his personality was defined as helpful, curious, and excited. Some alternative versions leaned toward a more laid-back, rebellious vibe, or even a classic nerd archetype. Those personality traits didn’t make the cut, but a few sketches did explore that direction.

The Octobit options were wildly varied, from a super cool, stylish hacker to a shy, slightly dorky nerd. The drawing styles varied a lot too, but they always kept the characteristics of being a multitasker character, having a big head and large eyes.

The chosen design ended up being a bit more conservative. It kept the look of the original Octobit but updated him to a more polished and versatile style. His eyes became larger, his proportions elongated, the cyborg aspect was dropped, and the colors gained more depth.

The Result

Ever since we created a character sheet to guide future illustrations, we’ve produced dozens of them. Using Octobit became so easy that, for a long time, our social media was completely dominated by him, and whenever we create a new illustration, he’s always our protagonist.

The current Octobit is more adventurous, always engaged in a new project, ready to dare to do something different, just like High Code. Octobit doesn’t get irritated or outraged; he sees problems and obstacles as puzzles to be solved, not enemies to be fought. Whenever we show Octobit doing something, he’s either thinking about or actively developing a project, and having fun with it.

All of this is because we don’t want High Boy users to see using this tool as something dull or tedious, whether for studying, work, or personal projects. The world of digital security is deeply interesting and fun, and we want Octobit to be your ideal companion for all your adventures in hacking, studying, or pentesting.