In a retrospective post detailing the making of Chapters 3 and 4, director Toby Fox revealed that the character design of Tenna was closely inspired by Mr. Tv Dinnah from the game Little King's Story, while the unconventional 3D graphics in the game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective inspired him to use pre-rendered sprites for Tenna. Fox first attempted to shoot motion capture rigs with a Kinect and then import them into the animation program MikuMikuDance. Later, after drawing concept art for the character in 2017, he attempted to have Kanotynes create a 3D model for him, though this fell through for unspecified reasons. The final model for Tenna's sprites was ultimately put together by PixelatedCrown based on Gigi DG's interpretation of Fox's artwork.