Six-hundred and forty. 640.
That’s how many combinations it came down to.
Character creation is no joke people. I couldn’t let players go hog-wild with the built-in generator, nor could I use a plug-in. No, I have certain designs for the classes in mind, and sun glasses haven’t been invented yet, so impractical clothes and accessories are a no-go. And yet, I want the player to be able to customize their own character to a degree.
The variables I broke character creation down to are gender, skin tone, eye color, hair style, and hair color. I tried to give a little something for everyone here. Skin tones range from a light peach to a dark brown. Eye colors are the usual four (brown, green, blue, hazel) plus blind. I didn’t want to go all anime and start adding red, gold, etc, so I put in blind for people who want something special. Hair styles are bald, short hair, neck-length, and long enough to have a ponytail and still drapes in the back. For hair colors, I stuck with the norm – blonde, brunette, red, and black.
All of that added up to 640 combinations, 320 for each gender, 80 for each skin tone. It took two weeks to make all the sprites and then program the thing, but it’s all worth it. Why?
Because the first part of my video PC game is now complete. Congratulations to me!
Want to help me test the character creator? Download it and email me any bugs or combinations you find that don’t work. Windows and MacOS available.