character creators - Forum - Virtual Popstar

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Hauru wrote:
what do you think is generally lacking in character creators for games? what would you like to see developers put more emphasis on ? im gonna write my bachelors soon and i have the chance to practise on a few research questions for a theoretical proposal. I thought it would be interesting to make my focus on character creators soecifically on hairstyles or make up what do you think??

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National Star

Hauru wrote:
in the end i want to find out if this is a category that is worth being worked on for longer and if it helps with better identity expression cause i think the hairstyles in most character creator based games suuuuuckk also there is like never the option to make your make up pretty or something

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Youtube Star

devilcake wrote:
Diversity is such a cliche answer but I srsly think including different hair textures and hair lengths from the get go is such a big thing. Especially seeing peoples reaction to the tomodachi life hair options!! So I fink very fun n relevant idea. Especially since I think a lot of companies seem to think better character creation = more hyper detail when o think a lot of people probably care more about having a lot of options for hair, cosmetics and clothes… like I do t care if I can adjust my characters left nostril size if they gotta have an ugly hair, janky make up and undrippy clothes….

tbh sometimes it feels like these super high budget games are being rolled out with like the most Karen ass haircuts and 2 make up options, and the worst color pallets for clothes n ur there like,,, was the person responsible for character creation someone’s 50 year old straight dad or what’s up…. Especially with certain things like I wonder why so often there are so few make up options when that’s such an easy and fast asset to male

will you do research like looking into what the market want, or looking into how companies are working with it or smth else?

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devilcake wrote:
Things being gender locked has always been a pet peeve of mine too (looking at you vp) but I feel like most games are getting a lot better with this

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National Star

Hauru wrote:

devilcake wrote:
Diversity is such a cliche answer but I srsly think including different hair textures and hair lengths from the get go is such a big thing. Especially seeing peoples reaction to the tomodachi life hair options!! So I fink very fun n relevant idea. Especially since I think a lot of companies seem to think better character creation = more hyper detail when o think a lot of people probably care more about having a lot of options for hair, cosmetics and clothes… like I do t care if I can adjust my characters left nostril size if they gotta have an ugly hair, janky make up and undrippy clothes….

tbh sometimes it feels like these super high budget games are being rolled out with like the most Karen ass haircuts and 2 make up options, and the worst color pallets for clothes n ur there like,,, was the person responsible for character creation someone’s 50 year old straight dad or what’s up…. Especially with certain things like I wonder why so often there are so few make up options when that’s such an easy and fast asset to male

will you do research like looking into what the market want, or looking into how companies are working with it or smth else?

onf of my other questions would have been how important or less important some categories are. The research would focus on understanding what categories are actually meaningful to help create a good character. I also think less is sometimes more it depends on the quality. Would also be interesting to focus on female character creator options since i think they are sometimes soooo bad and barely represent women in general or what they like

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National Star

Hauru wrote:

devilcake wrote:
Diversity is such a cliche answer but I srsly think including different hair textures and hair lengths from the get go is such a big thing. Especially seeing peoples reaction to the tomodachi life hair options!! So I fink very fun n relevant idea. Especially since I think a lot of companies seem to think better character creation = more hyper detail when o think a lot of people probably care more about having a lot of options for hair, cosmetics and clothes… like I do t care if I can adjust my characters left nostril size if they gotta have an ugly hair, janky make up and undrippy clothes….

tbh sometimes it feels like these super high budget games are being rolled out with like the most Karen ass haircuts and 2 make up options, and the worst color pallets for clothes n ur there like,,, was the person responsible for character creation someone’s 50 year old straight dad or what’s up…. Especially with certain things like I wonder why so often there are so few make up options when that’s such an easy and fast asset to male

will you do research like looking into what the market want, or looking into how companies are working with it or smth else?

onf of my other questions would have been how important or less important some categories are. The research would focus on understanding what categories are actually meaningful to help create a good character. I also think less is sometimes more it depends on the quality. Would also be interesting to focus on female character creator options since i think they are sometimes soooo bad and barely represent women in general or what they like

oh and my focus will be mostly on how to achieve better identity expression through a certain category like hair for example or make up and if its something useful to help create better character creators in the industry. I dont know how far i will get into it because the proposal is just theoretical for now ( i might choose a different question for my bachelor) and i need to do my research first. My practical part will be me creating a character creator as a tool to test the question with a surveyyy!! i hope when i actually write my bachelor yall want to test it again

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Hauru wrote:

devilcake wrote:
Things being gender locked has always been a pet peeve of mine too (looking at you vp) but I feel like most games are getting a lot better with this

you mean like being able to have the same options for male and female? i think the biggest issue for 3D games especially is the fitting of clothes on different body types since males are usually created bulkier or more square. I also found out that people usually avoid creating curvy models bcs they usually overlap with the clothes or glitch through and its a pain or takes a lot of time to fit

Chat0yant
World Famous

Chat0yant wrote:
I've played a loooooot of character creator games... (too many). Some (like vp) have absolutely amazing clothes (and amounts of it), but I find the ones that i absolutely obsess over are the ones that let you tweak things more uniquely than others... that made no sense let me explain:

Recolor.me: granted, it was my first for real character creator, but I absolutely love that you have color sliders, dark/light sliders, and can even tweak slightly the position of the individual items.

Ones w/ really detailed character creator screens like sims/life makeover: Y'know, where you can change a billion different details in the face, body, etc. But i do sometimes get overwhelmed/tired with having to do all of that work and it taking hours to make a full character, so pros/cons.

My current obsession, PurenistaM: while the individual items can't be tweaked much (besides changing eye/head posiition and body proportions a BIT), it's done like a graphic design scene maker i.e. you can design a whole scene around your avi complete w/ layers, sizing, rotation, etc.

Idk if this is entirely on topic but i'm gonna keep ranting

I guess for me, character creators have been in my brain less about making an idealized version of me but more like a light, simple version of drawing characters. So I especially gravitate towards ones where I can tweak the characters I think because i can make little details feel more accurate to the "story" of the character i'm making. I do make oc's on avi makers, but even when I'm just making something for fun, i frequently give it little bits of story (that i usually forget in a day) while i'm making it. The older i get, the more... painful drawing has gotten for me? I.e. i get more and more disappointed that things never look "good/right" when i actually draw them, so having avi makers where the end results actually looks decent AND that it's a whole lot easier/multitask-able than actually drawing i think is why it's kind of ended up as "drawing light" in my brain.

ok now back to topic

I do agree that hairstyles/face are prolly the most important parts and sometimes not given as much care as clothes. But I feel like, i'm not sure if there's one overarching thing for ALL character creators that they don't do well. I know a lot tend to not have as many hair/skin/eye colors as I/others would like (like a lot that have like 10 options vs color wheel or a lot of presets). A lot of games don't have much in the way of body modifiers too (fantasy or realistic i.e. scars, etc.). I know multiple games have quality differences? I.e. some items are shaded/designed with way more detail and then it can be hard to match them together in more collector type games vs basic mmo/rpg character creators. I also like when character creators let you have a lot more options at the very start so you can make something you like, even if you have to unlock/buy most of those 1st time items later. Am i off topic again?

Well, idk if i answered the question, but i seem to love talking about this so lmk if ya want me to rant more!

Solar
National Star

Solar wrote:
i h8 when i cant change the body proportions, if there's plenty of presets thats fine but if there's just one perfectly curved female body and one mega chad male body i cry

so many games only offer ugly hairstyles. once again presets are fine (i actually hate using too many sliders and percentages because it makes me very #overwhelmed) but pls give good options... so often theres only short - shoulder length - slightly longer shoulder length hair, why cant i have hair to my butt
ponytails are always ugly af
braids are often uninspired and also ugly
it would be cool if every hairstyle could be changed in how curly it is. like straight / wavy / curly / tight curls. i've never seen a game offer that option in character creation but it would be amazing

good color presets, i actually dislike color wheels/sliders because they always turn out ugly unless u look up color codes that actually look good but why do i have to look it up if it can just be. a good preset

i do enjoy getting to pick every facial feature, adjusting like you can do in the sims is peak for facial features. but pls dont let me near the brow bone bc i mess that up always. i dislike it when games have u pick a complete face, or when the eyebrows cant be chosen apart from the eyes
i want to be able to give my character white lashes n brows which is almost always not possible

biggest pet peeve is when there's one breast size Big (bg3 ggrr)

elisia
National Star

elisia wrote:
Non white hairstyles. Unnatural skin tones, i love making a Lil alien with purple skin and green hair

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Minister of Pop

Maxwell wrote:
Evry game shud have a "leon kennedy" button that just makes the character leon kennedy cus Im just gonna do that myself anyway, save me some time