Hello! First off, this is kind of a 'help me with my homework' thread.

For a class project I'm going to be creating the assets and such for a character creation screen like you'd see in the beginning of most role-playing games, where you choose your starting looks, facial features, armor perhaps, etc. Just a note, I'm not actually making a whole game.. just the character creation part.

So, I was wondering if I could get some info from some RPG fans about what they'd want to see in such things so that I make something good.



I'll kind of format a feedback questionnaire but feel free to break free from this format and discuss the subject however you see fit.


Age(optional):

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:

What game would you say has the best character creation?:

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:


Thanks for any replies.

I think being able to create my own character makes the game far more enjoyable and immersive, however, it's not a deal breaker if it's not included.

I enjoy Bioware's system of character creation, as you can pick a backstory for your character.

With regards to heads and body types, there should be presets which you can then customise from there, like Mass Effect.

There should be a wide array of different hairstyles and facial hair styles.

You should be allowed to pick one "perk" in the character creation, such as boosted health from the start, or a powerful weapon. There should be many different options for this, and each one should feel valuable.

Hope I helped in some way.

Age(optional):
33

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
Not that important. I think The Witcher is one of the best RPGs of the past decade and there's no character creation there, you will play as Geralt no matter what.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, so many options! The game is a http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Files#Daggerfall.2C_the_full_game, so try it out if you haven't already.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
It depends on the type of game. If the game is in a more linear nature, I don't mind having few well-designed options. But I think for large open-ended games I want as much freedom as possible in every aspect so more options are better (within gameplay reason).

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
I don't really care about this much, although I did change the height for wood elves in TESCS for Morrowind as I felt they were much too short.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
I barely use it, but I think it's great. This means that all the NPCs will have unique faces. In older RPGs you could meet 17 different people using male face #4.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
Hair is tricky, I have yet to play any RPG that offer various hair styles with one that I actually like. So in the end I usually just pick the average neutral one.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
I think it should depend on the character stats and the class. A barbarian and a mage shouldn't start with the same stuff, and if the character got a high luck s/he might start with some more $$$ and so on.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
One feature I thought was cool in Daggerfall was that depending on the class and various character generation choices, the game would generate a backstory for the character. I thought that was neat and would like to see a modern take on that.

Age(optional): 20

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?: I think it's pretty cool, but I don't hold it against a game when I'm not given the option (Planescape Torment).

What game would you say has the best character creation?: I haven't played many. Saints Row 2 did it nice with full customization of face, body, walking style and voice, but the faces were hard to get right.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?: I'm usually overwhelmed with the amount of things you can change, and I'm not very good at it. Still, it's nice that the option is there for those who like endlessly tweaking faces.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?: Nice but not so important.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?): I'm not very good at creating a good face, so a bunch of pre-made heads to begin with are a must.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? : If you can customize the face then different hair styles are a must. I'd say at least 12 for each gender.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes): I don't really care.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?: Being able to preview your character under different amounts/colors of lighting.

Well, if you look at Mass Effect, they did a lot right there. You pick options of your character's back story. You customize a face if you like. That's great if the game is graphic intensive and focuses on the face like in Mass Effect.

Now, customizing skills has a double edge. In Mass Effect, your class determined what skills you had to develop. Other games, like Oblivion and Deus Ex doesn't lock you in a box. Yeah, class/race might set up how predisposed you are to certain paths, but you can choose to develop the character in the game however you like.

I'd not want EVERYTHING set at the very beginning.

[quote name='Jonas Sancter' timestamp='1296139356' post='17074468']
Hello! First off, this is kind of a 'help me with my homework' thread.

For a class project I'm going to be creating the assets and such for a character creation screen like you'd see in the beginning of most role-playing games, where you choose your starting looks, facial features, armor perhaps, etc. Just a note, I'm not actually making a whole game.. just the character creation part.

So, I was wondering if I could get some info from some RPG fans about what they'd want to see in such things so that I make something good.



I'll kind of format a feedback questionnaire but feel free to break free from this format and discuss the subject however you see fit.


Age(optional): 42

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?: Depends. It's not a game maker or breaker. Again, a lot depends on how graphic intensive the game is and it focusing on your character's face (like Mass Effect) as compared to one where there is little emphasis (like Oblivion). As for non-appearance issues (skills and such), it's hard to say. Oblivion had a weird way classes affected development, so if you wanted to power level, you needed a custom character that made your major skills so that you could absolutely control when you leveled up.

What game would you say has the best character creation?: Limited experience. Mass Effect and Oblivion had good models.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?: Not sure what you are asking. For visual appearance, variety is nice. Fallout 3 had a LOUSY face generation system compared to Mass Effect.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?: Not too important since the more modeling you let the gamer do the harder it must be on the program to run. Example is that in Mass Effect, the body styles for men and women are generic...not a big sin, but it looks odd to make a male character with roundish face and thick neck who has a very lean body and thin arms. Normally one affects the other.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?): Since Mass Effect came out, they set the bar high. Fallout 3 was a joke and difficult to use (for me) compared to Mass Effect. In a simpler game or one where there is little visual emphasis on the protagonist's face, less options are fine. Perhaps that's why Fallout 3 took a less aggressive path on face generation.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? : Important. Not sure how many are enough. Mass Effect had some rather impractical ones for female characters (how is a bun supposed to fit in a helmet?).

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes): Starting gear should be generic. Let the player develop his path with stuff he finds or buys. Depends on the game nature. Mass Effect 2 improved on ME by having a set suit of armor you could customize or buy custom pieces to swap out rather than dozens of different styles and colors based on what you bought/found. For Oblivion, you'd expect to start with rags and have to find/buy better gear.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?: A critical thing to me is the option to go back and change things. ME and ME2 lack this in that you create a good face (so you think) and realize it looks bad. Game lighting doesn't always match the illumination at the creation screen. But, still, you'd think it would be possible to change hair style and beard (not eyebrows) and hair color by visiting someplace where such things are possible. Nice bit of immersion to change your look as you can in real life.

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
For me, it's very important. I tend to resent RPG's that force you to play as a certain character with no customisation. If the game is good enough I'll get over it, but it's still an important aspect for me.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:
That's a tough one, older RPG's such as Arcanum and Fallout (1 & 2) were great at making the character you created feel different in terms of gameplay thanks to choices in stats and background. However more modern games are much better at allowing characters to look different cosmetically, which I believe is equally important. Dragon Age is a recent example of a game that did this fairly well, but there are others.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
I love character customisation, so as many options as possible for me.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
This is one of the things that I feel isn't as important as others, I'd much rather have in-depth facial customisation rather than weight and height sliders, but it's a good option to have.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
Both preferably. Sliders so that you can create the 'perfect' face if you want to, but a good selection of pre-made ones to start from, or just use if you're not that bothered.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
Very important in terms of cosmetics, especially as in many RPG's you'll be spending a lot of time looking at the back of your character's head. The more the merrier in terms of options, but maybe 10 or so as a minimum ideally.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
I think it would be OK if it's just determined by class, but as always more detail is great. Arcanum had a nice system where the background you selected gave you different starting gear, but before the game started you were given a shop screen and some gold (amount depending on your background) so you could make some limited changes before you started to fine tune your character even more. But really it depends on the game, if you're going to be getting new gear thick and fast at the start then it doesn't matter very much if your starting gear is fairly generic.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
Well, I'm demanding enough as it is when it comes to character creation, but I'd love to see a game come out that has really a in depth appearance customisation, but also important decisions that really affect the game such as background and stat choices. Don't think I've ever really seen a game that has done both really well.

22


It is incredibly important to me.


Dragon Age


I like a wide array of races and cosmetic options.


I like it to be there. It isnt necessary though.


I like presets so that my characters look like they belong in the game.


Yes its important and their should be a lot of them.


I think you should start with something very basic and have to loot or earn other clothes.


Tatoos and Warpaint.

Age(optional): 28

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:Depends on the game. If the story is very important to the game I don't mind being given a specific character, or a limited choice of them.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:Daggerfall's is good. I like Mount & Blade's as well.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?: I like choices that have an effect on what the character can do in the game. Purely aesthetic choices I don't care about as much.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:Not particularly important.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):Never make much use of them. I generally just use a preset or random face with very minor, if any, tweaking.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? : Some options are nice. I don't really care about customising the styles much.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):I'd like to be able to choose between a few sets, rather than getting a something automatically based just on my class.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:I like being able to describe my character's back-story, whether just through typing it in or choosing from options. I liked the way Arcanum did it.

I went to start a new game in New Vegas the other day and I noticed I could not make my character biggerer. You know what I'm talkin about?

I was kinda disappointed, then I thought about it some more and noticed there were no biggerer characters in the game.

Bioware has my favorite character creation.

Age(optional):

21

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:

Very Important

What game would you say has the best character creation?:

APB or EVE Online

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:

As much options as possible.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:

I can live without it but it would be great

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):

More options/sliders = Better

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :

As much as possible.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):

Depends, but I would like that game asks few questions and gives items based on those questions. Or just items based on class.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:

APB and EVE Online pretty much has perfect UI for that.

I am assuming by character creation you mean a graphical portrayal of the character, because the first thing which comes to mind when I think of character creation in an RPG is a character skill set. In this regards, Diablo and Fallout would be clear winners for me. In reality, graphical adjustments to my character don't mean anything to me. I will however make use of them if the choice is there.


Age(optional):
19

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
It depends on the game. I don't need customization for a game like The Witcher, but I would want customization for an ES game.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:
I'm not really sure.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
Like I said, it depends on the game.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
Not important.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
I always use pre-made heads.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
If I am able to choose a face, I should be able to choose hair style and colour too.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
Class choice, or no gear at all.

I'm assuming we're just talking looks here, not stats etc.

Age(optional):
22

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
Not vital, but welcome. If we talk in a TES context here, would you deem race/gender selection but not aesthetic customisation as "no character creation"? Because that's all I need really. I don't tend to spend a long time customising looks.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:
My memory of character customisations is far too foggy to answer this fairly.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
Presets, with purther customisation options.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
Not at all important, but welcome.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
Probably one of the more important aspects of character creation, despite rarely being seen. The face goes some way towards defining your character, so a high degree of customisation here is good.

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
Enough to provide a good selection, but not overkill on similar styles.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
Should be determined by everything you set up in character creation. Race, class, background... But the items you receive shouldn't be unbalanced between selections or overpowered.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
I always like a character creation system that runs through a sort of mine-story (TES, New Vegas style etc).

Not trying to necro the thread, but just wanted to say - thanks a lot guys for your thoughts! Usually for things like this I just ask my other classmates, and the responses I receive are pretty uninformed. But you people are a thoughtful and articulate bunch.


Yeah, as some have mentioned I'm mostly concerned with the graphical aspects of this, as opposed to gameplay elements like stats and such, as it's the graphics that I will be working on. However, no information is useless, and I was interested in whatever you had to say in relation to non-graphical elements of character creation too, you never know how it could be put to use.

But yeah, I understand the importance of gameplay elements over graphics. Daggerfall probably has my favorite character creation.. so many choices of skills strengths/weaknesses. Quite excellent.

HA! Now I can be a statistical anomonly/outlyer

Cool, I'll discuss this with me other personalities and come right back

Age(optional): Kind of depends on the story or game setting. If the story requires me to be a child, I'll be a child (I'm good at it, just ask my wife ) If I play an advlt, I'll play an advlt. Given an option, I'll probably just go with the default choices. Oh, did you mean my age? 41 :celebrate:


How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:I like to contro the attributes and skills, and care VERY LITTLE about tweaking what my character looks like. Give me a pices of paper, stats, and my imagination, I'll be good to go :nod:

What game would you say has the best character creation?: Um, how about Baldur's Gates? They had hardly any kind of sliders, age, nose length, chin depth, etc...

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:Limited set. I rarely spend more than 5 or 10 minutes customizing my characters' appearences. It's about the game, not about the perfect look.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:Not very.

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):A few premade heads

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? : Not too important. If you have it, only a few different styles.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):Again, this is story and game driven. How about giving me a budget and I can go to a shop to buy things. From there, the budget could be tweaked if there are classes.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
Um, a quick "skip" button.

It's probably that I played mucho pnp growing up, and am just stuck in my nice comfy rut

Can't be bothered right now to respond to all of it, but I really, really really hate it when there isn't an option for long hair on men (Fallout) or only crap looking longish hair (Oblivion). It's been a while since I played it, but I think Dragon Age had some good ones.

I also must have beards. Tattoos and war-paint are really nice too, but not absolutely necessary. Long hair and beards are, I want my first character to look like me. Disregarding all its other flaws, one of the main reasons that I cannot enjoy Oblivion as much as Morrowind is that it is impossible to make an awesome looking Nord, even with mods.

Also related to Oblivion, having lots of sliders is really nice and all, but I want at least a dozen preset faces. I don't want to spend two hours in a character creation menu, I want to play the bloody game, so give me something to work with.

And when giving the option to customize player height, limit it a bit. In Aion Online I met other players whose heads barely reached my waist...

Hmm, I sound kind of bitter don't I?

Personally I dont care to much about looks, I care more about stats that effect playstyle in an rpg.

Creating your own character is something I like very much.

Things you should really think about/include: Facial hair, Makes sense and is annoying when it's not in a game. I dislike pre-made characters/heads. Different build types could be fun but I've never actually seen them in a game so am not sure how well it works out in proactise.

can't think of anything more at the mo

That's quite a project in itself. Good luck!


Age(optional):
18
How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
It's not incredibly important if the character is designed tastefully; what a lot of character creation mechanics lack are personality related features. Like tattoos, piercings, and scars.
What game would you say has the best character creation?:
In recent memory, Fallout: New Vegas. For the time, the Sims was definitely superior to anything.
What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
It depends, as each person enjoys their own style or look. If it suits my taste well, I'd have no problem with limited options.
How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
Doesn't make much difference.
What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
As said before, if the sliders result in something distorted and strange ( i.e Oblivion ) then I'd have to go with pre-made heads.
Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
It's important, as hair can do a lot to a face. I'd say the basic hair lengths: bald, short, medium, and long would be good enough. More styles the better for each.
What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
That's a question which weighs heavily into the games design, I couldn't say.
What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
A lot of character creators lack a very usable camera, also customizing the lighting and sample animations ( show character attacking/blocking/etc. ) would be a nice raising of standards.

Edit: Grammar

Age(optional):
22

How important is character creation to your overall enjoyment of an RPG? Would you be just as happy if this was done for you?:
Story is at the top of my importance list, and a story about an interesting character that I shape while playing through the game can be just as engaging as starting from scratch.

What game would you say has the best character creation?:
Arcanum maybe, for sheer story options? I really can't answer this, I could probably throw options in from quite a few games but I can't remember character creators well enough off the top of my head.

What do you prefer in character creation, a wide-array of choices and many customizable options, or a more limited set of more-cohesive and well-designed options?:
Well designed stands out here, please let it be well designed, look good, and not so limiting.

There is nothing more annoying than starting from scratch with a character creator, and having just a handful of stupid looking presets I can't mold into a presentable character.

How important is it to have the ability to select different body types, or at least a height-slider?:
Almost zero importance. I can think of only one or two games off the top of my head that have the feature, and I just put the slider somewhere close to how I look and move on to more important options. I've never really been like, "Wow a height slider, I'd love to play a short fat guy today!"

What are your preferences in regards to facial customization? (array of sliders to fine-tune character, or the ability to swap between several-pre-made heads?):
Bottom line: I svck at making faces, or maybe that was just because Oblivion's were so hideous to start with. Didn't Mass Effect have face sliders? I seem to remember making some decent looking people then. I guess the biggest thing is I hate ugly characters, especially pre-made ones.

Just being honest...

Is the inclusion of different hair styles important? How many options should there be? :
I've always enjoyed hairstyles, after all it is probably the most important part of a person's appearance.

What kind of options should there be for your starting gear? Should it just be determined by class choice? (assuming there are classes):
I wouldn't mind a sort of wardrobe option, play some dress up when creating your character.

What other details would you like to see implemented in a character creation screen?:
I can't really think of anything that hasn't been tried, would just like to see some time spent on making the character creator good, instead of just throwing one in the game for the sake of saying you have it.