Another week, another dev log.
This week is a rather short one as I’m still neck-deep in the asset creation slog, but I do have a few updates to show, so let’s just dive right in.
Mobile UI No More
Alrighty, the first little update is a progress shot of the character customization screen, and since the last post I’ve made a bunch of refinements. These include shifting button placement, cleaning up the overall layout, and a few other small fixes. I also (after far too much trial and error) finally landed on a system that lets you customize each limb separately – without major UI spam or 10 mile long scroll lists.
You can check out the updated layout below:
The main UI is now split into two halves:
– Left Side = the core anatomy: this includes permanent physical features like body type/parts, skin tone, and facial structure, as well as the various hair styles and colours.
– Right side = the extras: this includes various customizations that are layered on top, like tattoos, piercings, scars, and other body details.
The right side is also now organized into categories. In the screenshot above you can currently see the ‘FACE’ tab, but the panel changes dynamically based on whichever button you pick from the top row.
I also shuffled around the ‘randomize’ and ‘continue’ buttons into far better spots, which finally killed off that whole “mobile game UI” vibe. Major win there lol.
And one last little tweak: hair now has separate colour choices for each style, instead of one universal “Hair Colour” setting. NPCs will still use a linked palette to avoid cursed RNG abominations (*cough* Sims 4 *cough*), but for the player and their crew there will be full creative freedom.
So that’s where this screen is sitting for now – and before you say it, yes, it does still look kinda hideous. Rest assured though, all these placeholder buttons and panels will be swapped out for proper hand-drawn UI art later on, so let’s just pretend it looks amazing (for the time being).
One Size Fits None
You remember in the last dev log I made a big fuss about finally being done with character models? Yeah… turns out I may have jumped the gun on that one lol. Whilst the “base” male and female models were done, there were still FOUR more body type variations to tackle – and they sure as hell weren’t going to draw themselves.
Now, after weeks of soul-crushing labor, I present to you the (90%) complete character body types! The male variants are basically finished, with only the female “average” left to go (the thin and heavy ones are already wrapped up).
Witness the male variants in all their glory:
And we can’t forget the female counterparts now either, so once again feast your eyes on MORE glorious variants:
I can’t deny, this character work has been BRUTAL. There’s only so many times you can sit there and draw the exact same character in slightly different proportions before you start to go a bit loopy. And loopy I have gone.
Six rounds of re-importing, re-skinning, re-generating geometry, re-assigning bones, re-generating weights, re-writing sprite libraries, and re-creating components. Ooft. I’ve been paddling neck-deep up Shit Creek with nothin’ but my bare hands, lemme tell you.
But fear not – the end of the shit tunnel is in sight. All that’s left is to finish the female “average,” jump through the re-import hoops one last time, and then all six body types will be fully implemented and ready to go.
Do you know what that means? NO MORE BASE CHARACTER WORK!!! WOOOOOOOO!
I cannot wait to be done with this. Every day I wake up thinking about all the cool things I could be drawing, coding, or adding to the game – and then I sit down and spend eight hours drawing grayscale arms and legs. It’s been… rough lmao.
But we’re almost there, and it’s all gunna be worth it soon.
That’s all for today, folks. Hopefully, even with a shorter list of additions, you still enjoyed the read.
Over the next few days I’ll be wrapping up the final body type, doing one last pass over all six to make sure animations are smooth and outfits equip properly, and then – at long last – moving on.
With any luck, the next log will bring updates on prefabs, NPCs, outfits, and the stat screen… so keep an eye out, because I’ve got a feeling it’s gunna be a cool one.