Well, well, well… look who’s still alive. Time for a long overdue update I think.
Unseen, but Essential
Last time I checked in, I was waist-deep in prefab setup and metadata slog – and it was about as thrilling as it sounds. The good news is, that stage is now completely finished, and I’ve since moved on to building the actual character UI screen. Unfortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t quite as bright as I’d have hoped, since my current tasks are just as ‘behind-the-scenes’ as the aforementioned prefab and metadata work.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve mainly been focused on three major scripts. They’re not the most glamorous part of development, but they’re absolutely crucial to how the whole game functions, especially for an RPG. The upside is that, whilst I have been a bit bogged down getting these core systems right, the payoff will be huge: once these scripts are in place, a big chunk of other systems (inventory, companion management, load-outs, medical, crafting, and more) will already have their foundations built. They all depend on these core scripts in one way or another, so it’s slow going now, but it’ll pay off massively later.
So now, let’s get into each of these scripts:
1. Body Part Registry:
This is essentially the master script that the game uses to find, categorise, map, and assign all the body parts and sprites for both the player and every NPC. For reference, I finally did a count, and each character has 154 separate layers (yep, it’s quite a lot lol). These layers cover everything from facial features, limbs, tattoos, hairstyles, piercings, clothing, armour, and more. Each part is organised by both body type and gender, and the system builds an internal ‘dictionary’ of every single part, indexing them all so they can be swapped on the fly – whether it’s for character customisation, inventory changes, companion load-outs, or anything else. On top of that, mod integration is fully supported from the ground up: the registry automatically detects and includes any mods a user has installed, with no extra steps required. Pretty cool.
2. Paperdoll Controller:
So for those that haven’t heard this term before, the ‘paperdoll’ is basically just the character preview you see in most RPGs within character creation screens, inventories, or even level-up menus. It’s essentially a simplified version of your player character, designed just for previewing gear, outfits, and customizations. This controller handles all the logic for swapping out parts and managing things like gender selection. For example, if you switch your character to female, the script will automatically disable any male-specific parts (like genitals) and enable all the correct female-specific ones. Soon, it’ll also be responsible for handling clothing and armour changes, and eventually weapons and other gear as well. This one actually tripped me up a little because initially I thought ‘yeah easy, all I gotta do is trim down the player script and voila!’ but alas, nope, quite a lot more work was involved than that (it’s never easy is it?).
3. Character Customisation UI:
As you might expect, this script is in charge of all the buttons, sliders, and interactive elements on the character customisation screen. It’s what makes everything work behind the scenes, such as assigning gender and body type, changing skin and hair colour, swapping out noses, ears, hairstyles, and more – basically all of it runs through this system. Beyond just handling basic sliders and previous/next buttons, this script also features an early version of the grid system (the ‘view all’ panel), which will later become the backbone of the full inventory system. In short, if you’re clicking on a button or tweaking your character’s appearance on the customisation screen, this script is running the show.
These three scripts are basically some of the most important ones in the entire game, especially for a character-driven RPG like this. They’re all deeply interconnected, calling on each other for just about every function related to character creation and customisation. It might not sound super exciting right now (especially with no shiny new screenshots to help visualise what I’m talking about), but trust me, this is the good stuff under the hood.
At this point, I’d say all three scripts are about 90% complete. I’m currently in the process of wiring up all the UI buttons and controls, so with a bit of luck, the next dev log should have a bunch of cool new GIFs showcasing the character creation screen in action.
So there you have it, a long-overdue return after a few weeks of silence, and lemme tell ya – it feels good to be back.
I do apologise for the radio silence lately though; it’s not something I want to make a habit of. It was just one of those stretches where a perfect storm of life and work things made it necessary to take a short break. The good news is, the job transition is sorted and the other life stuff has cleared up, so from here on out I’ll be back on my usual fortnightly dev log schedule.
As always, thanks for reading – I really appreciate everyone who checks in, and I hope you enjoyed the update!
