Semi-random character appearance

In the last video update, we had multiple NPCs randomly walking around, which was a big step towards the initial engine for the demo. They all looked the same though, like a bunch of clones, twins or ‘Malkoviches’. The latest work on the engine remedies that by creating the look of the characters by semi-randomly combining and coloring different body parts.

Watch it in HD!

As you can see, none of the characters look exactly the same. Some of them look a bit similar, though, but that’s just because this test only has 2 types of shirts, 2 pants, 2 shoes, 2 hair styles and 6 hats to choose from (the guard uniforms aren’t combined with the other clothing types, so I’m not counting the uniform pants, shirts and shoes in this). Imagine the level of variety that can be produced with 10 types of each clothing part instead of just 2!

It does take quite some time to prepare all the various sprites for this – each character frame consists of about 15 sprites and there are 10 frames in this animation and a bunch of different sprites for each body part, so if you do the math, it really adds up – but I think the results are definitely worth it. I’ve also optimized my work flow in creating these sprites, so I can knock them out pretty quickly now.

I’m currently working on creating the sprites for the other seven directions (well, actually just 4, as three of them are just existing sprites mirrored), as well as for the running animation and the neutral position. This’ll probably take considerable time, so it might be awhile before the next video update – unless I do some work on other parts of the engine that are worth sharing. We’ll see.