Character Customizer
It's been a busy month. I hope you had it a little easier there....
The moving was a bit more stressful than expected and so I couldn't work on Magical Harvest for a week. Our new home is very idyllic, on the edge of a small village right next to the forest. Squirrels and a deer have already welcomed us :-). The snow in the garden is still over half a meter high here. Let's see when it will be spring here....
But now to Magical Harvest.
I didn't write any news in the middle of March. So now I summarize the whole month in one category:
Character Customizer
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
After I created a simple customizer at the beginning of the month, I reworked it completely. Originally I tried to get all options on one UI panel, but the space was too little to be able to design the character really well. At least with the species, where you can create tails, ears etc., the solution was not optimal.
So after I changed the system, it was easy to add new options. Of course, there is still work behind it, but there is simply no more lack of space and support for other screen sizes is therefore also secured.
In parallel, I found a good way to work with the hair creation and generally worked more with the base model to slowly bring it into the desired direction. The clothing and some options are currently still not final. The clothing is still causing a tiny bit of trouble with animations and so I'm not creating complex assets yet. My wish is to hire someone for this who can create better quality models. But I need funding first (Kickstarter is planned for the end of the year).
About the Customizer itself:
You can choose between the 5 different species. Apart from the skin color, from which you can choose from predefined options, you can customize your character according to your color preferences. Clothing colors are also predetermined, as clothes can be made throughout the game.
In addition to the basic options (hair, beard, eyes, top, pants, shoes and gloves), some of the species have additional customizing options:
- Ki'shen: (animal) ears & tail
- Elves: Tiara
- Drakys: scales, horns & tail
- Nereids: Head fin, stripes & scales
Species Bonus
Each of the species bring with them a bonus that affects the game. Currently, the idea is that you get 10% more gold from a certain category when you sell products (humans get 10% more when selling farm products, for example). Whether the currently added bonuses will stay that way, we will see as development progresses.
Outlook
The next step is to connect the customizer to the main game and save and load the right model. Then I need new animations.
So the focus is still on the character and also on the NPCs to make them come to life as well.
I hope that I will live up to your expectations with all the updates. It's probably not moving fast enough for you, but unfortunately this is a very big project. I'm working towards the Kickstarter campaign to be able to hire people to speed things up a bit. I just need to have something to show for it first.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie