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Have you spotted the Killmonger dreads? They're everywhere these days. What started in Marvel's Black Panther film is now ubiquitous in gaming. And these dreads are not just on the heads of Miles Morales or Tekken's Eddy Gordo. They're in character creators too. The style began as fashion but has quickly become a stereotype.
From a single hairstyle grew broader questions about character creators: Why are they so hard to get right? What are the forces that shape their development, and how are these forces changing? And what might the ultimate character creator look like?Adding a character creator to a game comes with huge risk. Get it wrong and at best your game becomes a meme; at worst it can alienate a community. Take Mass Effect: Andromeda as an example.
In Cyberpunk 2077, pronouns are tied to voice, so it's impossible to be non-binary in a world all about freedom and body modification. |That was the case in Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red's game was praised for the detail in its character creator, but also criticised at launch for its poor trans representation. This mostly related to the lack of representation and consequence in the game world itself, as Stacey Henley wrote for.
Through my research, it became clear that, fundamentally, character creators act as a two-way mirror. They're a diverse toolset that allows players to feel seen, but they're a reflection on developers too. Dig deeper and you can identify the political ideologies and technical limitations the team has worked within."It's essential that the creator fits the game you're making," Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama tells me.
Cyberware also restricted body shape customisation in Cyberpunk 2077, as players can install blades and hacking devices into V’s arms as part of gameplay. However, this restricts players from changing the size and length of arms, as well as the types of garments that can be worn. That’s why V rarely wears gloves. |Fashion is key for players to express themselves as V throughout Cyberpunk 2077's world.
The character creator in Cyberpunk 2077 is deeply shaped by the priorities of the developer, then. And it's by no means alone. Diablo 4 is another blockbuster RPG that similarly does not allow players to alter body shape. Here, though, as a fast-paced action game, it came down to accessibility.
She continues:"Even looking from a strictly mercenary business lens, why leave so much of the potential world market on the table when it is relatively minor effort to add in more customisation compared to all that is being created to build a living, breathing world?"It's worth noting that in some cases, the limitations of a character creator can evolve over time - particularly when the games in question are also live services.
As an example?"Looking at the way we used to do skin in the past versus now," Friedland says,"previously it really just started out with a single 'here's your default white skin' - we used to call it 'naked white guy'. And then you could adjust the palette. But that really doesn’t capture the subtleties .
Moreover, small indie teams can be agile."We don't have to go through approvals," Coats continues."We don't have to get legal to sign off on something. Back when I was in AAA, it felt like you always had to get permission from someone. And that person was generally a straight, cisgender, white male, and they'd be terrified of anything coming up."
Gagne feels similarly, and tells me representation requires both a passion for diversity and the money to see that vision through."So you get studios which have one but not the other," he says.
I had assumed Baldur's Gate 3's basis in D&D may have impacted the character creator. Yet Schick explains that while the game initially followed the rules in the D&D 5th edition Player's Handbook, this ultimately placed"arbitrary restrictions upon our players", so player expression was prioritised over rules and the creator was changed to accommodate that.
"I don't want to say it was trivial, but it was a lot easier than every AAA studio that I was at made it out to be." "To me, the argument that curly hairstyles or dark skin are 'too hard' seems like an excuse to not push the medium or the tech forward," says Ellis. "It's absolutely a challenge, I'm not going to deny that. But I think that is the next level that a developer can reach because it's a challenge."
As an example, look at Street Fighter 6. Nakayama tells me:"We started out wanting to include as many options as possible... but at a certain point we kept the number to the amount where it doesn't feel like it becomes too difficult to choose a style.". Artistically, though, that still fits within the world of the game and its"street art" foundation."What counts as a 'wild' character varies a lot depending on the player," says Nakayama.
Developers continue to innovate, though. Visual Concepts is willing to let players upload pictures of their own faces for their wrestling characters and while the results currently aren't perfect, it's a step towards ultimate realism - even as just a starting point. Along with that comes a focus on the community, with Friedland telling me there are plans to allow players to share the characters they make across platforms.
The Sims 4 content creator and Twitch ambassador Danielle Udogaranya , who pointed out the Killmonger dreads to me, is celebrated in the game's community for her authentic Black hairstyles and outfits, which are publicly available for all to use.
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