Choose different appearance/player models at the start of the game

[MikeTenebrae]

Hi everyone

I'm still very much in the planning phase of my release. An aspect of my title revolves around possible different appearances for your character. But its not a deal-breaker. Basically I would like to know if its possible to choose a different appearance, like a Maniac Mansion choice layout (though those were technically different selectable characters)

It is purely an aesthetic feature for choice that I would like to implement. I could not quite find the answer I was looking for when I searched.

[Snarky]

Yes, it's possible.

There are three main approaches I can think of, depending on how the appearances vary:

1. They only vary in color. In this case, you may be able to just recolor the sprites (though AGS has limited support for this, and it will take some coding). This is how Zanthia's different outfits in Kyrandia II: Hand of Fate (not an AGS game) were done, using palette mapping.
2. They vary in some small additional element (like, for example, a hat). In this case you may have them as a separate sprite that follows the character.
3. In the most general case, you can just switch out the character sprites/animations with another set of sprites/animations, to achieve any kind of variation you want.

I'll assume the third case, which is the simplest to implement (but requires you to create more different sprites). Basically, you'll have to create different versions of every animation, one for each appearance. You set these up in separate Views.

Then there are two possibilities: You can make each variation a separate Character (with its Normal and Speech views set to the appropriate Views), and to choose the appearance you set that Character as your player character. In that case, you'll have to store any other animations as additional loops under those views, and make sure the loop numbers match in the different variations.

Or you can have just the one Character, and instead change its Normal/Speech views when you change the appearance. In that case, you can have other animations in other views, but you'll have to use some logic to play the right version each time.

[MikeTenebrae]

Creating the different sprites/art is no issue as I'm lucky enough to be a GFX artist by trade. I just wanted to make sure the choice can be implemented. Thanks for the reply!