Human: Character Race #1 of 8

8 races.

2 factions.

6 classes.

Important decisions.

Over the next weeks we will release info on the 8 playable races in Mist’s metaverse. As we get closer to the Demo date, we will release more Lore and history of the races.

Each race is distinct, with special abilities, special strengths, and weaknesses. Each race has 2 genders, male and female.

The race you choose will determine your gameplay style. It will determine your friendships. It will determine your personality, and persona in-game.

This week we will highlight the first race: The Human.

The Human

The Humans in Mist’s metaverse have gone through a lot of development. It was the first race we decided to make.

Humans have increased willpower, gain more experience (faster leveling up), and a few other special racial abilities.

However at first, the human looked a little… different than it does now.

We started originally with the low-poly asset pack to get the work going faster. We then started the custom building process for the character.

We wanted our humans to be in good shape, but not monsterous-looking. We need the human to fill the role of solid leader. A body that can run and jump, but still possess strength.

At first the work was rough. Like any development process.

We started with basic body parts and moved from there. You can see here the limbs and the appendages did not have a smooth break between them.

At this point we began smoothing some of the appendages. The meshes for the body needed to connect better to ensure a smoother feel and look.

Also, we needed to optimize the number of vertices on the character.

Higher vertex count means a better looking character, however it would also mean a slower game and worse graphical performance, especially on mobile.

So we have to balance the “good looks” with the “good performance”.

We break down the body into a few parts, namely the upper body, lower body, feet, head, and hands.

This allows us to manipulate these parts individually, and apply certain textures to each part.

This is an important part to do, as it will allow our armors and wearable items to fit and move better.

We of course began working on the female body.
Here is an example without hair.

We then added some body effects, just to test out some things.

These effects will be in-game as various spells.

Also, notice the difference in skin texture on the 2-right bodies.

Of course we had to add some hair.

And at this point, we had the following style and look of characters:

Now, we move on to the colors, textures, and finishing touches.

The blank, baked models in our game testing environment. You can see solid shadows, a full look.

Let’s add some colors now.

The first attempt at coloring is never the best, but it does have some funny outcomes. Here is one example.

Here you can see the texture getting better and more realistic.

We had to decide on skin color and texture a few times. Here is another look, where some are darker or lighter. Also, shadows and shine are important to note.