We are continuing our series of posts about the roadmap, where we explain in detail what each checkpoint in our development roadmap entails.
This time we’re talking about the “Character customization” system.
You can read the previous roadmap post about the “NPC schedule” system here.
Character customization is one of the most requested features from you and the one that’s being talked about the most.
Character customization in Deluded
It’s a system that’ll allow you to change different aspects of Alisa’s appearance. Before continuing with the topic I wanna make something very clear: there is a difference between “character customization” and “character creation”. Deluded will have the first but not the second. Deluded is Alisa’s personal story, so you’ll be able to shape Alisa’s appearance only through gameplay mechanics, quests and interactions, not create the character from scratch or edit her with sliders.
I’m sure someone was expecting the character creation to be implemented, but it is how it is and it’s not subject to change.
Features
So, which aspects of the character will actually be customizable?
- Make-up (for eyes and cheeks) and lipstick. It's already in the game, but we’ll of course add more patterns totaling to about 20-30 make-up styles in the complete game.
- Nails. In one of the boxes you can find a make-up kit bag, which will contain nail appliances among other things in the future. Use it to change nails’ shape and color.
- Brows that you can color at home and have shaped by a brow artist.
- Tattoos and piercing — for some reason, the most requested features from you guys 😀. Tattoos and piercing can be done by local artists, and those skills probably won’t be able to be acquired by Alisa herself. Piercing and tattoos will have predetermined slots, that you’ll be able to fill using the dialogue or some other system.
- Hairstyle. Some easy hairstyles (buns, ponytails…) can be done at home, while for more complex ones (haircuts and hair dyes) you have to go to the hair salons in the open world.
- Fatness and muscle tone. Overeating leads to fat gain, while training helps reduce fat and build muscle. Easy. Different workout stations have different progression levels. Currently, you can use the basement home gym to increase your strength up to a maximum of 30 points. If you want more, you need to seek something better in the open world.
- Beauty augmentations like lips, butt, chest and maybe a face shape. Will probably be done through visiting the cosmetologist in the open world or by taking special pills.
- Pubic hairstyle. At the moment, there’s only 1 pubic hairstyle in the game. In total, there’ll be 8 styles, including a full shave and a full bush.
- Tan and skin whitening. Temporarily darkens (with the sun or a tanning bed) or whitens (with special lotions) your skin. The effect should last for about 2 in-game weeks. I hope we’ll be able to implement the tan marks system as well.
- Aging. If you play long enough, you’ll see Alisa’s face slowly developing wrinkles. Btw, you can already test the visuals in the cheats version.
Progression
Of course, not all character customization options will be available immediately. E.g. applying certain make-up patterns already requires some make-up skill in 0.3.5.1. Other customizations that require skill will include: lipstick, hairstyle, pubic hairstyle, brows and nails.
Skills can leveled up by simple practice or by reading special journals, with 4 journals for each skill scattered across the open world.
It works the other way too, like make-up increasing the S**iness level.
Certain customizations will be tied to attributes. E.g you can’t have “dominant” tattoos if your Dominance is not high enough.
Also, the customizations will be tied to certain areas and NPCs.
When will it be implemented?
The game already partially has the code and features for character customization, but the 0.5 build will have the whole functionality.
Of course, most of the customization features will be available in the open world, but we’ll make sure to add more ways to test this mechanic in 0.5, like: asking mom to do Alisa’s hair, using mirror, etc…
Anything else I didn’t mention you wanna learn about? Let me know in the comments! 😉
Best regards,
kufe7