Star Stable Online is overhauling its character creation options and will hold a closed beta next month to help the team polish up the new options and get player feedback.
With a game that is almost 11 years old, the scope of the options has been limited, though there are a number of options for cosmetics and, of course, horse customization. Yet, the player characters haven’t had a real overhaul in some time, and the Star Stable team is also emphasizing a more diverse series of options to come.
There’s a new devblog revealing the planning process and a first look at some of the new possibilities. Working within an older game presents constraints, so they are still using premade faces and features, but are working to present a number of options that let characters be made and presented with a lot more variety. There are twelve different skin tone options, along with six body shapes. They represent more options for a wider variety of characters and people then were previously present. This follows the recently-released photo mode.
This is the beginning, since the faces can also be enhanced with different eyebrows, makeup, skin color tints, and updated hairstyles. This includes a number of curly and coily hairstyles as well. The team is actually targeting a 50-50 balance between straight /wavy hair and curly/coily hair.
Since they are working with an old system, they are still attempting to polish up smoother animations, but those aren't ready yet, nor are other wishlist items like being able to represent characters with Vitiligo or heterochromia. The team is open about the limitations of what they're working with, but they are "now confident the base is stable and future-proof, meaning we can continue to adapt the characters going forward”, so they’ll try to expand options.
The closed beta will be open to select players in September, with info on signups coming soon.
Read the full blog over at Star Stable Online.
