Character Concepts:
Before beginning to create any characters, I reviewed the proposal documents that my team and I created to get a sense of what the characters will look like. I knew the game would be set in 1920s New Orleans, so I began producing sketches and mood boards to show the rest of the team the style and ideas I had for the characters, as well as whether they wanted me to make any modifications.
CC Tinsley:
I began with the primary character, CC Tinsley. I began with this character because I would be using it for the main menu and other members of the team would require it to begin working on other sections of the game.I came up with some initial designs for different kinds of attire for the character after looking at various photographs of what a 1920s investigator would look like. After careful consideration, my team and I opted on the brown coat design since we felt it would better fit the character and make him stand out from the other characters wearing black suits.
Passangers:
I looked at photographs of upper-class people from the 1920s to create the many characters aboard the boat. I produced some concepts for these characters to present a basic idea of how they could potentially look. After creating the concepts, I communicated with the rest of the team to see if they liked what I had developed and suggest changes.
Captain and Staff:
i also wanted to make some staff to work on the boat to make the enviroment and the surroundings feel more livley. some of the staff that i included was a captain for the boat, kitchen staff and a barman who would work behind the bar and give suttle hints to the detective if they needed any help with anything.
Character Creation:
To build the characters, I utilised a programme called fuse and edited the models that they provided to produce the models that we had. Some of the clothing options provided by fusion are rather limited to the historical period and appearance that we wanted to achieve in our game, so I had to create custom apparel. I did, however, utilise the programme to modify the textures of some of the clothing items in order to give them a more vintage appearance.
To create the bespoke outfit, I imported the modelled character into Blender and decided on additional parts to add to the character. The chef I created needed an apron, so I added a skirt to the model and exported it separately before adding it to the character with minor adjustments. Another item I created was the chef’s toque. To produce this, I placed a cylinder to the top of his head and used the blender tools to create a convincing looking toque with the same material that I used for the apron. I also done similar for other characters such as the barman and others.
Character Profiles:
After moddling all of the characters that we needed, I created UI elements featuring the characters, and another member and I developed character backstories and bios for each character to flesh out the characters even further. We did this so that I and the other team members could get a sense of the characters and their personalities.
| Character Bio | Character image |
|---|---|
| CC Tinsley: Age: REDACTED Occupation: Detective Nationality: REDACTED “Nothing is certain about CC Tinsley. All that is known is that he’s an experienced detective and has some connection with William Eubanks” |  |
| William Eubanks: Age: 31 Occupation: Businessman Nationality: American “William Eubanks is an extremely successful businessman and has invited his closest business partners and friends on a voyage down a Mississippi as a celebration of their success” |  |
| Irene McAllister-Eubank: Age: 24 Occupation: Wife Nationality: British “Irene is William’s wife. She comes from a wealthy family and is suspected to have married to grow their business ventures. Getting most of her wealth from her inheritance, she lets her subordinates run her ventures whilst she reaps the reward for their labour” |  |
| Mr Watanabe: Age: 64 Occupation: business partner to William Eubanks Nationality: Japanese “Mr Watanabe is part of the triumvirate between Eubanks and Lacroix, controlling the trade between Japan and the USA. Mr Watanabe’s role in all of this is to keep the trade moving from Japan to the USA ” |  |
| Dr. Franz Haber: Age: 46 Nationality: Prussian Occupation: business partner to William Eubanks “Dr Franz Haber is a world renown chemist whose research into chemical fertilizers allowed food production to almost double, William Eubanks funded this research thus the Haber – Eubanks process was born making Haber famous in his field and Eubanks millions. |  |
| Fernand Lacroix: Age: 42 Occupation: business partner Nationality: French “Fernand Lacroix is one of William Eubanks closest business partners, having made their fortune in trade between New Orleans and Japan where he met Mr Watanabe, Ever since this Triumvirate has had a stranglehold of trade between the USA and the empire of Japan” |  |
| Adrian Lilford: Age: 38 Occupation: Business Partner Nationality: “Only being business partners with William for a short amount of time, he has proved to William that he is very dependable to have by his side as he is a gift with getting favourable business deals” |  |
| Lillian Brown: Age: 31 Occupation: William Eubanks childhood friend. Nationality: “Being William’s oldest friends, they grew up together and advanced their careers side by side. The extent of their friendship is unknown and has caused speculation within high society.” |  |
| David Kirkwood: Age: 62 Occupation: Archaeologist Nationality: “David Kirkwood is a controversial archaeologist who has obtained historical artefacts through dubious means and sold them to the great museums of Europe, Although eventually retiring from this role of no choice of his own he used his wealth to integrate himself into high society ” |  |
| Capitan Luce: Age: 59 Occupation: Captain of SS Arctic Nationality: American “Captain Luce has been navigating the great rivers of the South since he was sixteen, After working his way from an ordinary seaman he was able to finally purchase his own ship, The SS Arctic. Ever since, he’s been taking the rich and famous down the great Mississippi.” |  |
| Chef Piercy: Age: 39 Occupation: Head Chef Nationality: British “Chef Piercy is a world-renowned chef who has worked in the greatest restaurants all throughout Europe, and his been specifically hired by William Eubanks at an exorbitant rate to provide food to die for.” |  |
| Jaque Bennett: Age: 25 Occupation: Bartender Nationality:French American “Jaque Bennett worked in bars across New Orleans before landing a job aboard the SS Arctic, He is an old friend of CC Tinsley, although the origin of this friendship is unknown he has proved to be a stalwart ally ever since” |  |
Animation:
To rig and animate the characters, I took the character I created in Mixamo and applied a rig and animations that we could utilise in Unreal. Once the character was imported into Unreal, another member of the team modified the bone names and settings to allow the default Unreal movements as well as any extra animations that we wanted to work on it.
We later decided to give each character their own skelington. This caused issues at the time because we needed separate animations for each character, but the end result allows for better animations for each character with bone positions that are correct.
References:
centralcasting image (2020) 1920s Fashion Guide for Background Actors. available online: https://www.centralcasting.com/1920s-fashion-guide-for-background-actors/ [accessed 18/01/2023]
hespokestyle (NA) The Ultimate Guide to 1920’s Men’s Fashion. available online: https://hespokestyle.com/1920s-mens-fashion/ [accessed 18/01/2023]
hancock historical museum (NA) Woman’s fashion in the 1920’s. available online: https://hancockhistoricalmuseum.org/i-love-the-1920s/womens-fashion-in-the-1920s/ [accessed 18/01/2023]
queen dancer.com (NA) queen dancer. available online: https://www.queendancer.co.uk/ [accessed 18/01/2023]