Simplicity in character design is sometimes an artistic choice and sometimes a necessity. In my new game Mad Miner 2, I wanted to keep the main character simple and straightforward, so I went through a redesign process. The reason I did this was to make the character more manageable and customizable.

I can give the character design of my favorite game Minecraft as an example:



When Markus Persson was developing the game on his own, of course he couldn't spend time on a detailed main character design. Because detailed character design meant a long modeling process, extra time to draw skins and even more time to rig him. This is not the way an independent game developer would want to go. And why is that?

In fact, if the main character is not going to have any customization, this is not a very costly process. Of course, you'll still spend a lot of time on the skins and rigs, but it will be done once and you won't have to work with him again afterwards. That's why we see detailed character designs in most indie games that don't include customization. But I, and every developer who makes games in my style, wants to make character design simple and easy to manage. Because there's no limit to the number of costumes you can design for your character, and you should be able to quickly add new costumes along the way.

While my point is to reduce the cost of the work, there are multiple reasons to simplify character design. Whether it's to make a strong and simple design for branding, to increase memorability, to be distinctive and engaging, or for purely artistic reasons. One or more of these reasons is reason enough to simplify character design.



If you look at the image above you can see the change in the character design of my game Mad Miner 2. While my character design in general is simple, I wanted to simplify it even more for 3D. The old design had a more detailed skeletal system, so each new costume would mean a new adjustment. That's why I switched to a simpler rig on the right side, which will allow players playing with friends to create characters that reflect themselves.

As someone who's been designing characters for years, I've always designed simple and clean characters. I'm not a detailed person, so it makes me feel good to switch to this style. It's what I've been doing for years and it also makes my job easier. If you are a solo game developer, sometimes simple choices will speed up your work and you will be able to spend time on the parts you want to focus on.

I am a young game developer who continues to improve myself. What I write are my own experiences and things I've been thinking about. I don't claim to be a professional but I can say that I love what I do. Thank you for reading my blog post. I hope this post has some useful information for some of you. Take care and stay in the game!