Since Joud got Character Creator 4, I've been helping her create each version of the character. Although the UI is so much easier and more detailed than Meta Human, we've struggled through several iterations before achieving even this level of resemblance to me.
By the way, I cut my hair for this. I decided I could cut my own fringe to match the hairstyle we were working with for the character. Let it be known that I am this dedicated.
Long story short, by the time the private view came around, everyone recognised that the character was meant to resemble me (my matching outfit may have helped).
House Model vs House Photos
I found that I was struggling to recall the layout of my childhood home enough to relay it to Joud for 3D modelling so I asked my family for help. My mom managed to find a link to the listing from when we originally sold it in 2012. Using these photos and my memory, I drew a floor plan for Joud to use alongside the reference photos when building the house in 3D. The only issue is that I hadn't drawn it to scale so the proportions of the model were a little off. However, this had little effect on Joud's ability to make it resemble the original house.
The front foyer and staircase
The living room
The kitchen
The great room
Rylie's room
Liam's room
Milton's room
Parent's room/master bedroom
My family's messages after showing them the game:
My dad told me to send it into our extended family group chat so that my grandfather with dementia could see the walkthrough of our old house. This got me considering the potential for 3D modelling and virtual spaces to recover or preserve lost memories and places.
Playtesters
We had significantly more people play test the game before completion than we had in the past and this was definitely necessary for patching issues that would have noticeably impacted the effectiveness of the game. The total number of game testers was 9.
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