Innovation of the Week: Character Creation & Customization

Hey everybody. This week, let's dive into a topic that has become an expected part of most modern games but had humble beginnings and took a long time to take hold outside of certain genres – Character Creation & Customization!

These innovations have added layers of personalization, player agency and immersion. They allow players to mold their in-game avatars to match their own preferences, either representing themselves better or as an outlet for their imagination, and to tweak the gameplay experience according to their playstyle. All in all, while they can sometimes make games less accessible due to their complexity, these systems tend to create a more unique connection between the player and the virtual world.

Dungeon (1975 or 1976), pedit5 (1975) and dnd (1975)

Three of the first examples can be found in these, the very first CRPGs made. As one of the titles hints at, these took their character creation systems straight from the tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. In these games, players could input their name, roll virtual die to determine 5 starting attributes (stats) represented by a number between 8 and 18 (strength, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, hit points), or choose between 15 pre-made ones. It's a start!

Jumping ahead a bit, we see other RPGs add more and more elements of D&D to the character creation process. In Akalabeth (PCs, 1979), players can choose between two classes (mage or fighter), affecting how their character grow throughout their journey as well as which items and skills they can use. A couple of years later, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Multi, 1981) introduced five races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Hobbits; the fictional ones probably based on how Lord of the Rings author Tolkien defined them), adding further stat modifiers (resistances and weapon proficiencies), modifying starting stats and allowing for a bit more of a roleplaying aspect. It also features three moral alignments (Good, Neutral, Evil), two of which can switch depending on player actions and will affect if two party members can stay in the same party after going back to the surface as well as what items can be equipped without being cursed.

Some Other Notable Examples (note that I'm referring to customization done before the game starts proper):

-Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985), Auto Duel (1985) and Mail Order Monsters (1985)

-Alter Ego (1986) and Starflight (1986/1991)(the crew)

-Pirates! (1987/1990) - Another early example of character creation in a non-RPG/non-traditional RPG, this one lets you pick your nationality (& starting position), name, difficulty, special ability (fencing, navigation, gunnery, wit and charm, medicine). The nationality has a major effect on the difficulty of the game.

-Sorcerian (1987/1988 (party portraits))

-Pool of Radiance (1988)

-Quest For Glory I/Hero's Quest (1989/1992) and Baseball Stars (1989)

-Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back (1989) - Expansion which let you draw and save your own portraits

-Uncharted Waters (1990/1993)

-Cocoron (1991), 4D Sports Boxing (1991) and Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom (1991)

-Romancing SaGa (1992), Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu (Nekketsu Fighting Legend)(1992)

-Syndicate (1993), Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (1993)

-Master of Magic (1994) and The Elder Scrolls series (1994, 1996, etc)

-Quake (PC, 1996)(more w/ QuakeWorld update)

-Fallout (1997)

-Baldur's Gate (1998)

-System Shock 2 (1999) and Jagged Alliance 2 (1999)

-WWF SmackDown! (2000) and The Sims series (2000, etc)

-Project Justice (DC, 2000)(JP)

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Equipment and/or vehicles only:

-Ghostbusters (1984) and Elite (1984)

-1943 (NES, 1988), Laser Squad (1988), Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction (1988) and BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (1988)(after an intro mission I think)

-Star Trader (1989) and Gradius III (1989)

-Target Earth/Assault Suit Leynos (1990)

-Scorched Earth (1991) and U.N. Squadron (SNES, 1991)

-Star Control II (1992)(after the two tutoral missions)

-MechWarrior (SNES, 1993), Rock 'n Roll Racing (1993)

-UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994) and Battletech (MD, 1994)

-Hyper Iria (1995) and MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995)

-Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996)(after the intro mission)

-Gran Turismo (1997) and Armored Core (1997)

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What's your favorite retro game that featured character creation and/or customization? Did it have a significant impact on your gaming experience? Share your thoughts and experiences!