Getting Started
27 October 2023 at 10:26:33
Installing Character Generator
If you have found StoryDev Character Generator from itch.io, then you have likely already downloaded and installed the program. If not, you can retrieve Character Generator from our page on itch by clicking here.
Downloading the ZIP folder will contain all the files relating to the project. Once downloaded and extracted to a location, you can open the folder and find the file named "CharacterGenerator.exe". On non-Windows operating systems, this will simply be called "CharacterGenerator".
Launching Character Generator
The image above illustrates the first interface we see when Character Generator is launched for the first time. If you are using the Demo version, an additional interface may also be shown describing your demo and evaluation of the software. You can "Close" this interface once finished.
To begin from the above image, click on "Open Project..."
If you have not had any recent projects, the list seen below the separator line will be empty. Character Generator saves all recent projects to a location accessible by Character Generator at all times, so even if you uninstall Character Generator and reinstall, this data will stay the same unless physically deleted at its location.
Typically, you would want to click "Browse..." to begin searching for a folder on your computer you wish to place your project in.
Once you have chosen a folder location, a new interface will appear in its place in the main program. From here, you can select an Output Folder and enter a name for the project.
Source Folder: Character Generator will save all your characters within this folder as JSON files. It is not recommended to modify these JSON files as this may cause errors.
Output Folder: When you export files, PNG files are generated at this location.
Name: The name of the project. Any character is valid.
Once you are happy with your choices, click "Create" to create your project.
The list will be updated with your newest project. Click on your project in the list and click "Load" to load in the project.
Characters
Without going into too much detail, at this stage we can start creating and managing characters. Projects will load even if the locations no longer exist, but characters will not load if the Source Folder no longer exists or is not a valid path. Character Generator will attempt to create a new folder at the Source location, but if it cannot, an internal exception is thrown (patch 1.0.1 will check for this before attempting to create a folder).
Settings
When you select "Settings" on the View options, you will see the following.
Not many settings exist as of yet (patch 1.0.0) but more will exist in later patches.
What we do have gives the following effects:
Spritesheet Animation Speed: A speed in milliseconds on how fast the animations should go frame-to-frame.
Spritesheet Animation Scale: A multiplier for how large the frame-to-frame animations should appear.
Main Character Scale: A multiplier for how large the main front-facing character should appear in the middle of the screen.
Another option exists for "Open Resource Manager". This let's you view the names of resources that exist and are linked in Character Generator. This can be useful if you need to know the names of the asset identifiers as they exist in the internal files, allowing you to work with them in your own video games at runtime. Extracting and/or modifying the files from the compressed files is against our EULA. We also do not recommend attempting to modify the internal files. This can potentially break Character Generator and/or cause other problems. |