#2 Introducing Helena Richards

Hi folks!

Two weeks ago, we announced that we would be building VirtualCity (still a working title), its island and its buildings, while also sharing the progress of the game's tools and systems. As a special exception, this second article in the series will be available to everyone ;)!

In this third episode, we're introducing the very first NPC from the long list of characters we're going to bring to life (our very own Dolores, for those who've been following closely): Helena Richards. She works in HR at RealCorps and welcomes newcomers. We'll talk about her, the moodboards and inspirations behind her creation, and several game systems we had to rework a little to bring her to life!

Choosing Our First Character

As we mentioned in the first article of this series, over the past five years we've come up with lots of characters we'd like to bring to the city, along with their relationships, stories, and sometimes fairly complex storylines to put together. Choosing which one to create first was a challenge in itself. Our choice of this very first resident was based on several factors, including:

• The world of VirtualCity serves several purposes (demo, default world, encounters, "introductory tutorial"). Helena works in HR at RealCorp, and one of her responsibilities is to welcome new arrivals. For those exploring the island and its story, she'll be one of the key characters introducing you to our starting world.
• Helena uses a wheelchair, and although we started working on this back in 2021, making sure a way of getting around works everywhere (in every location and game mode) is a major, ongoing task throughout development. Our pathfinding and movement system already works well for characters who walk, so this is an opportunity to get things right for wheelchair users too, and keep testing wheelchair movement throughout the rest of development.

Ideas, Moodboards and Early Tests

Jimmy and I talked a lot about this character, drawing inspiration from several memorable characters we both really love. We'll try to share those ideas here through a small moodboard and a few descriptions (we put it together afterwards for this article, because Helena took shape over many long conversations :D).

Our main inspirations were Taystee from Orange Is the New Black for her "good friend" vibe and energy (and the hair!), and Edna Mode from The Incredibles for her way of speaking and her personality: cheerful and friendly, but also very "blunt". Finally, we borrowed the glasses and earrings from Miranda Prisley in The Devil Wears Prada, which we felt were a better fit than Edna's (Jimmy was very keen on the glasses; we'll explain why a little further down).

The Very Beginnings of Helena Richards

Like everything else (characters, locations, storylines, etc.), Helena was created entirely in the game, using the game's own tools. Of course, she also pushed us to develop a few additions just for her (more on those below)! As you know, our characters are still in development. We still don't have a dedicated character artist, so our developers are the ones working on them for now (but bringing a character artist on board is definitely our first Patreon goal!), so please bear with us when it comes to the visuals!  

A Few Technical Dilemmas Along the Way

Locomotion and Wheelchairs

The most obvious challenge is developing all the movement involved in using a wheelchair. Our roadmap has included wheelchairs, crutches and canes from the very beginning, but we have to admit that we'd put all of this on hold for several years. Recently, the animation systems in Unreal Engine, the engine we use, have evolved significantly, particularly with the addition of Mover, which lets us do all sorts of things we couldn't do before. Unfortunately, switching from our current system to Mover isn't straightforward: VirtualSociety currently contains more than 300,000 lines of C++, and character animation is one of our more complex systems, intertwined with many others. So moving from the standard MovementComponent to Mover is the perfect opportunity to lay the groundwork for these alternative movement modes for our characters, regardless of the game mode!

Contextual Animations

We've always wanted to add subtle contextual animations based on all sorts of little details, including the items characters are wearing: taking off a hat to greet someone, cleaning or adjusting their glasses, and so on (and I think we're far from the only ones in the field who want this!). As soon as Jimmy and I started working on Helena, he pictured her tilting her head down and lowering her glasses slightly to look at the person she's talking to, a sort of signature gesture.  

A Few New Items

Jimmy modeled the wheelchair back in 2021, and Lenny just made the spokes a little thicker so they'd be easier to see. But we did have to add a few small items to the editor just for Helena: a new hairstyle, the RealCorp badge (which I think will come in handy, especially since it's customizable), hoop earrings (easy to make, but they felt like a must-have), and the new glasses.

And that's it for this week! Next week, we'll talk about the life sim roadmap, with more details about the systems behind characters' partial memories, personalities and autonomous decisions.