Game Art - Pirate's (tea) Chest

This is more of a summary post than an actual detailed log of my work, in part because I simply forgot to regularly update my progress this time around. Hopefully I'll jump back into maintaining this blog correctly now.

So to briefly run over the assignment, we were told to make a pirate's chest in 3DS Max, to create it and then texture it. This felt rather a lot more like programming in that I was working in an area that has never really been a part of my hobby in drawing, and so I had quite a lot of work to do. Adding to this that I generally like to challenge myself that little bit further than just doing the bare requirement, I had a lot of work to do. And I'm not sure how I feel about the finished product. But more on that later.

Early ideas for the work chiefly involved drawing designs on paper (I'll leave a space here for when I scan the pages in question - I'm on a new PC as I type this, and thus have no art programs or scanner installed), and I soon found myself wandering away from the idea of a straight out pirate chest. I originally planned to make something that has spawned from a character idea, with this particular character carrying a portable tea chest.

I rode with this idea until I actually started working in 3DS Max. While I felt like I probably could have gotten away with the shapes even after unwrapping, I ultimately decided that it didn't have any particular theme running in it, and after I started researching into oriental tea chests... I simply decided to rein my idea back into a tea chest. I stand by the technicality that tea was once valuable and thus an item pirates would possess. This still allowed me to have the challenge of creating an object with multiple holes to accommodate a door and drawers.

The completed chest before texturing. Divided into several objects to allow the unwrapping to be less painful

Unwrapping took a horrifically long time for me. In fact, it took up the time I would have preferred to have spent texturing. My issues included the map messing up when unpeeled, and thus having to work to move the lines to their correct positions as precisely as I could. Mercifully, the other objects proved a lot easier to unwrap. Another problem I had which was really more of a niggle than a difficulty... was possessing Photoshop and 3DS Max on separate computers, meaning I couldn't see my changes in real time.

My first attempt at fixing the UV Map. Not much of a success.

Second attempt at fixing the UV map. Not perfect, but it worked well enough for texturing.

Above two images are early texture texts for the main body as well as the golden circles on either side.

I further textured the rest of the chest, and prepared to hand in. However, the deadline was extended just long enough for me to further "refine" the textures as well as add an additional object in the form of handles for the drawers and door. With even less time to create and texture such an object along with refining the edges on my textures, I created something relatively simple.

Untextured handle and drawer before additional texturing

Handle textured and drawer edges refined.

At which point, I realised my edge lines were far too thick. In addition, I also noticed one corner of the chest top had a gap in it which meant one could see inside the object. However, I didn't know how capping the area in question would effect the rest of the UV map and so didn't chance changing it. As for the edge lines... well, it was hand in day. I didn't have any further time to spend on the work.

The final piece handed in for assessment.

As is always the case, one always feels like I could have done better, but then I remind myself that this is really the first time I've worked in 3D and textured an object. Hopefully I'll look back in a years time and chortle at how bad I was at modelling and texturing. For now, I'm content that I did as much as I could do with what I knew.

Game Art - Character Development WIPS 3

I call this WIPS 3, but it isn't a work in progress at all. This is more the point where I felt that I was starting to lose track of what I was meant to be doing, and that I should stop before I find myself in a position where I'm getting lost in the details.

This is also the point where I generally feel unhappy with the results. On the other hand, being someone that has not draw more 'realistic' humans  given a preference for cartooning... I feel like I've done what I'm able to do with the experience I have at present. I'm not going to excessively beat myself up for not pulling off the job perfectly.

Like I've said in earlier entries, I only feel like I want to try harder to get into the habit of drawing and  practicing on a regular basis. It is hard sometimes to remember that I'm not just working from a "hobby in my spare time" standpoint anymore.

Game Art - Character Development WIPS 2

A minor update. With a deadline extension and my body now at a point where I'm fully operational again, I find that I still do not have a massive amount of time available to me to finish the work as I see it in my head. But I've told myself many times that I need to be realistic with how much I can actually do.

I've set myself a deadline for Tuesday to give me time to make alternate plans if my printer decides it doesn't want to function correctly. As a result, I am focusing more on lightly refining the work I did before my spine decided that I needed more pain and less mobility in my life.

I'm going to show off an earlier version of what I'm working on at this moment in time. I've used a transparancy locked layer to paint over my black and white drawings with colour, originally to deduce how they would come over in a final image... and is instead now serving as a base to add further details and refinement of character features. Further highlights and deeper shadows.

edit - A bit more

This assignment has really made me feel like I could do with upping my drawing frequency, and without feeling boastful I'm starting to believe that I just need to practice and learn a little more.

Game Art - Character Development WIPS

I'm writing this while dosed up to the eyeballs with assorted painkillers... I'm not even sure that they are really working, but I'm positive I'd be feeling a lot worse if I weren't taking them. Back spasms... not a fun thing to be afflicted with, and they seem to keep cropping up. I should really take my body's hint and start exercising.

Up until the aforementioned back problems, work on the current assignment was going slowly but steadily. It has been tough fighting against my fear of Adobe Photoshop, and equally tough trying to establish a working method to make a final image work out.

So this would be my initial character sheet layout. Organized into rules of 3, I decided a large image of the character in his suit would be accompanied by some further images of the character in profile and portrait shots without the larger suit, and some images demonstrating the suit in action and how it appears from the inside. Thumbnail below -:

I hit upon the snag of the suit not measuring up when I attempted to iterate on the thumbnail sketches, and this resulted in a little impromtu reworking to try and gain a better resemblance to the diving suit inspirations... at least in terms of how a human body would fit into something so large and bulky. I also started designing the character himself. I did bad by adding colour, but I was struggling to work out how things went together otherwise.

Around this time, my back started playing up, and has made the task of doing my work a lot more problematic. I'm at the point now where I've done some shadow work ready to be iterated upon and finalised as soon as the pain subsides. I found myself working with the shadows by creating a dark silhouette and steadily applying lighter shades, it worked a lot better for me than adding darker colours onto a white background.

That is about all I have right now. Fingers are crossed I'll be able to feel well enough to get this done by Thursday.

Game Art - Character Development Images Part 2

A minor update to note down changes and ideas that have developed since the last post.

I have more or less decided to focus entirely on the space themed character, mostly because I want to spread my wings just enough to try and work on an artstyle I want to develop rather than playing more safely with a cartoon artstyle I already know I can pull off (Without being boastful!). Besides that, I have found myself rather interested in the ideas of making a heavyset (FATASS) character into an interesting design.

The bulky spacesuit design has also continued to mutate as I found difficulty in making a large domed torso work with arms and legs that could still function normally. I could very well have worked out a method of making this work if I felt inclined... however, my diving suit moodboard I lovingly knitted together with all the tenderness of a man beating a squirrel with a rock... took me down a different route of designing the suit. So this first image comes before I firmed up on the decision that I didn't want to work with a dome shape, and also features a rudimentary doodle of the man IN the suit.

Small sketches from a pocket notebook I carry around for quick drawing during journies

As I started trying to refine the design above into a larger image to add detail and accessories, I grew increasingly irked at how I couldn't feel that the suit was practical... and furthermore, the idea for the suit was increasingly becoming more of a powersuit that would feature additional components for long haul space walks and repairs in a zero gravity environment. I started referenced the diving suit moodboard and started to change the shape of the suit to allow for a greater range of arm movement.

Although these drawings are far from complete, I started to make the domed compartment of the suit more rectangular, and used older diving suits as an inspiration for how to structure the rest of it. I soon decided to make the main arms a lot larger and longer than natural arms for tethering to surfaces or lifting larger objects, and add smaller arms for delicate work. I also started working more towards the idea of the suit being operated like a machine rather than an outfit, both for the character to work for long durations of time in a cockpit like environment, and to have a concrete idea of how any character could get into and out of the suit.

Again from my pocket sketchbook, a design I am more satisified with as well as demonstrating how the suit opens up.

  I will be uploading digital drawings in the next day or two, while right now I'm starting to work out the composition of the final piece due to be handed in on the 30th May. This is proving surprisingly difficult, although I am going to be speaking to the tutor some more on Thursday to discuss what I can do. I'm starting to look at images of spacewalks, which I feel would best reflect the function of the suit. I'm also going to be working on some additional, rougher images of the suit from different perspectives as well as the opened up suit as shown above... afterall, the assignment is about making ourselves into a character and I feel the suit with a visor would obscure that.

I'll have to see what else I can do (maybe add a screen 'head' on top of the suit that is connected to a videolink in the cockpit?) to get this done.

EDIT - Forgot to mention that I'm also considering keeping the suit fairly mechanical whilst being covered in fabric - akin to that on regular space suits as well as what seems to cover the International Space Station. I find it an intriguing idea to follow. 

Game Art - Character Development Images

Because I might as well. Some early sketches from the first few classes. I initially wanted to go with the cartoon look, but as I continued working on ideas, I've started leaning more towards a space theme... if only because I want to expand my range of art styles. I need to get to work on some actual designs rather than plain ideas.

Game Art - Character Development

Because I figure that writing this here would be better than making notes in my sketchbook.

The first week has now passed, and starting on Tuesday, we're going to be learning some photoshop basics. I know just about enough about the program to know that I have never really got on with it all that well. And certainly I know that I have never really grasped it.

To move a step backwards however, I will be uploading some sketches after the Tuesday lesson. For now, I'm going to write down some details about the characters I have devised based on myself. Because I didn't feel that it would be quite good enough for me to only do one design that I've already iterated on (but never finalised) over the years, I decided to create an alternative based on a vaguely more realistic look. I've gone so far as to imagine game genres as well.

So lets get to it.

1.
Name - Bill Dup
Age - Unknown
Role - Silent Protagonist (Communicates through a pet as well as with expressions of both exaggerated and subtle natures.)
Game Genre - Turn Based RPG/Puzzler
General Genre - Comedy
Occupation - Alteamist (Using the power of tea)
Art Style - 30's Animation.

An individual whom has spent a significant proportion of his life living on the Moon under self imposed exile, Bill Dup is socially awkward and cowardly by nature - although his deeply rooted sense of right and wrong are only just able to counter his cowardice.

After aliens invade the Earth and kidnap his friends, it soon falls upon Bill Dup to make use of his unique ability to unlock the power of tea to try and repel the extraterrestrial invasion. Even if he really doesn't want to be the one to take the lead.

 His actions can appear to be clumsy due to his difficulty in getting on with people, and he is also easily startled in unfamiliar locations.  

2.
Name - Franco
Role - Supporting Character
Game Genre - Horror
General Genre -  Science Fiction
Occupation - Engineer
Art Style - Relatively realistic.

Something of an improviser, Franco has been working on large scale space freighters for much of his life, he has learnt to largely cope on his own and keeps people at a distance from himself - mostly symbolised in the bulky large space suit that he uses.

As a supporting character, he fully cooperates with the protagonist after his trust is fully gained, and he assists in various small ways as required, being nervous about any detours from the chief objective of getting out of the space freighter alive. (I have nothing else to say right now)

Game Art Assignment 1 - 2D Character Art

Not got an awful lot to say about the subject itself so far, what with how surprisingly quickly we burst straight into the first assignment. The first assignment that is frankly a nightmare to me - I have to make myself into a character that is recognizable either literally or in say... traits. Like I said, a nightmare owing to being so far away from being a cool person, and my dislike of idealising myself into something more than I am.


I'm hoping to work on a couple of designs over the next few days. One of which will be a further refinement of Bill Dup, a character that already represents myself and normally cameos on scraps of paper or sketchbook work. Given the fellow has never been finalised, and the opportunity to really run with the Fleischer Studio art style I admire... I think I could do something fun.  I have plenty of ideas for Bill as it is, including his cowardice/nervousness and his occupation of tea making that would lend themselves to a character sheet well.


And after deciding that this assignment could be interpreted in a number of ways, I'm actually contemplating doing a design with a more realisitc art style... on the presumption that this imagined version of myself would be a member of a party rather than a hero in his own right. I feel compelled to do something space based, though whether based on an existing game franchise or something entirely made up, I'm still working on. I like the rougher feel of the future in Dead Space, but I also like the shiny sleekness of Mass Effect 2+.

I'm mainly writing this all down to tide things over until I do some proper writing and include some sketches and drawings. Whoop.

Programming Conclusion / Game Art Initial Thoughts

I thought I'd take the opportunity to really reflect on the last 4 or so months. The main thing to say really is that I'm rather appreciating the break at present, it is giving me time to unwind (despite not knowing how on edge I'd become towards the end of the semester).

Overall, it was a very insightful glimpse into the world of coding for games, and I found myself taking to it a little more easily then I took to Quick Basic back in my college days. I continue to find Futureworks to be an absolutely amazing place to study, almost entirely practical and when written work IS involved, it remains relevent to what we're doing. So no learning about french flaneurs while studying film.

For the most part, I found the lessons to be well paced, although reflecting backwards, we possibly spent far too long working on the text adventure assignment, which made the following lessons seem a little too rapid in comparison. I know I started stumbling and no longer understanding the work quite as deeply as time went on. I also know that the tutor did strive to help us out at all times, which to go back to the theme of the previous paragraph... is a vast improvement over being told to simply look in a book of the work we were doing in Computing. Understanding why something does what it does is a good thing, and fortunately for the most part, it segued into XNA admirably.

And again, as in a previous POST, I'm still not entirely sure if I'm going to consider working much deeper into programming as a career choice. At heart, I'm more of an ideas person as well as an 'artist'... but on the other hand, I'd love to be able to work on my own ideas and create working concepts. My goals have shifted since I started this course in Games Development, and I'm slipping from wanting to work for a larger company to being capable of popping out smaller games that are simply fun to play. I feel I'm learning the importance of games simply being fun, and that there is still a tonne of potential for new ideas and mechanics even within the restrictions of 2D or lower end production. I've always believed that good art design and good gameplay should be valued when designing any sort of game, and to be able to put those ideas into practice would be a dream come true.

Assignment 3 - Magic Conclusion

Because I didn't get much chance to even announce the last assignment, nor go through the work process. Something about programming has made keeping this blog up to date surprisingly difficult. Then again, I suppose there isn't really a lot you can show/demonstrate when it comes to programming besides the finished project. Oh well.

But regardless. Our assignment was pretty much a task of expanding upon some XNA based code work we've been doing in class. Adding a healthbar and an option to restart or quit the game, stop the player moving offscreen et cetera.

I've somewhat felt over the last few weeks that we have covered far too much ground in a short space of time, and as a result it was difficult to get to grips with the task at hand. But by plenty of internet searching and assistance from a programming acquaintance, I was just about able to achieve all of the above tasks in the nick of time, along with the inclusion of an additional platform (Seeing as I opted to make the project into a platformer rather than a four directional game.)

I haven't got a lot else to say. I'm going to go back and try to learn all of this work properly in my own time. While I'm not sure whether I'd ever want to focus on programming as a career choice, it maintains a hold on me due to the possibilities of someday being able to produce working concepts of game mechanics and ideas I've been jotting down over the years (more so since I've been on this course).

I digress. Have some screenshots.

Such an imaginative title screen. As with the previous assignment, I included the controls here for the sake of clarity.

This is the entire game right here. A floor, one platform. No items, Fox only, FINAL DESTINATION.

A jump animation was kind of included... and also demonstarting a functioning platform. I had a fair bit of trouble with said platform at first, from characters falling through them to characters walking on air beyond the platform if they did not jump.

I was too indifferent to make meaningful projectiles.

Demonstrating how the health bar reduces as players are damaged by the black blocks

Shockingly enough, there is a seperate game over screen for if the second player won.

 

Personal Blog - Basic Sprite Tutorial

This is more or less a poor tutorial about how I put together a spritesheet. For drawing spritesheets is one thing, but ensuring that each frame is in sync with the other frames is something else entirely. I'm going to stress that there is probably a quicker and easier way then the way I'm going to be showing today, but providing a starting point for further exploration is beneficial in itself, so~

This will also feature some animation principles which I think will prove useful and informative.

Starting out

Right. So. Sprites. The first thing I'm going to say is to start out with considering the size of your game window and how large you want your sprites to be. Working with pixel art, a single pixel is obviously going to be tiny.

As you can see, this is my first sprite drawn with single pixels. Far too small.

 In my own effort, I decided to work with 3x3 pixel squares to maintain a simple look while increasing the size just enough to make the sprite look right. You don't want to make your sprites TOO large for your game window size, otherwise you'll be limiting how much screen the player can see beyond the player sprite (and enemies, if applicable)

Still not very large, but in a 800x600 screen, it'll be the right size.

Colour is very important to consider also. If you think about Mario or Megaman, those sprites feature very simple but contrasting colours, which is important to stop a sprite looking like a block of pixels rather than a character. I'm using largely monochrome colours, but I've made the shades distinctive enough that they don't blend together.

Starting to make your sprites

The next thing to consider before getting into the work itself is to consider in advance WHAT sort of actions your game will allow the player to perform. In this example, the player is able to walk and jump, as well as be hit by enemies or the environment.

At this point, I wouldn't be too precious about how aligned your sprites are. I tend to make copies of one sprite as a measuring point for height, and a line to keep the sprites on an even level... but that is about it.

An example of drawing most of the sprites I'll be using in my project. Also included are earlier iterations of the Bill Dup sprite.

Another pro tip at this point is to break up your sprites into seperate body parts on different layers so that you can experiment and recycle different pieces of body. This will save you time in the long run.

Animatimg Your Sprites

Ooooh. Animating. Because a single picture isn't going to be good enough in most games. This is where I will be hitting on some animation theory, so buckle up.

In terms of traditional animation, a rate of 24 frames is the standard for movie quality animation while modern standards mostly hover around 12 frames per second. Depending on how fluid and how quickly you want your animated sprite to be, you can easily get away with even less frames... for example, in the original Super Mario Brothers, Mario and Luigi only have three sprites to represent their run cycle.

In my case, I'm sticking with six frames of animation. Animated at a sufficient speed, it will still look fairly smooth without too much work. One must also keep in mind that making individual movements vary too much will make the sprite look like it is moving far too fast. Equally important is to remember to treat the first frame of your animation as also being the seventh frame. Because after the sixth frame, the loop starts all over and so to keep your animation smooth it should flow back to the starting image. Gosh I can't write.

This is also where having copies of seperate pieces of your character will come in handy. And again, I don't consider this point to be especially important in terms of syncing all of the sprites into precise frames. You will want line to keep your character's level consistant, but that is about it.

Animation in progress.

 And yes, the above should show why it isn't that important to keep your sprites in frames just yet. Some will take up more space than others. Hopefully it also shows why it is a good idea to draw an individual sprite for each state before you try and animate them - you have an automatic starting point to use as a basis for the rest of the frames you'll be animating.

Making Consistant Frames

Because it is really easy to end up with each picture accidently jumping left and right during an animation cycle.

My way of countering this is to find which of my sprites takes up the most space, which will then become the standard point for the rest of the sprites to fit into.

In photoshop, I cut and paste this sprite into a new file, and then changed the canvas size to the size I want to animate at. In this case, I'm sticking to 160x160 pixels. The sprite should remain in the centre of the file, and voila. I change the colour of the background so I can place multiple copies of the same image into rows and columns.

Then it becomes a case of aligning the other sprites over the newly created template. In my case, I mostly used the head as the basis for where I wanted to place each sprite.

This isn't 160 by 160. I can't seem to open the file with the correct size, but the principle remains the same.

With this done, I can then delete the template and be left with a clear background and all my sprites perfectly placed so they don't bounce about between frames. Success!

The mostly finished spritesheet

Of course, now you can stick it in game and see how it animates. You may find some small mistakes that need correcting or iterating on, but you know what to do now, so. V:

Personal Blog - An Aim For The End Of The First Year

Because I'm awake diabolically early today, and I have absolutely nothing better to do in a world where Visual Studio refuses to work on my current PC, I thought I might as well write this up.

I have a noble goal that I hope to achieve either by the end of the first year of Games Development, or maybe in the beginning of the second year. I wish to take an element of each section of Game Design, Programming, and Game Art to create a working one level game. Nothing elaborate.

So essentially, I'm going to take my level design from Game Design (As well as the game rules, so that would involve a character that goes from walking to running after a few units, sliding, and swinging), use C# and XNA from programming, and probably use some art from Game Art if it is applicable and/or possible.

Am I optimistic about it? No, I'll probably fail. But I'd like to at least try. It'll also be nice to use my unofficial mascot/alterego Bill Dup once again, a little fellow that tends to appear in my sketchbooks and some older projects.

Programming Assignment 2 - Conclusion

And some screenshots as well. Because I'm just that generous.

I shall recap the assignment in question, if I have capped the assignment in the first place. Our task was 5 fold -:

• Use a two dimensional char array to create a maze
• Use classes to seperate functions while still running the program
• Restrict player movement to left and right directions unless there is a ladder to climb, and add environmental hazards that send the player back to the start if touched.
• Add enemies that move two squares left and right, which also push the player back to the start if contact is made
• Add a title and display the player's X and Y coordinates.

I had a lot of trouble with this assignment, I won't lie about it. Mostly due to not grasping how classes function and interact with one another. Thanks to collegues in the classroom, I was able to eventually wrap my head around this particular difficulty.

In the end, I was only able to achieve 4 of the objectives, and the one I didn't manage was the addition of enemies. Any attempt to add one ended up creating an alternate map. Maybe if I'd had a little more time to play around with the coding, I may have been able to find a way to resolve it, but managing four out of five tasks is nothing to be too disappointed by.

Items, Doors, Ladders, Title, Environmental Hazards, Coordinates, and as a bonus, Controls and Objective

  
I actually designed the level in such a way that each room would have introduced new elements, like the first room simply featured opening a door with a key, and then the second room introduced the ladder... the third room introduced spike hazards, and the fourth room would have featured an enemy to avoid before the fifth room being all about combining everything into one challenge. As mentioned, no enemies made it and so this idea more or less flew out of the window.

I also made elaborate use of ASCII symbols to create something a little more visually complete... I wasn't content with using default dashes or dots to make up the game. I suppose that is the artist in me trying to break free once again.

Just a screenshot demonstrating that the keys/hearts disappear when picked up, along with the doors. Also showing off ladder use.

And that is pretty much all I really have to say. I'm going to take a break and finish off the last aspects of the programming course before the holidays, and then I'll try to get to grips on this and see if I can finally work out the enemies.

Victory screen. And credit to those who helped me out in the assignment.

I may go back and take some screenshots of the first assignment, the text adventure. I may. Or may not.

Programming, General Blog

Writing this post because it has dawned on me that I've really failed to do so of late.

Even now, there really isn't all that much that I can say that would prove enlightening on what I've been up to for the last month. The way of working has been very different in Programming from the way we worked in Games Design, as fundamentally different subjects as they are.

I thought that I'd at least say that some of the fear I originally had with programming has dissipated. Not to say that I'm necessarily finding the subject easy, more that it appeals to my problem solving obsessive compulsive streak, and the only difficulty I can really say I'm experiencing is trying to do things without actually knowing the code necessary. If I know what code I can use and how/why it functions, then I can code and use it in many more ways... if I have no idea what I'm doing, obviously I'm not going to get anywhere.

It is all fine and dandy to say Google is good for helping out, but I've not been finding that to be the case exactly. There are only so many ways to phrase something you're trying to work out, and eeeeh.

Right now, we've been set a task to make a primative 2D game in a C# Console Application. I vaguely understand the base code that allows the program to function, but I have no idea about many of the things we've been additionally asked to do, like making things disappear when the player walks over it, or enemies that move 2 spaces back and forth. I can't see any of that particularly working with the knowledge I have at present, nor have I really been able to solve the problems via google. All I've found is that there is no way to change the contents of an array, and that can't be true. It would help to know what to be looking for rather than gunning blind. At least until there is enough knowledge to actually be able to confidently search for extra knowledge. I feel like I'm missing pieces of a puzzle.

The only thing I really did figure out on my own was making the player only move left and right apart from when ladders are present. Even that isn't really very useful to me right now, and I'm planning to work out if there is a way to make the code function by observing what is one cell UNDER the player character instead of directly behind the player character. Which would resolve the issue of being able to move left and right in the air... but I have no idea if it will even work.

Ughuhuh. I'm sure I'll work it all out eventually.

Assignment 1 Part 5 - Nearing The End

With the hand in date occurring at the end of Thursday's lecture, I've still got a fair amount of work to get on with. It is going to transpire that my game isn't going to be very big, but that being said I have been viewing this assignment more as a test of being able to make use of the various statements and loops.

This is the chief reason I decided to make a game based on Mass Effect. It gave me a reasonably challenging task in working out how to replicate the various functions of the actual game series.

And as I write this now, I have succeeded in making conversations that loop and and advance the events of the game. One conversation will conclude differently if the player first speaks to another character that reveals the betrayal of the individual being spoken to. And I'm about to finish the conversation that triggers this option and try to include a brief section of the player escaping from their prison cell. I'm not too worried about this failing to manage the latter though... I'm more pleased that I managed to work things out so that the player's status bar remains in place, a problem that I solved after finding that the screen cleared in the character customization section, which I wanted to avoid for the game itself.

I'm satisfied. Finding creative ways of using ints, strings and bools has made the assignment a productive one.