About the MCs visuals.
One of the main points of critique for CoM is the player character’s bluish skin tone. For a while, I was adamant about keeping it the way it is, both because of the huge amount of work it would take to change it and because I felt like it didn’t matter. It also didn’t help that 90% of the comments about it were incredibly rude and obnoxious. But in all seriousness—what do you think about it? If I’m overhauling the story anyway, now would be a good time to implement such a sweeping change.
Let me know if you’d like it to stay the same, if you want me to change it, or if you just don’t care. I’m not promising any action after this poll, but I’d really like to hear everyone’s opinion so I can make a decision.
And I’d love it if you’d share your thoughts in the comments.
PS: I don't know what went wrong in my brain to phrase a poll as questions, but just ignore the question marks. Apparently you can't edit poll options after releasing them.
Comments (19)
I don't care at all. (TL:DR) I think people who have a problem with the skin are mistaken and think that because the MC is an undead that his body is a corpse and the blue skin is a result of rot or decay. This is false, the MC has a beating heart, bleeds (red blood), and cums. There are one or two lines in one of the first few scenes that state that the MC's body was made from/by magic and that is the reason for his skin tone. Given that his skin color is a result of his bodies species/race, it is really no different from something like a purple dark elf in a fantasy setting and there is no justifiable reason to be disturbed by the MC's skin color and so you should do what YOU think is best for the story (presumably keep the blue skin color). I do totally understand that from the outside perspective, the MC is called an undead and has bluish skin and that can give the impression of him being some king of rotting corpse like a zombie or ghoul and that would rightfully be gross. However, well within the first hour of gameplay it is established that the MC has a heartbeat, bleeds, and ejaculates semen. This is not consistent with the idea of the MC being a reanimated corpse. Furthermore there is also a line or two of dialog within the first few scenes which states that the MC's body was made by magic and is not simply his body before dying reanimated with magic. Since he's clearly not a corpse but is something more like a soul that's been put into a custom made body (a real body not some android or golem, maybe like a homunculus or something?), I don't see it as gross at all and just think of the skin hue as being a result of him being some kind of magic entity unknown to me, kind of like seeing a purple dark elf in a fantasy setting, I just attribute it to his species/race rather than it being some kind of rot or decay which I can only assume is what's bothering so many people. I only just played the public release yesterday, but have been following the development every couple months since the project started. I remember the original debacle with people complaining about the skin and leaving. Honestly, until actually playing I totally did think that the MC was a zombie or ghoul based on him being called undead, the skin hue, the previews showing graveyards and the game trailer showing the crypt. As we know, the original mess of people complaining was before there was a public release and I can only assume that they all thought that he was a gross rotting undead (even if you would never make a model that looks to be visually decaying) and so they didn't buy the game, and since they didn't play the game they didn't know they were wrong about the MC. Maybe the solution is making it more clear what kind of entity the player is in descriptions and posts, its not like it would really spoil anything after the first few scenes of the game. Just add some sentence in bold to the game description and some future posts: "He is an undead but he is body is not a corpse, it is made from/with magic and that's why he has an unnatural skin color."
If it's story relevant, keep it. If it's not an important point, I'd probably vote to change it.
In all fairness I learned to enjoy the MC's skin tone due to the lore reasons of the story so I am all for keeping it if it means making it easier to show off in the story also it's less work on you and I am for it if the reward doesn't outweigh the work
What are the chances of rendering two versions? The original blue and human skin?
Sadly, thats a huge amount of work and would really slow me down. It would be best, but I don‘t see this happening.
As long as MC resembles the womanizer James Sunderland from Silent Hill I'm cool with it
At the beginning, the color bothered me, but as the story progressed, it became more apparent as to why the MC skin was that color and I got over it quickly. While I do think the skin color fits the story well, it also seems to be disturbing to many people. The biggest problem for you right now, is that many of the people who are against the skin color, have left Patreon already and will not participate in this poll. I AM a supporter but that fact should not effect your ultimate decision. I know you wanted to keep the color. But, you also need money to survive. I am more than willing to make this compromise if it makes the game more successful. That is mostly due to the fact that the story is the most important part of this game for me, and not the color of the MC's skin. Another suggestion was made (in Spanish) to "switch to the MC's POV. That way, everything becomes more immersive". While that may be true, I think it would create even more work and would not fit the story style well at all.
Yeah Its wierd he would make a poll for this after chasing most of those people off. It was never going to be an accurate representation of what people wanted. I don't know if the poll was supposed to be self reassuring or what, but the fact that even after all that the poll being 1/5 in favor of the change says something. Mans gotta eat and the skin tone is preventing it
I voted to change it (I'm not a pateon, so prioritize me as you see fit). I've thought the color was too unnatural. If the MC is Undead, gray or pasty white would make more sense than the existing color. If the MC is really alive, then a natural color would make more sense. The blue/purple tone doesn't make any sense at all and is never explained. Perhaps if we knew WHY it was that way, then it wouldn't create the cognitive dissonance it currently does. I love the CoM story, btw. Look forward to your revamp, getting your head back on straight and enjoying what you do for a living. It'll be better if you're more into it, for sure.
Don't change it.
Podrias dejarlo asi Como esta. Simplemente cambia a POV del Mc. Asi todo se vuelve Mas immersion.
I personally don't mind it, and it hits home that you are playing a dead man. Otherwise he would look, normal when he is very much not, and while those around him are also not normal.
I don’t think you should change it just for the haters, but if you do decide you want to change it, you could keep it in world and make it happen for a reason. Plus then you wouldn’t have to go back and change the old stuff ;)
Me personally? I think it fits the theme of what the MC is so changing it bc some ppl think it doesn't look right is kinda missing the point. We're kinda undead. And I like the idea of the player seeing the 'true forms' of the cast, blue skin n all. It'd be one thing if we were bluish AND looked gross/ugly, but we're just... blue. So big deal. The haters can shove right off in my view, especially if they don't have or can put forth any decent critiques against it that wouldn't break the world logic you've built up. Sure it's unique, but if we can get blue space babies in Mass Effect with nobody caring, then why is a blue undead sex vampire need to be any different? Jyst keep it.
Isn't he supposed to be undead? Kinda makes sense for him to have bluish skin.
Don't really like how often the MC is visible at all instead of taking a more POV approach, the blue skin is the smaller problem in my opinion.
don't care that much, but don't see the point of changing it
I don't care about the main character just look. But less the main scene like really focuses on the main character and looks which this game really hasn't there shouldn't be a point of changing him.
Don't change it