Ulve's process is to first sketch things out on actual paper, and then transition the sketch to digital and do revisions on an iPad. So we asked her to recreate some Game of Thrones characters in vanilla un-modded Skyrim. Professional illustrator Kirsten Ulve has never before played Skyrim and has never before had a chance to wiggle the knobs and dials of the Creation Engine's decade-old avatar designer-which means she's the perfect mark to experiment on. We wanted to expand on those experiences by filming some folks trying their hand at various' games character creators-and the video embedded above is the first in what we hope will be a new series of character creator-related silliness. And, of course, there's the near-universal thrill of actually seeing your character walk on-screen the first time (often accompanied by the near-universal crushing disappointment that, viewed in the complex and dynamic lighting of the game's opening sequence, your carefully crafted avatar is in fact an ugly deformed monster with concave cheekbones and a hideous overbite). Finding just the right jaw line, just the right nose, just the right hair style-actually crafting the character rather than living with the developer's default avatar gives players a sense of connection to their character.

Getting creative with the character creator in RPGs is kind of like the game before the game-so much so that often I'll spend more time there than I do actually playing through an RPG's tutorial section. Directed by Joe Pickard, edited by Brady Jackson.

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