Custom Character Beginner Guide

Welcome to my Custom Character Guide for Beginners. If you're new and want to try making your own characters, then this is a fun second step for you. Why not first? Because you probably made your first character somewhere that you've come to a guide to improve. If this is actually your first time, then welcome as well because this is for everyone.

We will be covering 2 sections here to make your character more appealing to both amateurs and harsh critics:

1. Important Elements of Custom Characters

2. Improvements

Here is the link for the CC Creator: Click Here

Hopefully you find this guide worth the read and that you will improve your characters even by a bit from this. Let me know if you have questions or if there's something you don't agree with. I'll gladly talk it over to improve my own as well.

Important Elements of Custom Characters

So this part will cover aspects of CC (Custom Character) that veterans look for in a good character. Veterans can smell if the character is made by a seasoned artist or not.

Here are some factors to consider for your character:

1. Usefulness/Intention: What do you want this character to do? Is the character useful? Is it intended to be a niche or situational pick? Is it supposed to be simple to understand? Is it supposed to counter a specific gimmick (anti-drain kit, anti-heal combo, etc...)?

2. Flow: Does your character combo with itself? Are the skills coherent, or are they just random skills you decided to add without any combos in mind? Can people understand the combo they need to do?

3. Fun: Do you think it's fun to use this character? Is the combo satisfying to pull off? Is this character unique?

4. Balance: Is the character overpowered? Is it underpowered? Is it just okay? Does it compare to meta?

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These are all factors you need to consider in your character. Now there are also some points to remember for each of them.

1. Usefulness/Intention - This is checking the strengths of your character. The character's good points should be easy to understand. If you are building an anti-heal character, are you just countering heals? Or Is it useless if there are no heals? Your character must ALWAYS have some use even if it's countered by a bad matchup. If your character is not gonna be depending on the enemy's teams and decisions, then it's good.

2. Flow - Do not mind too much the numbers on the damage, cost, weakness, and the likes. Focus only on the ideal combo. For a combo to start, you need a core skill which you will base your ideas from. Is it a good combo or not? Is it easy to do or not? Is it worth it? If you say yes then good.

3. Fun - This is straightforward and as long as you think it's fun for you, fun for others, and satisfying to use, then you have no problems here. Some people prefer uniqueness, some prefer effects and mechanics not yet in the game, some like fast gameplay while others like it slow. There are various opinions and it will be hard to please everyone.

4. Balance - This is where people fight often. Everyone's concept of balance is different, and this is also true for CC. It's much more different if it's not a real character with imaginary tools.

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Now let's examine our Newbie Artist's first attempt on CC:

Usefulness/Intention: I don't understand what you want this character to do? It seems that you don't like heals? Or you just want huge damage? Are you trying to make a character with huge risks?

We cannot tell our intentions for our own characters just by showing our CC. If you want to make this character punish friendly skills, then the skills should be clear that it does punish them. But it shouldn't be limited to just one concept. Try to put effects that make them useful in general outside the intended targets. If you are settled with what kind of character you want, then let's move on to the next step.

Flow: Skills are contradicting each other. There is no real combo between skills. What's the purpose of Hamura's Gentle Fist effect if enemies are invulnerable to friendly skills? Why does Hamura's Byakugan reduce the damage of Hamura's Gentle Fist? Where's the combo in his kit?

This comment is understandable. There's absolutely no combo here. His skills do not cooperate with each other. Let's avoid doing things like this. Now, let's rework him a bit and make his Gentle Fist the core skill.

Fun: The high damage is pretty fun and it's pretty clear what he does. But he isn't unique. Most of his skills are just generic and the effects don't stand out. I love his passive, which definitely makes him a threat against stunners. I think Hamura's Byakugan is better as a passive than Insight, but that's just me. Facepic looks stretched too I think, maybe make it smaller. I wish he stood out more though. Good job

Now, when it comes to this, we also have to protect our own version of fun. Will you sacrifice your own fun for others? Well, that's all up to you.

Balance: There are lots of overpowered stuff in this character. First of all, the damage is ridiculously high and the turns are just incredibly long. The cooldowns and costs of the skills are too cheap for doing something that destructive. Fix the classes too, it doesnt make sense. Very OP, tune down the numbers then increase costs and cd.

This is the devil of debates. This has ruined friendships and meta. But arguably, balance is the one thing most people will never forget in CC. Almost all comments will mention "Looks overpowered", "Pathetic", or "Well-balanced". Balance is hard to avoid. There is no avoiding conflict when it comes to balance so just keep an open mind and maybe one of you can be persuaded to change their opinion. Or just settle.

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Here's the reworked result considering all the comments above:


Considerable difference, I bet. Whether it's good or not, that would depend on you. Juggle between your own opinion and the critics. Ultimately, what you think about the character should determine your final result. But at the same time, you probably made this character for others to enjoy. So stay to what you think is the perfect balance of both worlds.

Improvements

This section is basically about things you can improve on that may elevate your CC. A lot of good small points can make your character better too. But do mind that everyone has a different preference.

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1. Picture Quality - This is arguably one of the most important things in making a CC but it may also be out of your control if you can't make them yourself. Having really good pics can definitely boost the quality of your work. To some people, it may decide whether they'll read the character or not. Essentially, this does not contribute to your character but you can't make characters interesting without them. Ask someone to sponsor your pics or find shops from old forums - it's a treasure trove. Truly nobody can deny the value of pictures in CC. For reference: Skill pics are 75x75 and Facepics are 75x75 OR 90x90

Spot the difference:

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2. Language - The game uses English so it's a given that you need to improve on yours as well. However, it may be a difficult task to accomplish, especially to non-English speakers. Keep your descriptions to a minimum and straight to the point. Copy+Paste some phrases/keywords from the game if you need to. Or if possible, have a friend help you. Of course you can make a CC using your own language too if you know your readers!

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3. Text - Text is slightly different from Language because text is basically the length of your skills. Complex effects tend to be longer while simpler ones are shorter. When you intend to make a complex character, you need to limit the amount of effects on one skill. People don't like reading a skill with 100 sentences. At least many people don't.

What I do is keep 1 skill very very simple or short, and then just adjust the others. It's friendlier to non-English speakers if you keep unnecessary details short or just remove them. Again, everyone is different.

But here is an example as to why I think it's better if we minimize unnecessary words. The difference is astonishingly obvious!

This is what you typed:


This is the result:


There are simply too much text in 1 skill. If you want to read skills that are as long as these, then go ahead. But this is the minimal description results:


And this is without any filler/description words:


You still think having more descriptions is ok? No worries but look at what happens when all skills are like that:


Compared to no descriptions:

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4. Format - Format is just extra ease of stress. Making simple characters probably won't mind about this but complex ones probably should. Format is using colors, underlines, or any other distinguishable patterns for your texts. When people see a kit with good formatting, it makes it easier to understand and read. Less stress for the reader. When using the game's cc maker program, you can do this relatively easy.

Format


In text form:
<u>This is Underline.</u> <s>This is for Strikethrough.</s>
<i>This is Italic.</i>
<b>This is Bold.</b> <i>*You can use this with colors or underline*</i>
<b><span style="color:#ff0000">This is for bleed.</span></b>
<b><span style="color:#c1b100">This is for paralyze.</span></b>
<b><span style="color:#f89e11">This is for orange.</span></b>
<b><span style="color:#280092">This is for blue.</span></b>

Result