Popul8 enabled Finnish game developers Colossal Order achieve next-generation character variation for the most advanced city-builder to-date.
Colossal Order wanted to build the most comprehensive and sophisticated city-builder to date after the success of their first title Cities: Skylines. Part of this dream was to offer players a city with much greater variation in populations so that each character felt vibrant and alive - a worth building a wonderful city for them.
In their original title, each character was created by hand which took a lot of time and resources resulting in very little variation between characters.
They knew they would need a powerful character variation system if they were to achieve the levels of variety that would match the rest of the quality of the city-builder.
That's when Popul8 came along, an end-to-end character creation software that allowed Colossal Order to use their artists' assets to produce new variations instantly.
Unique Characters
Created
Character Groups
Animations Retargeted
To realize Mariina Hallikainen's vision for a dynamic and diverse populace in Cities: Skylines II, Colossal Order integrated Popul8.
Essentially, they needed a character variation system that could help them generate thousands of unique characters. Popul8's robust system utilizes the game's existing character specifications to generate a vast array of variations swiftly. Popul8 ensures precise asset integration and expedites the creation process while maintaining a high-quality standard, complete with seamless animation targeting for new character forms.
Enabled all types of sizes, age groups, ethnicities and looks for truly unique characters.
Provided great fitting of Colossal Order assets to speed up character production.
Created a more inclusive an representative gaming world through diverse characters
“Popul8 saved me and my team a lot of time. It worked out-of-the-box and took very little work to set up once we had uploaded our assets into it."
Thanks to Popul8, Colossal Order were able to launch their game in November 2023 to resounding commercial success. They were able to save months of development time using their assets in Popul8 rather than building their own character variation system.
They achieved 2,600 unique characters for players to enjoy today as they grow their fantastic cities. Without Popul8, Colossal Order would've never been able to produce such high quality variations to fill their game world - or they would've had to have spent valuable time and resources on a new system rather than creating the most advanced and comprehensive city-builder out now.
