Planning Out Your Character
Get inspired. Inspiration is key to making a fun, creative character. You can look at Gacha Club's preset characters for inspiration, or use Pinterest, deviantART, or YouTube for ideas. You may want to give your character a theme. Gacha Club has clubs to put your characters in, hence the name. You can use these to inspire your character's backstory and personality. Just make sure they have other interests and personality traits as well. Make sure to use inspiration from multiple sources, or else your OC may look like a copy.
Decide what kind of character you want to make. Think of basic personality traits for your character and some interests they'll have. Think of why they are being created (to be a villain, hero, etc). Make sure to give them flaws so they aren't a Mary Sue.
Figure out how your character's environment affects their looks and personality. If your character is poor, they're not going to be wearing fancy clothes. If your character is bullied, they're not going to be confident. If your character is mythological, they're going to have to take time to understand the human world. Avoid stereotypes. When making an OC, you want to avoid things like the typical spoiled brat with blonde hair and an all-pink outfit and a dress or an emo boy with black hair and all-black clothes with a hoodie. Come up with your own ideas, or use multiple references for inspiration. This will help your character stand out and be unique.
Create a character sketch. Character sketches are notes about how your character acts and looks. They're helpful to jot down your ideas and work on ideas you don't quite like.
Making Your Character In-Game
Choose a preset to start off with. There aren't blank characters in the game, so you have to find a premade character to work with. Default Girl and Default Boy are good ones to choose from. You can also go to the Club Cosplay category and use Mannequin. Or use "fill in" in the club All Stars.
Choose a hairstyle. The hairstyle is one of the main things people can identify your character by. It should show their personality and be at least a little unique to them. For example, a character that travels on foot often probably has their hair in a ponytail to lessen the heat. Don't color anything yet. That'll be saved for later. Your character doesn't have to have hair! If it's a robot, the character is recovering from cancer, or they simply like the style, feel free to skip the hair.
Customize the face. This is the focal point of your character. It shows off their personality, even without seeing them interact with anyone. For example, a villain could have a smug expression, and a cute character could have big eyes.
Customize the body. You can change your character's pose and hand gestures here. You can also change the size of the head to make your character look more realistic or more chibi. It leaves a lot of room to give your character more personality. For example, an antisocial character may have their arms crossed, but a bubbly character may be giving a peace sign.
Choose a top. It's time to start the outfit! Choose a shirt and sleeves for your character. You can also add a jacket, which can make your character look more mysterious. You can look up real outfits for inspiration. Choose your character's clothing style depending on their personality. Do they dress masculine (like a boy), feminine (like a girl), or androgynously (gender neutral)? By going to Clothes > Acc., you can change the logo on the shirt.
Add a belt or skirt if you want. Belts can make your character look more formal (if nicely fitting) or rebellious (if messy), and skirts can make your character look more childish or kind. They can also be used to deceive the character's peers. For example, a character that wants to look nice but is actually manipulative may wear innocent-looking clothing.
Choose some bottoms and shoes. If you added a skirt or dress, just choose the shortest shorts, as they're too short to be seen along with it. Keep their environment in mind, however. A character that lives in a snowy place isn't going to be wearing a short dress and slip-ons. They'd likely wear a longer dress with leggings underneath and boots.
Add some socks, tights, or leggings if necessary. Socks tend to make characters look cuter, and also go well with formal clothes or a uniform. Fishnets can make your character look more promiscuous or rebellious.
Add a cape or back item if wanted. You can add effects/backgrounds around your character, a backpack, hoods, capes, or big bows.
Accessorize. You can give your character gloves, glasses, hats, hair clips, etc. There are tons to choose from in different categories, so get creative with it! Don't use too many, though, as it'll be distracting and hard to look at.
Add ears, horns, wings, and/or a tail if applicable. If your character isn't fully human, you may want to add animal parts! Some hairstyles have animal ears built into them, but you don't have to use them. In Hats, Acc., and Other, you can find parts for almost any creature, even rams, unicorns, monsters, dolphins, snails, beavers, and lobsters. Making a hybrid character (besides animal x human) could make for an interesting story or design. However, you don't want to add too many animals. A wolf x angel x human could be cool, but more than that would be too much.
Add things that give your OC more backstory, such as scars, bandages, and treasured items. If your character is a fighter or is weak, they may have bandages, scars, and wounds on them. Your character may also have items with sentimental value, like a bracelet from a childhood friend or a hair clip from a parent they lost.
Add face accessories if you'd like. These include freckles, tattoos, paint, markings, extra eyes, masks, eyebags, facial hair, earrings, eye makeup, and more. You can have up to 3 of these.
Add props. Props can reveal a lot about your character! There are nearly 300 items your character can hold, including weapons, food, toys, umbrellas, tools, staffs, medical supplies, electronics, art supplies, instruments, books, shopping bags, cleaning supplies, and more. You may want to give a child character candy or a stuffed animal or give a romantic character a love letter or flowers. You may need to change the hand gesture to make sure your character is holding the prop, instead of it just floating in the air.
Add any extra, small details. You can also give your character effects, a background, a shield, a pet, objects (such as a wheelchair), etc. You can also adjust the placement and size of things in most categories.
Color them. Make sure to keep color theory in mind, and don't overdo it. Try to limit your color palette to 3-5 colors, including white and black. Also, be sure to limit bright colors. It's recommended to mostly use neutrals, pastels, and dirty pastels, saving dark or neon colors for the skin, highlights in the hair, eyes, or important accessories. Colors next to each other on the color wheel often work together (such as red, orange, and yellow), as well as colors opposite to each other on the color wheel (such as blue and orange). Create contrast. If the character has fair skin, give them dark hair or clothes, and vice versa for characters with dark skin. Try to make the outfit and eyes a different color than the hair. You might use a lighter or duller color for the eyes, or use the character's favorite color based on their personality for the eyes or clothes.
Developing Your Character
Fill out their profile. In the Profile section, you can do many things, including: Character Name: Name your character! Favorite Club: Put your character in a club that matches their looks or personality. Keep in mind that if you were to submit this character as a preset in the Gacha Club Discord server, you would not be allowed to put them in the Gacha, All-Stars, GachaTubers, or VIP clubs. Favorite Title: Give your character a title, or just use the club they're in as a title. Favorite Character: Select their favorite character from a list of well-known presets. If they're in an element club, you may want to make their favorite character in that same club. Created By: Put your first name or alias here! Don't use your full name, as personal information isn't allowed. Character Profile: A short description, biography, or quote from the character. You can also include a sentence or two about their past or relationships. Export: If you reach level 5 from battling, you can export your character with a code. The rest, such as birthday and age, are self-explanatory. There are more options in Additional Details.
Give them a backstory. Character backstories shape how they act and see the world currently. Show their successes, failures, positive experiences, negative experiences, etc. The negative experiences are probably going to affect your character most, but be realistic about it. Do they really need to have been tortured for years, when instead they could have been verbally abused or something less brutal?
Give them family and friends. Relationships can also affect your character. How they were raised, their friendships or hatred with their siblings, and how close they are with their parents are very important. Can they go to their family for help, or are they shunned?
Give your character a main goal. This can drive the plot of videos, stories, or roleplays with your character very well. Life goals can motivate your character to do important things, and can also be used to cause a conflict, like if they were to step on others to get to their desire.
Show your character's thought process. Showing how your character sees the world, themself, and others are crucial for others to understand them. For example, a pessimistic character would probably think a restaurant is making the food too expensive just because they can and see them as cash-grabbing jerks. An optimistic character would probably have faith in them, thinking the prices went up because the workers needed the money.
Make them interesting. Give them a secret, have them make mistakes, make their name have a special meaning, challenge them, and stand out from other characters. They shouldn't just be regular people, especially if they're a protagonist. You may see strangers as average and boring, but in their shoes, they have a complex and difficult life. The same goes for your OC.
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