Character creation rolls out for beta testing in Minecraft

Character creation is finally coming to Minecraft, bringing more than 100 basic features including hair, eyes, different mouths, skin textures, facial hair, and body sizes, to the game.

Coming to Bedrock beta for Android, Windows 10, and Xbox One players, the character creator feature was initially devised for Minecraft Earth, but the development team "got so invested in endlessly designing our own weirdo hairdos", they decided to roll the "frequently requested feature" out to the vanilla game, too. Right now the creator is only available on the aforementioned platforms by way of a beta test, but it is expected to roll-out to others soon enough, too. 

"Using the Character Creator, you can personalise your avatar in a number of ways, including body size and shape, limb replacement and tweaking of eyes, mouth, hairstyles and colours, facial hair and skin tones," Mojang's Thomas Wiborgh said in a blog post. "Does that mean you can create a character that looks just like you? Well, to the extent that your lovely looks translate to blocks and pixels, absolutely! 

"What about a blue, grinning character with piercing red eyes and a bright green goatee?" they added. "That sounds terrifying, but go ahead! You can even play around with animated textures in the Dressing Room, which is where you’ll get ready to hit the catwalk! Or, you know, to mine for dirt."

While the basic creator will be available for free, there will also be a range of "custom accessories" that can be bought or earned via unspecified in-game activities and the character creator will be available alongside custom skins, not instead of. Mojang also assures these are cosmetic changes only and "will not make you stronger, faster or able to smell diamonds".

"Are custom skins going away? Of course not!" Wiborgh added. "You still keep all the skins you’ve purchased, imported from Java (on a platform that allows for that), or otherwise collected. While you can’t bring classic skins into the Character Creator to further tweak them, there are two very notable exceptions here. You may know them, they go by the names of Steve and Alex. Feel free to start from either character, or a completely random character, to jolt your creativity."

The feature will also roll out to Minecraft Earth – as well as all other Bedrock platforms on iOS and Nintendo Switch – once this beta test has concluded.

"Remember, beta features can be unstable," Wiborgh added. "The reason we want players to try them early is to give us feedback and catch bugs for us to fix – so make sure to backup your worlds!"

Don't forget, you can also now enjoy DuckTales themed DLC for Minecraft. The DuckTales adventure map  includes "the show's most iconic locations - from the city of Duckburg and the halls of McDuck Manor, to legendary locations like the Pyramid of Toth-Ra or the heights of Mount Neverrest." You'll also be able to "solve a mystery or rewrite history" as the three mischievous grandkids of Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, or choose from 30 other characters. 

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