Four adventurers in the guild hall, one leaning against a corner wall

I decided to put about four NPCs in the guild hall. Just standing them there would be boring, so one stays still with their back against a corner wall, and the rest are each busy with something in the hall. Along the way I ended up writing their dialogue too.

The problem was material. All I had were four standing idle animations and only 10 model prefabs. So instead of relying on animation, I used position and facing to show what each person is doing, and tied them to the other village characters through dialogue.

Screens I built

I picked four models that don't look like Elise, the receptionist who was already there.

• Iris, veteran adventurer: In the northeast corner, back against the east wall under the gallery, looking out over the hall (west).
• Rumi, rookie adventurer: Right in front of the quest board on the west side, looking at it and picking a quest.
• Noa, apprentice mage: A companion standing behind Rumi, facing Rumi and chatting.
• Dana, hunter: On the rug in front of the east fireplace, between the chairs, watching the fire. Just back from the forest and warming up by the fire.

I gave each idle animation a slightly different start time and speed so the four of them don't move in sync.

Each character has three lines, written to connect with other characters like the receptionist and Bran the blacksmith. Noa tells you a new quest was posted in the bottom right of the board, and Dana says Bran pays well for hides. Iris advises you to stock up on potions, saying "the real jobs only come up if you ask the receptionist directly."

Rumi turns toward the player when you talk to them. Iris has turning turned off, so the conversation happens with Iris still facing away from the wall (270°).

Paths connect from the arrival point to the reception desk, the front of the board, the northeast corner and the long table on the west side, and even with the NPCs in, the walkway from the door to the counter isn't blocked. I opened the conversations with Rumi and Iris myself and checked the first line and the facing direction.

Things I thought about

• Faking a lean with a tilt. There's no leaning animation, so I kept the feet where they are and tilted just the model back by 5°.
• Dialogue lives in the generator. The guild generator creates the dialogue data and overwrites the text every time it runs. So to change a line, I have to edit it in the generator. The upside is that rerunning the generator builds the four NPCs and their dialogue together.

Next up

• The four models look the same as the village NPCs (guard, blacksmith, innkeeper, traveler), so the same faces show up in the village and the guild at the same time
• Once there are dedicated animations like sitting or crossed arms, swap them in for Iris and Dana
• Walk around with mouse and keyboard myself and check it