I was Art Director on Saints Row (2022) and was responsible for developing the high level art direction for the game and its extensive customization.
I had the opportunity to work with some amazingly talented Associate Art Directors, Art Leads, and artists, both internal and external, to help develop the concepts and ideas below to customize the player's world.
Check out my GDC 2023 presentation "The Art Direction of Saints Row" for an overview of the Saints. It's available in the GDC Vault!
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1029337/The-Art-Direction-of-Saints
Customization is a main pillar of the Saints Row franchise, that affords the player to customize their 'Boss' (avatar), vehicles, weapons, the Saints Friends looks, their Saints crew, their headquarters, and even the world.
For the Boss, we created extensive player creation options from body shape, hairstyles, and dozens and dozens of clothing items that you can mix and match regardless of gender. Customizing your ride with new tires, rims, hoods, headlights, and many more options let players express their personal style, and it doesn't end there. Players can customize weapons with cosmetic and functional upgrades as well as customize their Saints crew and collect and display a host of crazy statues, pictures, and objects in their Saints HQ base. Saints Row has something for the customizer in all of us.
Character customization excerpt from the Saints Row Customization trailer.
Saints Row Trailer showing off our extensive customization systems for the player, vehicles, weapons, and the world.
Saints Row Trailer showing off the Boss Factory, a FREE, stand-alone player avatar creation game. Players could create, save, and upload their own characters and community characters from Boss Factory into the main game.