It is time to have a look at how the project for new faces in Hattrick is going! Our designer Beach has been drawing all autumn, and we have started implementing his work on the site. But we are not quite ready for a wide launch just yet! In this post we will show you how far we have come so you can get an idea of how the “old” faces will translate to the new design.
“Creatively, the main challenge has been how to redraw each element while making sure the avatars are still recognisably the same people”, says our friend and long term collaborator Beach from his studio in Cambridgeshire, England.
“It’s not easy to retain the players’ distinctive facial characteristics while at the same time making them look different in terms of style.”
Player faces in Hattrick is put together by a number of components, such as face shape, noses, eyes, hair, and skin colour, which are layered together to produce a face that should both look like a reasonable portrayal of a football player in a squad, but still be distinct and original enough to feel like a person. When creating this new set of player faces, we wanted a whole new feeling to the player faces, but still needed to keep the link to the old faces so that you could recognize your players even when you shifted from one set of avatars to the other. In the early states of this project we felt this link wasn’t strong enough, so we have had to put in extra time and work to make sure that the new faces look great, while still retaining the Hattrick legacy and history of all the players in the game.
“As with the current faces, my overriding goal is to design them in such a way that they don’t look like they have been assembled by an algorithm, but instead look as if each one has been individually drawn from a character designer’s imagination”, continues Beach.
In recent weeks, the project has moved into the first phase of implementation. This means that all key facial components have been designed, and we are able to show the players of any team either in the old style or in the new style. We are currently letting users on our Stage server, where we test new features, use the new faces. And we are using their feedback to further improve them before they are launched to the wider community.
For example, we have been redrawing some facial features such as noses and mouths, to create more variety in the faces. We have also had to adjust some skin tones, which on some screens made it hard to see the facial features. We also still need to work on details such as well the new faces fit with the custom kits that Supporters can design, as well as reviewing how the new faces work on pages of the site where they are shown as miniatures, such as the match order page.
This is an example of how two key pages look on the test server. Please remember that this is still a work in progress, new tweaks are happening every week.
The Players page
The Match Order page
We have mentioned it before, but it is worth mentioning again: Using the new faces is entirely up to you, we will keep the old style around as well. We want the new faces to be the default for new users coming into Hattrick, as we often get the reaction from them that the current faces look too comical, and are no good fit for a “serious” game such as Hattrick. We also like that the new faces have a higher image quality, and are able to scale up in designs where we can give the visual element of the game more space.
Four Legends
Finally, we have prepared a special demonstration for you: How six Hattrick legends may turn out after this makeover. One or two of them may have gotten extra tender loving care by Beach, but if so, they deserve it…
This man is a goal machine! “Apache” has the most official goals of all players in Hattrick. He found the net 1148 times (and counting). Keeping the face shapes, skin colour and facial hair of players are of course important to make them look like “themselves”.
The wise grand master of Hattrick (and, presumably, the man with the stiffest joints…). Åkergren is the oldest player in Hattrick, at 123 years and 50 days. One new “feature” we are hoping to add with the new faces is that older players can visibly age.
Maybe he is no angel after all? Mr Custodio has been transferred more times than any other player in the game – 196 to be exact!
In a career that has been unluckier the most, at least Bernard is the master of one thing: getting injured. With 38 injuries, he has been sidelined more times than any other player in Hattrick.
One piece of good news for Bernard is that we are considering reducing the amount of bandage prescribed when a player is injured in Hattrick so that players have a chance to breathe while recovering.
In a career that has been unluckier the most, at least Bernard is the master of one thing: getting injured. With 38 injuries, he has been sidelined more times than any other player in Hattrick.
Cool stuff, thanks!
Good work!
Looks like a winner – great.
Old ones are better
I agree, the comic style seems better.
Yes old ones are better. The new designs have not souls.
Rooting for our athletes, feeling pride in their country – this is what every compatriot has to experience with joy https://joycazino.com.ua/rossiya-igrat-na-rubli. And a healthy lifestyle is becoming a national ideology, because it is so nice to feel healthy, young, full of strength and energy!
The old ones are much more charming, original and funny. The new faces look like drawn from a ten year-old-child. They are technical dead masks.
I agree
Yep, these faces don’t belong in Hattrick.
Totally agreed.
I hope we have the option to stick to the old faces. They are so much more interesting and fun looking. These new ones look like they arent too well made and they look too boring.
I have allways enjoyed the cartoony faces of Hattrick
Old ones need changes but they are still more “charming”, they express some kind of crazy fascinating emotions wich can bond players to the game, new ones are too much inexpressive and flat. Please consider to develop a more interesting face set
I prefer the currently in-use player faces.
Sono favorevole a qualche cambiamento anche perché il gioco è giusto che si evolva, ma queste nuove facce mancano di personalità non si distingue il giocatore attaccabrighe da quello simpatico!
The idea of new faces so different from old ones bothers me a bit. I hope the developers do not have plans to completely get rid of old faces. The game would have lost its authentic charm without cartoon style faces.
The cartoonish illustrations are part of what makes Hattrick Hattrick. Soon there’s not much left…
The green shirt is blended in with the rest of green field, so these big ugly heads are all you can see..the old player card works way better!
new faces seem like they were fat kids, not a football players. terryfing. I don’t like. Sorry
I do like this upgrade, the old faces were a bit too joke like.
The cool faces go and more normal once replaces them.
no no no no no no no no don’t do this! please dooon’t!!!!!
You’ll have the option to continue using the old interface
Nice! These beta faces look absolutely creepy at the moment 🙂
Old ones have more character please don’t use these new ones!
New ones all have balloons as inspiration ?
Please don’t go in that direction!
The current cartoon faces are way better than the newer ones.
I understand the desire to change, but they really look bad.
I have been a Supporter for a while, and I have to say, this is the worst change so far
How I see HT the comic sense of faces is part of it identity and a characteristic that it makes it different from all kind of games. I could be awesome to be optional for those like I who wants to keep it classical.
I agree. The old ones are iconic part of the game. The comical aspects of these charecters is essential part of the whole game and its image. Changing that is very risky decision that should be taken with a very serious causion. Personally I dont like anything in those new faces; they just look very very boring and seems to lack certain kind of charisma. There is no personal touch in them, they are too polished and (this may sound harsh but) they could be made by any 14 year old girl who has learned to use some graphic program.
Main thing is that personal touch (which these old faces have), in general evolves in some kind of long and thoughtful process. You recognize good writer like Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Tolstoi or Hermann Hesse from their unique approach to writing. Similarly in any form of art. From this perspective these faces seems like an order from the client to the artist, who is forced to create something that is not in his comfort zone, so he has tried to follow the order by playing it safe. These faces seems like a bad hollywood movie which plot is generated by AI that has processed data from the top box-office movies. Or similarly produced pop song for the target audience.
Even if you have invested in this project a lot of time and/or resources, I would think thrice before going forward. Yes, some of the old faces are very ugly, but those are still essential part of the unique nature of the image of the whole game, and part of its personal touch. You cannot have beauty without uglyness. Please dont use this ‘instagram filter’ , save the personal touch of the design.
Where legendarny Bob?
i love it
Prefiero las caras anteriores, me encantan que sean cómicas y agradables. Las caras nuevas me decepcionan y aburren
Good, Go on
This is not an improvement. The old faces are charming and these new ones feel a lot more generic and soulless
The new faces need more emotions before they look alright to me. They’re too flat and don’t desbribe the character enough, IMHO.
I agree with the opinion that hattricks faces have been too extreme in the aspect that the game hasn’t been considered a serious manager game. But let’s face it (unintended pun…), it IS a fictive game and as such has no ambition to find look alike aspects in real life. But they need more life, more character, more depth. The old faces had character, albeit a bit over the top on the cartoony side. i.e they need more work before they are launched.
e.g. a grin on players that are unpopular, a smile on friendly players, a confused look on unpredictable players and so on.
Simply put new faces look bad. Only explanation is that they try to attract the new generation to this game. I might even quit playing because for me the old faces were really likeable. But what do I know, I am a negative nelly and not even a supporter. The old faces were not art or fancy by any means, but the old faces were foolish and cartoonish enough for me to like them. Suits the game perfectly.
This might be an odd and crappy comparison. But I feel similiar change has happened in the animated movie industry. New animations look terribly rushed relying too much on computer technology. Real artistry and talent have experienced some serious inflation. Remember the old movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. Now that took some effort and involved some hugely talented people. Now hattrick ofcourse does not use animated graphics but I am left with the same rushed feeling that I see when watching at the “artistry” of japanese anime. Ok now I am comparing high budget movie animations to crappy anime so not making very much sense at all anymore. Anyway talented people can create amazing things with computers to create nice paintings and original graphics which do not lack character. If this is about low budget I fully understand. Still needs some more work. Thanks and sorry. Anime lovers please don’t get offended. I know nothing.
Just saying I personally do not like of those new “prototypes” that have been presented so far.
The only thing that annoyed me a bit of the old faces is that some 17y/o look like 40. Have you looked at aging the players (in stages) e.g.: <21, 22-35, 36-50, < 50 ?
me too. For the rest old faces are better
I don’t like
Well, I was excited to see the new faces, because the faces do need a revamp. But these ones really let me down. They look souless. I hope you keep working on them, to add more personality. Because if this is the final result I’ll stick to the old ones…
Add to setting so we can choose old or new face.
Then everyone happy:)
I think it is the eyes – they all seem to be staring.
The old style is hattricks identity. The old characters are more funny and give the recognizing look at Hattrick.
With the new faces all character, identity and charming part of Hattrick will be lost.
Not for me. I have to agree with many that the cartoon faces are part of hattrick. I would rather have seen more effort put into adding more of these and adding detail to age the players. Hair loss, hair gain, facial lines, greying hair, uncontrollable ear hair, etc. I know there will be both options but the cartoon sould be the default option. These faces will surely never attract new players to the game.
This is a waste of time. I dont like the new faces.
If hattrick goes on that direction, it must be in big. I mean, use a fix to each age stage (20/30/40/etc), ethnichal, may be correlation with the form. As I see, needs more work, different styles of nose, mouth or ears, and for much, character. Its not a bad idea but keep working pls
Keep the old charming faces. The new ones look too static und normal just like real people.
Please keep the old faces, at least as a option.
Old ones are better
Hopefully there will be an option to keep the old faces 🙂
Old ones: fun, cartoony, never had a complaint
New ones: simply google the “uncanny valley” and restart this project
Please don’t. Frankly speaking new faces look like crap. Old faces are way better in all aspects. Why not spend some time fixing all bugs in Android app instead?
you are making a mistake. the current cartoon style is hattrick distinctive, the new one here is too cold. you should probably add new faces in the old style or correct them if there is any that needs improvement but, dunno i really like them and dislike the new proposal.
Bravo!
I don’t like it! I prefer current faces.
One step in the wrong direction. The old faces were friendly, funny and affectionate. The new ones are just sterile and artificial. Not mine!
This is bad, no spark, fun, character in these robotic new faces.
New ones are generic and without carisma. You should working to add new faces but with the old style. New look is a giant step back
its better to use the real pictures for faces
i mean real human eye and nose picture
I agree with the new faces….Thank u Hattrick!!
The old caricature faces are a distinctive and significant major asset to Hattrick! You’d have to be crazy to change them to something so bland – and which look like those on every other football management game.
New faces are robot-like and pretty horrible. Very very bad choice;
I really dont like these. Somehow it feels all too serious when you strip away the goofy cartoonish designs that we have known for years.
New ones are awfull! Dont change old faces!
I’d add more variety to the old ones, instead of just changing how they look. The only problem with the old cartoonish faces is there are a lot of players looking like the same (just with a different expression)
Best faces were the oldest ones (2007). previous were horribile so I am anyway happy you changed them.
as people say, a good dress is a card of invitation, a good mind is a letter of recommendation. but with such a “dress” not many people will get to second phase of Hattrick’s “good mind”, i suppose.
please don’t change. this is no real improvement, or at least, keep an option to go back to the old faces, like it’s still possible to use the old match form.
imo a lot of areas, more important to the game than just visual, are up for improvement:
– more accurate game comments (eg. when it’s 6-1, the other team isn’t going to win anymore, the commentator should realise that)
– realistic injuries (eg. 4 weeks for a ball in the nuts is exaggerated)
– better shirt tool with external image load option to put a logo on the shirt
– left foot, right foot players
etc
wow right foot, left foot would be awesome. Another weird thing is too many times players do not respect their positioning, I mean for example: a midfielder positioned on the right attacks thru the left and a defense player is within the area to do an overhead shot, things like that.
You’re right, that bothers me too, centre back rushing though the centre to make a goal… I have never seen that before 🙂
don’t do this please
no way new faces will appear in my team.
I’ll keep FOREVER today’s faces, that are true Hattrick soul.
a truly disappointed Diamond supporter.
Instead of losing time for this, please use time for true problems, for example Live Match works worser every week.
Looks of players are more professional, good work. Only have also an eye on other problems like what zack70 Posted.
like it already
I prefer the old faces!
I like the old ones much better.
Please don’t do the change. The new Line weight does not make it feel like Hattrick… bad idea to change!!!
The old faces are good. Just really need to make them age.
Hi!
When you will apply the change with the new faces?
Will there be more changes to other graphics in the game that are now caricatured?
just horrible… stop it please. its nonsense.
The ‘old’ faces fit HT much better, the ‘new’ ones seem to be from another world. I sure will keep the ‘old’ ones.
owww, I loved the comic style a lot better, to be honest, although I agree they need an update.
Any news regarding the much needed update of the current cartoon-ish avatars??
Developers have clearly the worst taste in regards to design. Visit Dribble and see what good designers are doing under the hashtag “Hattrick” as concept design. I’m sorry if it sounds harsh, but the new designs are right straight garbage.
this is horrible in so many levels..
taking something that works perfectly, something with it’s own character, and turning it into generic flat designs. i hope this is already dropped. please..please..