gamecult-site/cast/README.md

Swarm stickers

Chibi stickers of the GameCult swarm cast, built by a small rig instead of drawn one by one. Every sticker is a standalone SVG under stickers/<character>/<pose>-<expression>.svg; gallery.html shows them all with character and pose filters; CAST.md lists who is who.

Open gallery.html in a browser to browse. To use a sticker, copy its SVG. The white die-cut edge is not in the file; it is CSS, so it can be dropped where it does not suit:

img.sticker { filter: drop-shadow(3px 0 0 #fff) drop-shadow(-3px 0 0 #fff)
  drop-shadow(0 3px 0 #fff) drop-shadow(0 -3px 0 #fff) drop-shadow(0 8px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.45)); }

Layout

Path	What it is
rig/rig.mjs	The rig: bases, poses, expressions, hair, accessories, props, emblems, render()
rig/characters.mjs	One trait sheet per character, and which characters get every pose
rig/build.mjs	Writes the SVGs, gallery.html and CAST.md
rig/shot.sh	Screenshots the gallery with Edge headless, for checking renders
stickers/, gallery.html, CAST.md	Generated; never edit by hand
PROCESS.md	How the rig works, its coordinate conventions, how to check renders, known weak spots
process/	Before/after renders referenced from PROCESS.md

Regenerate

Node 18 or newer, no packages:

node cast/rig/build.mjs              # everyone
node cast/rig/build.mjs kiko eve     # only these characters (the gallery is rebuilt from disk)

Add a character

1. Append a trait sheet to CAST in rig/characters.mjs. Copy the nearest existing one.
   • id (folder name, lowercase), name, role (one line from the repo README), source (path of the avatar or self-description the look comes from, or a string starting with invented), optional note for a design decision worth keeping.
   • base: humanoid, raven or horse. Raven needs beak; horse needs muzzle.
   • skin, eyes (iris colour), accent (pose sparkles), optional hands, faceInk (eye and mouth lines on a dark face), noBlush.
   • hair: { style, color, accent? } — a key of HAIR in rig.mjs.
   • outfit: { shape, main, trim, collar, belt? } — shapes tunic, dress, robe, coat (ravens always use egg, with belly and wing); collars v, round, high, none.
   • legs, shoes, optional cape, sleeve, extraLegs (0-4).
   • acc: list of [name, ...colours], keys of ACC. prop: [name, ...colours], a key of PROPS, or null. emblem: { shape, color, disc? }, a key of EMBLEMS, or null.
   • full: true renders every pose and expression; otherwise neutral pose with the three expressions in COMMON_EXPRESSIONS.
2. Run the build, then check the render at sticker size (see "Checking renders" in PROCESS.md).
3. Commit the trait sheet together with the generated files.

Add a pose

Add an entry to POSES in rig/rig.mjs: hop height, head offset and tilt, elbow and hand points for each arm (front: true draws that arm over the head), feet offsets, where the prop sits (or null), and an optional effect from fx(). Coordinates are in PROCESS.md. Every full character picks it up on the next build. Check hands against long hair and twintails: a hand inside the head outline disappears behind the hair.

Add an expression

Add a case to face() in rig/rig.mjs and the name to EXPRESSIONS. Draw relative to the base's anchors (BASES[...].eyeX/eyeY/mouthY/browY/cheekX/cheekY), never fixed numbers, so the raven and horse faces follow. If ravens should open their beak for it, add it to beak().

Licence

All art here is the project's own: drawn as hand-written SVG shapes by this rig, not traced or derived from any third-party asset. The avatars named in CAST.md are GameCult's own images and served only as reference for colours and traits. The repository has no licence file at the time of writing, so the stickers carry no licence grant beyond GameCult's own; add one here if they are meant to be reused outside GameCult.