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Skin Mod Helper Guide

This guide will walk you through making your skin mod compatible with Skin Mod Helper.

Part 1: Create a Configuration File

Create a file named "SkinModHelperConfig.yaml" in your mod root (next to your everest.yaml). This is the file that will let our helper find all of your assets.

Here are the different fields you can use:

SkinId: [unique ID of your skin, required]
SkinDialogKey: [dialog ID of your skin's name, optional, if not included name will default to your SkinId]
HairColors: [hair colors for your skin, optional, if not included uses vanilla colors]
- Dashes: 0 [use 0 to 5]
  Color: "ABCDEF" [use six digit RGB hex code]

Note that hair color choices may be overridden by other cosmetic mods. This is intentional to allow for customization even when using a skin.

Your skin ID should be in the format "[Name]_[Skin]", e.g. "Bigkahuna_MySkin". This will double as the file asset path -- "Bigkahuna_MySkin" turns into "Bigkahuna/MySkin". You will use this path for all custom assets. I'll refer to this as [your unique path].

Part 2: Create your XMLs

This helper uses XMLs to reskin most objects. Right now, Sprites.xml and Portraits.xml are supported. XMLs should be placed in "Graphics/[your unique path]/", e.g. "Graphics/Bigkahuna/MySkin/Sprites.xml".

You should follow these steps to set up your XMLs:

  1. Copy the vanilla version of the XML.
    • You can find them in Celeste/Contest/Graphics/.
  2. Take out the sprites and animations you aren't reskinning.
    • These will automatically be replaced vanilla sprites/animations.
    • For Sprites.xml, make sure to remove the "Metadata" section for any animations you remove.
    • One caveat: the "start" field should be the name of an animation that you are reskinning. For example, if you're only reskinning the "dash" animation of the player sprite, change the "start" field to "dash".
  3. Change the "path" fields to the correct path for your skin and put the files there.
    • For Sprites.xml, the base folder is "Graphics/Atlases/Gameplay". So for example, for the player sprite I would use "path=Bigkahuna/MySkin/characters/player/" and put the images in "Graphics/Atlases/Gameplay/Bigkahuna/MySkin/characters/player/".
    • For Portraits.xml, the base folder is "Graphics/Atlases/Portraits". If you have textbox reskins, you should use "Graphics/Atlases/Portraits/textbox" as the base folder.
  4. Tweak any animation values that you want.
    • You can edit the "delay", "frames", and "goto" attributes of animations to change how they work.
    • For Sprites.xml, you can change the bangs for a sprite, by editing the "hair" frames for each animation under "Metadata". You can remove hair for a certain frame by putting "|x|" for that frame, or remove hair entirely for that animation by removing the whole line. If you're not using hair at all, you can just remove the Metadata section.

Part 3: Miscellaneous

  1. You can add color grades that render over your sprite for different dash values by placing them in "Graphics/ColorGrading/[your unique path]" and name the images "dashX.png", where X is the number of dashes the color grade should apply to. For example, if I had a 0-dash color grade, I would name the file "Graphics/ColorGrading/Bigkahuna/MySkin/dash0.png".
    • You can grab the base color grade from "Celeste/Content/Graphics/ColorGrading/none.png"
    • Pick the color you want to replace on the sprite, find that color on the color grade, and then replace it with the color you want for that dash count.
  2. You can add a custom death particle (the circles that appear around Madeline when she dies) by creating a small image named death_particle.png and place it in your player sprite folder. Use white as the only color -- it will be filled in by your current hair color on death.
    • For reference, the vanilla death particle is an 8x8 white circle (hair00.png).
  3. A few extra things that can be reskinned:
    • The particles for feathers: "../Gameplay/[your unique path]/particles/feather.png"
    • The particles for dream blocks: "../Gameplay/[your unique path]/objects/dreamblock/particles.png"
      • Use the vanilla image as a guide -- you need to space out the three particle sizes in a specific way for them to be used correctly.

Part 4: Troubleshooting

If your skin is not appearing in the menu:

  • Make sure your configuration file is named correctly and in the right place
  • Make sure the ID is present, unique, and correct

If your sprites/portraits are not appearing in-game:

  • Make sure your XML is valid. You can compare to the vanilla files or use an online syntax checker
  • Make sure the "path" fields to your sprites/portraits are correct and the files are in the right place
  • Make sure the "start" field references an animation you have reskinned.

If you get missing textures or unexpected vanilla textures:

  • Check your log to see what textures are missing -- these messages can point you in the right direction
  • Make sure the number of images matches the number of animation "frames"

If you get crashes:

  • Check your log to see if it's a missing texture
  • Make sure you don't have any "Metadata" sections for missing animations in Sprites.xml
  • Contact me!

This process can be pretty involved, especially if you are porting over an existing skin mod, so feel free to contact me if you need help, find an issue, or would like a new feature supported! You can also use a currently supported skin mod as a reference.