It might seem surprising that a character composed of four floating spheres encased in human skin could capture the imagination of players, but that’s precisely what has transpired within the Saints Row community. If you’re even slightly interested in modding for Saints Row, you’ve likely encountered the peculiar entity known as Skinballs—a name that sounds more unsettling than it actually is. Skinballs can be best described as a ‘character’ in the broadest sense, consisting of four remarkably smooth orbs, each adorned with a unique skin tone.
Initially unveiled during a developer livestream of Saints Row: The Third, Skinballs quickly evolved into a staple of the series, with numerous mods allowing players to take control of these bouncing spheres. Just picture yourself engaged in a fierce shootout while piloting this whimsical creation!
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Recently, former Volition Games developer Elizabeth Zelle shared insights into the origins of this community icon. “On Saints Row, we had a debug NPC named Skinballs (lol) that was literally just four spheres wrapped in different shades of skin texture so we could test lighting for different skin tones during development,” she explained. This followed an IGN report highlighting how darker-skinned custom characters often appear nearly invisible in cutscenes for Love and Deepspace.
The underlying issue is that many game developers typically test lighting and configure their games based on lighter skin tones, relegating darker skin options as an afterthought or less critical in production. Fortunately, Volition innovatively addressed this challenge by employing a single charming character for testing various skin tones. “Teams need to plan for that kind of testing with intentionality, and not enough do,” Zelle remarked.
You can experience the four-balled figure for yourself in a Saints Row 4 mod available here.
Saber Interactive’s CEO stated that the Saints Row franchise had to be paused because the production costs were becoming unsustainable: “The days of simply throwing money at games, except for the GTAs of the world, are over.”