There are gestures like scratching your head, or Idk if they’re waking up say your insert color looks messy and all over the place, since most people wake up with their hair as a mess, if they’re in a like secret mission in a abandoned place have then swipe dust off their hair and if in a forest it’s leaves, try to think of simple gestures that fit with your history theme and seem as a natural action, the customisation can be along the chapters, like in case of a sci-fi history you can have the option if i choose the_insert color_ suit because it looks good in my insert skin or eyes color and for people who don’t want this customisation an option like because I like this color, let’s move on
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What I made is an option people random generated their characters if they don’t want choose. And also give an option to write your own skin color. Because well, there are many possibilities more than I could think so maybe is a way to integrate more people. And like is a sci fi even exotic colors green blue etc have sense.
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They sound like really good options specially the random generator one for those who don’t like customisation
Well, I have fear biggots cry about why their characters are bronze or chocolate and chubby or woman. My answer deal with it. Is randomized try new things lol. Why preset has to be white male?
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This would make the most sense really. Its neutral things that virtually everyone other than bald people will deal with to some degree
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This: Fixed Selection / Reader Specified / Random Generated
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Superhero stories seem to lean towards defining appearance. Cosmetic choices that reflect those genres in other media like video games and desktop roleplaying games.
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I also let choose body types chubby, slim,small, average and muscular and on several occasions will affect scenes. I think is a good idea even if only use in some moments
What about curvy?
I never thought on that lol. It could be a good addition thanks 
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You’re welcome 
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I wasn’t aware people did that in real life. I’ve only seen it on anime.
In spain is a common gesture
One of the WIP games, Freak: Amidst the Neon Lights by @Snoe introduces a deceptively simple yet clever height/build mechanic that affects the story as it unfolds.
For example, the “Big & Tall” MC has better odds of physically pushing/lifting their way out of the wreckage of a downed plane. Whereas an MC who is “Lithe or slight of build” is going to struggle attempting the same feat. The corresponding text also reveals why the MC can physically achieve the desired outcome or not.
I really like how Freak: Amidst the Neon Lights introduces and defines MC abilities and personality traits. Nicely done.
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Yeah, I do same at least I had planned several scenes where chubby lost breath in a persecution and tall crash with some doorway frame etc minor stuff but help with immersion
Sounds simple enough, I personally prefer not have height and body type in the same choice since that come in all sizes, but sounds better to have both together from a coding perspective
rather than relay on body type you can have a choice asking if the mc exercises and build from here, I have seem people considered chubby run more than slim/skinny since this is more of a matter of exercising, a slim person can have asthma and thus run less
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It is a scifi game where you are genetic building from a template so You can run or do exercise all your life you will be chubby etc …except if I ended up adding some genetics upgrades but I still building the code and game structure to known if will end being implemented the upgrades or not.
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When you put in any customization option, it needs to have the impact it should have. Melting pot SF? Just make sure it’s referenced in visual descriptions when appropriate. Antebellum American South? Yeah that’s gonna have an impact. Been a good long while since I’ve played Choice of the Vampire, but I remember it offering different ethnicities and handling it well given that vampirism made a lot either irrevelant or negatable.
For your case, I’d personally suggest leaving it out; because it makes no real difference there isn’t a strictly implied default so long as you never mention it for immediate genetic relatives. So the player can visualize their character however they wish. If you add an option, they can lock in that visualization, but having a list of options means instead of their character potentially having any skin color their character can only have a skin color on that list.
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Good rule of thumb: when you’re deciding whether or not to give an option, think about how many choices you’re planning on. Then imagine if you finished writing the game and decided to add another choice, one that increases the number of distinct categories*. How much would that impact things? The less work adding an option is, the more likely you should drop the choice entirely; if you don’t have to change anything, removing the choice adds infinity options. If you’d have to basically rewrite the game, removing the choice reduces the number of options to one.
Though also, “how much work it takes” and “how much it changes things” don’t have to be tightly correlated. There’s an enormous number of writing and programming tricks that can make it a ton easier. The key programming trick is that if you’re making consistent and predictable changes to the text, you can use variables to insert the appropriate word. Then when you add a new option you can simply set those variables differently and now you’re always using the right word. So you can change literally hundreds of sentences in one line of code. If the story isn’t in some way about the customization, that alone can be sufficient to do all the references to the customization you need. Try playing through any of the games on the site with two different choices in character creation and see if you can pick out how much that’s done; when you’re looking for it you’ll see it everywhere. You can also use this with text input to make it user-definable, but that trick is usually reserved for names with good reason; they’re pretty much the only thing where you can reasonably count on the user entering the exact text they want to see in every location. Anything else, you’ll need them to type in the value you’d assign to each variable and the player will lose patience very quickly.
*basically, if you were to group them and do a two-stage choice where you pick a group and then an individual one, you’d need to add a new option in the first stage
I agree with what most people have posted. If it’s a part of your story, then put it in. If it has no bearing on the tale you’re telling, it has no business being there. Don’t add fluff to make your story longer and avoid adding lots of bells and whistles that take you ages to program and debug that do nothing useful and just give people something to moan about…