I don’t know if you know about Minecraft Skin Studio – it’s less Buffalo Bill, more freeform character modelling. Designed by a small team based about a mile away from where I live and work, it’s an Android, iOS and Kindle app that allows players to design and upload multiplayer skins from anywhere, phone signal willing.
Last week’s update to Minecraft on PC and Mac broke it, temporarily – but Skin Studio is officially supported by Mojang, and they’ve since helped fix it.
The changes made to the game last week introduced 64 by 64 pixel skins – a significant increase on the original limit to pixel count, which Mojang hope will allow for “more creativity with your looks”.
The new skins caused teething problems for Skin Studio, which was built to support earlier skins. However, it’s now been updated with support for the new skins, as well as automatic conversion of existing skins to the new format.
You can download Minecraft Skin Studio from its official site. Unless you’re reading this on a PC – in which case, enjoy all the browser real estate your fellow readers on mobile devices aren’t getting.
Skins are created as teeny, tiny .PNG files, which you can apply to your character directly via your Minecraft account – if you’re on the hunt for premade skins, see our guide to the best Minecraft skins.
Just yesterday I was talking about how important Minecraft’s low pixel count was in enabling the subtle lack of gender distinction in Notch’s mobs. So I’m interested: do you think upping the count for character models compromises the game’s character in any sense?