The character could move. It did not look right.

The saved development writing identifies the custom character animation as a real problem. Movement could exist technically while looking wrong on the character. Falling back to a mannequin kept a usable reference in the process, but it did not solve the appearance of the custom character.

This distinction matters for a game built around being in a physical place. A character’s pose and motion can make the rest of the scene feel less convincing even when the environment is improving. A successful connection between model and animation is only one part of the result.

This part of the prototype remained unresolved. The mannequin was a fallback, not the intended character. The next useful milestone would need to be visible in motion: a body whose movement fits the world around it. Getting an animation to play was a start, but watching it immediately showed how much was left.