This short guide discusses some aspects of creating your own characters and backgrounds for Blockofighter. It is separated to three sections: Modeling, Importing and Graphics. There is no built-in tool for modifying the characters but the procedure isn't too complex (if you have a compiler...) Ok so it may seem complex and tedious but at least possible to do it if you are "1337", so to speak.
Since you want to create your own characters you must first create them with a 3D Modeling package such as 3D Studio MAX. The parts you need to create are the legs, the arms, the hands/palms, the waist and the torso. If you don't want to recreate all of these just use the existing ones and plug in the ones you created. You don't need to create the head since it is generated with code. If you want a custom head you need to comment out the head creation and add some code to handle the custom head. Try to rotate the models according to the OpenGL orientation (this requires a 90 degree rotation around the X-axis.) Once you are satisfied with your model it is time to export it in ASC-format. Before exporting bring the individual body parts as close to the origin as possible, it will be easier to fine tune the body part alignment in the code this way. It may also be worth it to use the Optimize modifier to remove the unnecessary polygons from the model.
So now you have your ASC-model ready and waiting. Open the corresponding .asc-files from the data-directory and see if your exports look like them. They do? Good. Replace the wanted files with your own mode files and launch the game. If the program crashes it is possible that there are some bad bits in the file. One possibility is the case-sensitivity of the ASC-loader so check whether the cases of some letters match. You will also want to remove the lines beginning with Smoothing entirely. Now that the model loads it will probably look misaligned. Your options are either adjust the positions of the new models in the modeling program OR (the way I prefer to do it) adjust them with code. To do this open legoman.cpp and find the offset arrays (such as float rightHandOffset[3] = {-0.40, 0.45, 0.0};) The values you will see there control the X, Y and Z offset of the body parts. Tuning these and recompiling is a good way to get an exact match where all the necessary body parts meet.
The backgrounds were generated with Terragen, an excellent landscape generation program. If you want to create your own backgrounds just read Lloyd M's excellent tutorial on making skyboxes in Terragen.
Happy modding!