http://thecontaminated.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/super-mario-lego-building.jpg
CSE1GDT Character Building
Paul Taylor 2010
Typical Character Depth
Book Characters
Deep mental / psychic struggles
Movie Characters
Emotional and physical struggles
Game Characters
Almost entirely physical struggles
Types of Avatars
• Your choice of avatar is critical to the gaming
experience
The word ‘Avatar’ is derived from Sanskrit,
which refers to a god magically taking physical
form on the earth, very fitting!
We want the player to project their
consciousness into the
character
http://www.acepolls.com/uploads/0088/5535
/Nathan_Drake.jpg
Avatar Type #1 - The Ideal Form
• An easy way to empower the player
• Let them be someone great
– James Bond
– Nathan Drake
– A Jedi Knight
– The world’s best Poke-trainer
For the ideal form to work you MUST connect
with a players appeal towards the character
type
http://www.gearlover.com/images/jamesbond-height-chart1.jpg
But Which Bond???
http://a3.vox.com/6a00b8ea071cde1bc000c22526e35b604a-320pi
Avatar Type #2 - The Blank Slate
• The opposite of the Ideal Form
• This is a character which is so plain they can
be whatever the players mind decides
• Stick Figures
• Simple Characters
• Invisible characters
Blank Slate Characters
Scott McCloud:
A simple character in a detailed world makes the
player relate to the character
Detailed worlds can seem alien, every detail that
does not match your mental image, reduces the
player’s connection
A low detail avatar in the game will typically draw
the players towards it as their mental image of
the avatar will rarely clash with it.
http://www.gossipgamers.com/wpcontent/uploads/2009/03/1237687
236272.jpg
• Odd one out?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.urlesque.com/media/2010/04/penguinhandshake.jpg
WoW Characters
See:
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/31/avatardays-short-examines-wow-characters-andtheir-players/
• Creepy!
• Multidimensional Reality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Toby_Gard__E3_2005.jpg
The true Story of Lara Croft
Toby Gard – Designer of the original Tomb
Raider and avatar Lara Croft
• Drawing from fighting games such as Street
fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter, Toby noted the
male players enjoyed the ‘aesthetic appeal’ of
the female characters.
• Toby realised that as Tomb Raider was to be in
3rd person, players would have to spend a lot
of time looking at the back of their characters.
His conclusion was......
Players would rather “watch her bum than some
bloke’s bum” (Beyond Game Design, p223).
Not the ideal catalyst for ‘girl power’ in gaming
but it worked
In 2000, roughly 20-25% of Tomb Raider players
were female.
February, 2009: “... Lara's image devolved from
one of intelligence to a virtual blow-up doll.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft)
(http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/955/955082p1.html)
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/girl-power/2006/04/19/1145344091493.html?page=fullpage
The Theory: Gaze Theory
Gaze Theory: Theory of the relationship between
the media, how it is observed, and how it is
meant to be observed.
The Specific Term: Male Gaze
The Meaning: Where scenes, scripts, etc are from
the typical male perspective
There is such a thing as ‘Female Gaze’ too
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mal
eGaze
Character Development - Elliot
Feldman
• Writer at Sony Online Entertainment
• Determine your main characters
• Complete a bibliography for each character
• Create an interaction diagram
• Create dialogue for characters
• Buy ‘The art of dramatic writing’ and
The Hero with a Thousand Faces’
http://i.ehow.com/images/a02/2k/e5/designvideo-game-characters-1.3-800X800.jpg
Compelling Game Characters
Hopefully you’ve decided that great characters
can take your game to the next level
If you haven’t go play Uncharted 2 - Now
Character Functions
• Why is the character in your game?
• What should they do?
• Or what do you need to get done, and who
could you create to fill the void?
Barry’s Excursion to the Meat Factory
Meat Factory Excursion Characters
•
•
•
•
•
Hero : Barry
Mentor:
Companions: Barry Jr.
Enemies: Barry Jr’s Evil Twin BadBarry
Bosses:
Define and Use Character Traits
• A second approach to developing great
characters is to define their traits
• Barry is: Strong, Quiet, Small, Tough
• What traits would a companion need to roll
with Barry on his adventure?
Exploit the Interpersonal Circumplex
• Big Words! = Characters interacting!
• In the psychology world this is represented as
a two axis graph
– Friendliness (Hostile <-> Friendly)
– Dominance (Dominant <-> Submissive)
• It is all relative to the character in the centre
• You use it by placing the other characters
around this character
The Nice Version
http://www.ieeetclt
.org/issues/april200
5/index_image010.j
pg
The Ugly
Version!
http://media
.photobucket
.com/image/I
nterpersonal
%20Circumpl
ex/SKYNET_2
007/Image24.jpg
Make a Character Web
• This is an extension on the Interpersonal
Circumplex
– Basically it is writing an explanation for each of the
positions characters take in the graph.
• Barry
– Barry Sidekick: Barry finds them irritating, but
comforting to have around
– Darth Barry: Barry’s nemesis he stands for everything
that Barry hates (including tomatoes)
Use Status
• In any interaction people fight for status
– It is a lower level than talking, but always takes
place and someone always takes the higher status
• Today I’m taking the higher status as lecturing
you
• In the Army the chain of command dictates
status pretty effectively, and punishments are
in place to keep the status tree standing
Conflicts and Changes are Interesting
Also make sure your NPCs’ do not take status
away from the player accidentally!
Signs of Status
High Status:
Being Relaxed, In Control, Strong Eye Contact, Not moving
your head, etc
Low Status:
Fidgeting, Avoiding Eye Contact, Touching your own
face, Being Tense, stumbling words, stuttering, etc
Status is also relative between characters!
Use the Power of Voice
• Great voice acting can be very powerful
• In movies and theatre the actors read and amend
the script as they feel it should be.
• The industry tends to write the game, create the
characters, then hire the voice actors.
• Removed from their natural position of imagining
the character, actors are put in a position of
fulfilling an existing character.
Use the Power of the Face
• Facial Expression makes up a HUGE
amount of the language we transmit.
Games are becoming more and more
capable of divulging facial behaviours to
players. Use it!
• Imagine watching a movie where all
characters had a Paper Bag on their
head – Ugly Bob style
http://teamghru.110mb.com/images/thrutheg
hru08/ugly_bob.jpg
Powerful Stories Transform Characters
• Study Films and Novels, you’ll see that the
characters get transformed through the story.
• Meaningful changes in the key characters of a
game will add interest to the story
• Imagine Lord of the Rings without Frodo going
hard-ass? Or with Frodo hard-ass from the
start?
http://jonathanjoly.files.wordpress.com/2008/
10/uncanny-valley1.jpg
Avoid Uncanny Valley
The End!