Developing character

It goes without saying that solid character design is one of the more crucial elements in game design today, game audiences expect to be compelled and in some ways feel an emotional connection with their pixel counterparts they will be navigating throughout the course of the game. Simply put without character you have no story, without story there’s no character, having a strong memorable character allows the end user to be enthralled enough in the universe to engage in the experience all the way to the rolling credits, thus marking a successful design. If you take a second to think of some of the more memorable characters in recent memory I’m sure your top 10 lists won’t differ greatly from most gamers out there. As an example I’ll list the 10 characters (in no particular order) that I feel will bring this point home. After, I would like you to make a list of your own and see how many of your picks are similar.

• Mario
• Master Chief
• Link
• Lara Croft
• Sonic
• Samus
• Kratos
• Solid Snake
• Dante
• Pac man

Now ask yourself why are these characters so memorable? Well besides the fact they’re a ton of fun to play with, they each carry a vital component with them, a back-story, this allows them to communicate aspects of their existence and purpose to others. You will also notice because of this ‘history’ they’ve each spawned numerous sequels in their own right and provided longevity that many designers can only hope for.

The empty Vessel

From the outset I knew the first thing I wanted to avoid for my main character was the “empty vessel” design, in other words I wanted my character to have purpose, relationships, a connection with the world I have envisioned for them and so on, it’s one of the main reasons I opted out on traveling the casual game route for now, my goal is to tell an interactive story. There have been many games I’ve played as a character who just didn’t feel integrated with the world they’re in, there was a severe disconnect that made the experience unfulfilling and ultimately forgettable, and at times the characters almost felt like an after thought, which felt fundamentally wrong.

Building a strong character takes an immense amount of thought, time and consideration. And dependant on the role and importance of the character, this level of thought will vary.

If you think about it everyone we’ve met in our lives up to this point has a story to tell about them, each person has a unique story that makes them more interesting and it’s what will make your character interesting. As the old adage goes,

“you never know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been”

And the saying stays true to each character you design. Keep in mind I’m not saying that you write a novel on each character, but having a few descriptive words to describe who they are and what they’ve done up to the point they’re introduced is important.

Ask questions

The simplest and most straightforward way to approach character development is to ask questions and for each question you write the answers as a list or simple descriptive paragraphs. Some questions you can consider are

• What is the character’s back-story?
• What’s happening in their present situation?
• What is their current environment like? Has it always been this way?
• What relationships do they have within the story?
• What is the character’s mannerisms like?
• What are their personalities like?
• What is their disposition?
• Age, sex, name?
• What is their appearance like? Are they tall, short, muscular, thin, overweight?
• What clothes/armor/uniform do they wear?
• What is their job/role within the story?
• What are their offensive and defensive capabilities?

And so on and so forth, the idea here is to brainstorm and get as many ideas as you can on the table and start to piece everything together like a puzzle. Like most things in life, the more effort you put in the more your audience will appreciate your character.

{click to view larger screen – note back story is omitted purposely}

Gathering reference

After I got the basic information of my character written (in this case Flo) I instantly knew what I had in mind for her design. So I began to gather reference material to help cement my vision of her while in the designing stage. Some artist will approach this differently depending on their motives, for example creating many thumbnail or silhouette images help you create in a straight ahead fashion, letting your strokes and imagination guide your thoughts. In my case however, I knew how I wanted Flo to look so it was just a matter of sketching what I had in mind with the aid of reference material.
The way I approach this is in a simple scrap booking fashion, it isn’t new but it really helps me focus my attention to what I had in mind without straying from the initial idea. It also helps me to stay focus with the task at hand by not having to break my concentration while designing by searching for additional material.

{click to view larger screen – design not final}

Get designing

Its funny how everything in game design and life in general requires you to build a foundation and steadily build upon it. This fundamental approach is the key to everything we do and it should your thought process behind your character, the goal of successful character development is making them credible, dynamic and goal oriented.