Character Design

pages 9497, 148159

Based on notes from the authors and Wiley publishing.

These slides accompany the Instructors Manual, Chapter 2: Design Process, Part 9: Character Design

Character Design

Character Design
The character is the means through which the player
experiences the game.

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The visual style and mannerisms of the character will
help shape the players perception of the game.

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slide 1
Characters are important
Player sees the game through the eyes of the main character, and can have much rich interaction with NPCs

Character Design

More than a pretty face?

To be successful the character design needs not only to
look interesting but also convey the other personality
traits that lead the player to relate to the character.

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slide 2
Characters need to be more than 2-dimensional, want the player to be able to relate to the character.
Much design knowledge in stage / cinemaindustry has been depicting characters for millennia.
How does cinema depict characters?
1. Visually
2. Through conversation, spoken words. Different from books, where a characters thoughts can be discussed. Length of Shakespeares soliloquies reveals characters inner lives.

Designer should seek as much inspiration as possible; collect reference material; consider a broad range of ideas before settling on a particular character.

Character Design

Back Story
Childhood to present
Successes and failures
Friends and enemies
Skill and inadequacies
Strength and weaknesses
Knowledge and ignorance
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slide 3
Back story is the events in a characters life before we meet them.
Common to character development.
Used by book authors, film script writers too.
Consider Batmans back story: Bruce Waynes parents are murdered; this (a) leaves him a fortune (independently wealthy), and (b) causes him to become a ruthless persecutor of criminals.
Seen photos of authors desks; full of sticky notes and other background information on their characters (as well as settings, timelines, etc.)

Character Design

Back Stories
Do not have to be incredibly long to be effective
Events in the characters history do not always have to
be traumatic
Should be concise and easily understood

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slide 4
Back story explains why character is doing what they are doing today.
Common for heroes to have tragic back stories: this ones wife was killed and they are out for revenge, etc.

Character Design

Character Archetypes
Good

Bad

Heroes

Villains

Helpers

Henchmen

Princes/Princesses (love objects)

Incubi/Sirens (sexual objects)

Magicians (good magic)

Sorcerers (evil magic)

Donors of magic objects

Hinderers of donors

Dispatchers of heroes

Captors of heroes

Seekers

Avoiders

Seeming villains who are good

False heroes/heroines who are

evil
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slide 5
Some of these go back to the ideas of Joseph Campbell; the archetypal hero.
List proposed by John Berger, a British critic and novelist. Binary oppositions that cover many obvious character archetypes.

Character Design

Character Appearance
What is the physical appearance of the character?
What are the characters clothes like?
Does the character have any significant
possessions?
Does the character have a distinctive appearance?

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slide 6
As character is developed, must determine a physical form.
Lots of sketching and drawing is appropriate at this stage.

Character Design

Brought to Life
What mannerisms do they display?
What are they doing within the game and why?
What is their current motivation?
How do they behave to others?

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slide 7
Final design questions that can help with character development.

Character Design

Non Player Characters

Require the same treatment as player characters
The amount of detail in their development is
dependent upon how much they feature in a game
A memorable opponent can be just as effective as an
impressive hero

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slide 8
Opponents and other NPCs can also have compelling back stories.
Of course, not everyone has / needs a long back story; e.g. playing beer trek; drink a beer whenever one of the blue-shirted guys dies during an episode; when McCoy goes Hes dead, Jim!

Character Design

In Game Considerations
In First Person Games we generally only see the
hands and equipment
In Third person games we generally see more of the
back of the character
These limited views must still convey the nature and
distinctiveness of the character

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slide
9 rd
st
1 or 3 person games will in part determine the characters appearance.

Character Design

Iconic Characters
Games can be defined by the memorable characters
within them
Memorable characters usually have one main iconic
feature to their appearance
More often than not these characters are crucial to
marketing a game successfully

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slide 10
Consider some memorable game charactersget them to list a few

Character Design

Getting Material
Lots of sources for characters
TV
Movies
Graphic Novels/Comic Books
History

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Character Design

Getting Material

TVTropes is a great source of character archetypes... and time wasting.

Character Design

Lets Make a Character

Character Design

Lets Make a Character

Appearance
Personality
Quirks
Quotes
Background

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Character Design

Trooper: Character Example

Character Design- Student Example 1- Trooper by Shaun Mooney

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Trooper by Shaun Mooney

Design via sketch, digital painting, final game models of futuristic trooper
Part of honors degree

Initial sketches developing trooper and gun

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Early concept sketches

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Design of characters gun; a main feature within the game concept

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Digital modeling of concepts; built using 3D Studio Max or some similar system (3D Studio Max is most commonly used digital modeling program industrially)

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Digital modeling and post-processing in Photoshop

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Rigged model posed and post-processed in Photoshop

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Digital modeling process (looks like 3D Studio Max)

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Here is the model, built up from the control skeleton

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Note that the textures are all stored in a single square, 2D map. This way only one texture map has to be loaded into memory; more efficient. If making an animation, each of these would likely be modeled separately.

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Character Design- Student Example 1- Trooper by Shaun Mooney

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Character Design- Student Example 1- Trooper by Shaun Mooney

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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th

Game concept is a 19 century Victorian werewolf scenario.

Hero concept: a common man capable of protecting himself.

Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Hero is physically capable; retains sense of fair play and nobility.

Tendency is to box rather than brawl.
Square jaw and rugged looks mark him as hero.
Actually: here is eyes look spookykind of evil

Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Concept sketches for werewolf; main antagonist.

Fearsome foe; formidable and dangerousbut trapped within normal people.

Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Non-player characters.
People who inhabit the game world.
Should be familiar figures in Victorian London.

Are they friend, foe, or simply potential victims?

Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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Character Design- Student Example 2- Victorian Werewolf by Tim Hill

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