Character development Game Idea Development

Characters, yummmmm

Game characters: look familiar?

Background, History & Advancement

What is character? Is it something that happens inside your brain? – How do we re-frame characters? Matthew Barney – What is your definition of character? – Is it a thing walking around in the environment? – In “Fracture” the environment blurs the line between stage and actor; it becomes a character – What else can we reframe to discover and develop and define what a character is? How does perception create character in our minds? – Alison Jackson

Character profiles  Basic Statistics (Name, Gender, Age etc)  Type (we will go over this in a minute)  Background and history  Physical/ Vocal Characteristics  Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes  Emotional Characteristics  Spiritual Characteristics  How the Character is Involved in the Story  How character is different at the end of the story from when the story began?  Relevance  Do character profile exercise here.  There are characters all around us 

Classic Game Character types  Human  Heroic “everyman”  Gender issues (reversal)  Animal  Anthropomorphic  Fantasy  Human vs. Non-Human  Mythic  Historical  Licensed

Visual Character Development Techniques

Verbal Character Development Dialogue Reveals character Reveals emotion Advances the plot Reveals conflict Establishes relationships Comments on action

Character Movement  Signature  Idle  Walking cycle  hHDs53lfo hHDs53lfo  Muybridge  _Muybridge _Muybridge  C5JhSqr1U C5JhSqr1U  8lwLZU94Y 8lwLZU94Y  Ed Hooks /default.html /default.html  /Classes/ /Classes/

Classic Character roles Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist The protagonist or main character/narrator is the central figure of a story.

Co-Protagonists

Protagonist continued zxiA zxiA Do protagonist exercise here.

Antagonist  The antagonist is against the main character protagonist or contends with them.  An antagonist is often a villain, but may be a force of nature, set of circumstances, an animal, or other force that is in conflict with the protagonist

Supporting characters

Classic Character Archetypes  Hero  Shadow  Mentor  Allies  Guardian  Trickster  Herald  ture=channel ture=channel  Watch this one on your own 

Classic character behavior The life of a character – Arc – Hierarchy of needs

Character Arc Dirty Trick – s.ca/stories.php s.ca/stories.php Deus Ex m/watch?v=yoteS17Nn GE m/watch?v=yoteS17Nn GE m/news/deus-ex-3- gdc2010-trailer/ m/news/deus-ex-3- gdc2010-trailer/

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. While deficiency needs must be met, growth needs are the need for personal growth. The basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are mainly or entirely satisfied. Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized. However, if a lower set of needs is continually unmet for an extended period of time, the individual will temporarily re- prioritize those needs - dropping down to that level until those lower needs are reasonably satisfied again.

Hierarchy of needs: permeates high school and business EjMjSk EjMjSk qAR_8 qAR_8

Characters have relationships So you have to ask yourself how are they going to interact? This is an example of the characters interacting without ever having met. – php php

The Relationship of the protagonist and the antagonist MKDPb4E&feature=related MKDPb4E&feature=related Do relationship exercise here

Character Triangle es.ca/viewVideo_Shuib o.php es.ca/viewVideo_Shuib o.php

Aristotle’s Poetics Aristotle Aristotle – Audio He is what you are reacting against when you mix up the relationships and storyline to form a plot. (non-linear storyline) He has a bunch of rules that I invite you to break.

Ok so you have your characters And your story but what are you after? – What is the motivation to make this game? – What role do the characters play in supporting the goals of the game? One of the things you might use to support the theme of the game is: Identification. – What is identification?

Identification Types Identification with characterization Identification with role Identification with goals

Identification evokes: Sympathy vs. Empathy – Sympathize: emotional affinity in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other; synonym is pity. In gamespeak: you understand a character – Empathize: ability to recognize, perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another In gamespeak : you want to be that character

In games there are 2 types of Identification Player as Character Character as Player

Player as Character  1st-person perspective  Narrow perspective – immediacy  A sense of participation  Inhabitation of the role  Limited definition of the character  Weak identification (no visual association)  3rd Person cinematics can be jarring  HALO 3 

Character as Player  3rd-person perspective  Wide perspective – situational awareness  Tactical considerations  Observer rather than participant  Puppet the character  Greater definition of the character  Strong visual associations with the character  Lara Croft – Tomb Raider  Ok I know it flips back and forth between 3 rd and 1 st person(binoculars) but any chance I get to throw Lara into the mix I will do it.  anniversary-trailer-2_videogames anniversary-trailer-2_videogames

It all fits together

Homework Fill in the Character development, Gamestory and Backstory in the Game Design Doc – Save it as v2.0 – In the version history of the document say what you added and don’t forget to add a date for when the change happened. Extra credit – character interview