Elements of game design, part 3.

Character design is probably one of the biggest challenges in the process of game development. Probably because most other tasks are mostly done by one team, while characters require collaboration of artists, writers, animators, and voice actors.  It is of course true for many other parts of development, but I find it that characters are the ones that depend on close cooperation. Take away animation of an environment prop, or just give an artist a brief description of it instead of a proper explanation, and it will work. But if you try to take way one part of a character away, the whole system will fail. Can you imagine shooters without the animation of hands? Or “The Lost Vikings” without all the speech bubbles? That would suck.

Let’s take a look at the characters of old games that became popular. Mainly they are from Nintendo and Sega titles – Mario brothers, Link, Samus Aran, Sonic. Why are they still alive and kicking despite being decades old? These personages have characters. (Yes, not a best way to say it). They have distinctive looks, moves and talking style.  Mario and Luigi are plumbers that stomp evil turtles, Link is an elf clad in green and wearing a liberty cap, Samus is a bounty hunter with a suit that explodes around her and Sonic is blue, fast and technically a hedgehog. They are unique.

Now, take a look at any game by Epic Games. Both Unreal Tournament and Gears of War feature the same buffed dudes with biceps the size of their head who swing heavy guns around as if they are made of plastic. They all say some epic nonsense and look generally the same. I don’t say that these games are not fun, but those characters will definitely be forgotten in the nearest future, while Nintendo will make another game featuring Mario. Why? Because similar stuff is no longer original and cool. It is boring.

Modern examples of interesting characters can be found, for example, in Mass Effect series. What I like about it, is that it is not another fantasy rpg game with elves, dwarfs and orcs, but a pretty unique and consistent sci-fi universe. They could make and awesome film about it. Every race has its own unique looks and traits, but still, there are individuals that differ from their kin. In the second game of the series the protagonist has to gather a team of highly trained professionals in order to complete the mission. And every personage you pick up is shining with individuality, has his or her own problems that you help to resolve and opinions on what is happening around. They behave just like a real person would. There is an AI that has almost no visual representation, but it is still an awesome character because of the voice acting.

Or Assassin’s Creed. In this case all the characters are based on real people that existed in the past. They are unique because writers and artists used real references from Middle ages and Renaissance. It is way cooler than another generic shooter guy.

Speaking of which, even in a shooter, where all you see is guys hands with weapons, is a place for individuality. Compare CoD to Half-Life. In the first game character is another soldier who is exactly the same as hundreds of others. While Gordon Freeman in Half-Life is a strong individual despite not saying a word in entire series. All thanks to design of his suit, weapons and their animations. Games by Valve always have a strong sense of individuality. In Portal 2 they managed to create stronger character by animating and voicing a metal sphere, than some can do with a human.

Conclusion: if you do a character, make sure it is unique, interesting and consistent. Otherwise it will fail.