Character Driven Game Design

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166 Character-Driven Game Design Outcast or preventing access of resources of the Faction. In Egri’s model, the conflict arises from the characters that are in opposition. Their goals are incompatible, and the characters are not willing to give up their goals. The conflict in the game requires, then, that the NPCs have their Own Agenda (see, Lankoski and Björk [20]), that the actions of a NPC are driven by its goals. It some cases, NPCs need to have Goal-Driven Personal Development (see, Lankoski and Björk [20]), that they can update their goals when existing goals are completed or blocked. A believable NPC does have Emotional Attachment (see, Lankoski and Björk [20]) which means that the character expresses emotional relation to specific type of game phenomenon such as affection, anger, or fear toward other characters or events. The reactions of the believable NPC are also context depended, which leads to the pattern Context Dependent Reactions (see, Lankoski and Björk [21]). This means that, for example, if the NPC gets angry it might not start a fight if a police is near by. Moreover, each character, as argued by Egri [9], reacts to events in its personal way. This can be described by a new pattern Trait Regulated Behavior, meaning that the character dimensions regulate and modify the behavior. Character Engagement In what follows we discuss about a model of character engagement proposed by Murray Smith [37], which has been used as a base to design model. The model has been refined to be suitable for games [18]. While we present the engagement model, we also link it to games and gameplay using examples of various games. Recognition Following Murray Smith [37], we use the term recognition to refer to process of constructing character. Recognition depends on features such as: perceivable traits of the character (body, face, voice); descriptions of the character (e.g., name, title, profession); actions of the character; and reactions of other character toward the given character. In case of NPCs, game designers can control all above-mentioned aspects, including actions, of the character. However, PCs in games differ from the NPCs in an important way: a player always (in some extent) controls a PC. Therefore, and somewhat paradoxically the PC as character is seen irrelevant to gameplay and the player (e.g., Aarseth [1]), since, as argument goes, different presentation of the character does not make one play differently. However, character is more than presentation, as Lankoski, Ekman, and Heliö [22] argue. They propose that the recognition of a PC can be guided, in a large extent, by regulating players’ actions, and offer the following palette:
Article 6 167 —— providing goals; —— providing possible actions (including making actions impossible, and making some choices hard or easy); —— defining predefined functions such as voice over narration triggered by event, attack movement as a feedback to the players choice; —— cut-scenes and scripted events. From the design point of view, the design of possible actions and predefined functions are beneficial to connect with each other; in what follows, predefined functions are mainly considered as a feedback to the player’s choices. This highlights aspects of gameplay, but neglects, for example cut-scenes, but is motivated by the fact that cut-scene design and their function in games are studied elsewhere in detail (e.g., Dansky [8] and Klevjer [16]). It should be noted that from the perspective of translating character traits to gameplay, the same principles apply whether a character is created by the game designers or players (within framework offered by the game designers). Choices and feedback, i.e., how the character executes the command is related to recognition and has an impact on the gameplay and character interpretation: In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness [40] a player is required to perform just on time button push to make Lara Croft, the PC, performed necessary acrobatic maneuvers; since one typically fails quite often this makes Lara Croft seem clumsy instead of agile and physically able adventuress. On the other hand, the PC, Altaïr, in Assassin’s Creed [41] performs jumps in right moment and jumps have right length, and the player’s duty is to plan and make decision on the route of the character; choices in the route can lead to a jump to the death, but the most of the time character performs as a very skilled athlete. To give an another example, the strength of Hulk in Hulk [31] can be seen in possible actions and predefined functions: buildings can be damaged with bare hands and cars can used as weapons. It is important to note that the all aspects of the PC’s personality need not be fixed. It might not even be possible to fix all the traits because in games the player can make choices that have impact on the personality of the character. On the other hand, designers are always fixing some traits of the PC when they define the game system (e.g., by setting up the goals). As a general rule, the more choices that are given to the player, the fewer traits will be fixed. Some games even let players create their characters. This can be described as the new gameplay design pattern Player-Designed Character, i.e. that the character has influence of the design of a character, and is present in The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion [4] and to a lesser degree in Deus Ex [13] and The Witcher [7]. Conversely, the PC in these games can be consider to be more fixed if the character is evaluated only in the terms of gameplay; the player sets up the many traits of the character in character creation, and the traits set up then fixes many character traits. One should be aware that
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Aalto University Publication Series
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Contents List of Publications 9 Ack
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List of Publications This thesis co
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Introduction To explain my interest
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1. Introduction 13 Game designers h
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1. Introduction 15 tertainment. Whi
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1. Introduction 17 and involuntary
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1. Introduction 19 dition, the game
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Game Characters Characters are an i
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2. Game Characters 23 can fly, and
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2. Game Characters 25 Figure 2.1: H
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2. Game Characters 27 David Houghto
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Game and Gameplay Design First, I l
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3. Game and Gameplay Design 31 Figu
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3. Game and Gameplay Design 33 what
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Character Engagement and Game Desig
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4. Character Engagement and Game De
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4. Character Engagement and Game De
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Conclusions My study has two primar
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5. Conclusions 43 Factor Perceivabl
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5. Conclusions 45 PC that lead to s
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References AARSETH, E., 2004. Genre
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References 49 Behavioral Neuroscien
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References 51 New York: John Wiley
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References 53 NICHOLS, S., 2004. Im
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References 55 K., C-64 version. Mas
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Research Material Assassin’s Cree
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Appendix 1 59 Quick Start Cthulhu.
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Gameplay Design Patterns In this Ap
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Appendix 2 63 Detective Structure I
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Appendix 2 65 accepted and disallow
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Appendix 2 67 References —— art
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Appendix 2 69 sibility of Surprises
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Appendix 2 71 —— Modulates: Cha
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Appendix 2 73 (Egri, 1960) of a cha
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Lies and Seductions Credits CREATIV
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Article 1 77 Characters in Computer
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Article 1 79 It is important to not
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Article 1 81 attacks, which are all
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Article 1 83 almost anything in the
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Article 1 85 situation(s) —— Ch
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Article 1 87 its physiological, soc
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Article 1 89 Banner. Obviously, it
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Article 1 91
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Article 2 93 Player Character Engag
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Article 2 95 elaborately simulated
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Article 2 97 affects and performing
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Article 2 99 (Björk and Holopainen
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Article 2 101 player would fear the
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Article 2 103 available and what po
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Article 2 105 Many games also use c
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Article 2 107 petty criminal, Tommy
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Article 2 109 site for empathetic e
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Article 2 111 Grodal, T. (1999). Mo
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Article 2 113 emotion. Personality
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Page 117 and 118: Article 3 117 Gameplay Design Patte
Page 119 and 120: Article 3 119 are constructed predo
Page 121 and 122: Article 3 121 ter, especially in ga
Page 123 and 124: Article 3 123 General overview Clau
Page 125 and 126: Article 3 125 similar goods. This i
Page 127 and 128: Article 3 127 Conversational Respon
Page 129 and 130: Article 3 129 is very strict one an
Page 133 and 134: Article 4 133 Gameplay Design Patte
Page 135 and 136: Article 4 135 described in this pap
Page 137 and 138: Article 4 137 the ANT, is seeing a
Page 139 and 140: Article 4 139 Egri’s Premise rela
Page 141 and 142: Article 4 141 Reactions as they do
Page 143 and 144: Article 4 143 this can be seen as a
Page 145 and 146: Article 4 145 heathens as part of o
Page 147 and 148: Article 4 147 Faction member will h
Page 149 and 150: Article 4 149 Discussions In this s
Page 151 and 152: Article 4 151 than character relati
Page 153 and 154: Article 4 153 Conference, 2007. 30.
Page 155 and 156: Article 4 155 Name Information Pass
Page 157 and 158: Article 5 157 Lies and Seduction Pe
Page 159 and 160: Article 5 159 Figure 2. A gameplay
Page 163 and 164: Article 6 163 Character-Driven Game
Page 165: Article 6 165 and physique); ——
Page 169 and 170: Article 6 169 Part of a character d
Page 171 and 172: Article 6 171 Character Defining Ac
Page 173 and 174: Article 6 173 given that the traits
Page 175 and 176: Article 6 175 and want to be in goo
Page 177 and 178: Article 6 177 rectly available to a
Page 179 and 180: Article 6 179 4th ed. Steve Jackson
Page 183 and 184: Petri Lankoski MA, Lecturer, Game D
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