Character Driven Game Design

Article 6 167
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providing goals;
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providing possible actions (including making actions impossible,
and making some choices hard or easy);
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defining predefined functions such as voice over narration triggered
by event, attack movement as a feedback to the players
choice;
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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