Character Driven Game Design

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38 Character-Driven Game Design interacting with the character that breaks a social norm and thereby the character is unable to acquire goods from the members of the faction. In general, the pattern Actions Have Social Consequences is a core building block of games that stress character–character relations. The core of the pattern is that the actions of a character influence how other characters perceive and they react to the character. For example, if the PC is guided to neglect a friendly and helpful character, that character turns unhelpful (this can be described as a pattern Social Maintenance meaning that actions are needed to uphold a relation with a group or character). The main means to set up a conflict between the characters is to create characters who are in opposition: if character A reaches the goal, character B’s goal fails. Importantly, believable conflict is derived from the qualities of the characters (see, Egri, 1960). Social conflicts that are more complex can be introduced using patterns Traitor and Internal Rivalry. The pattern Traitor is about pretending to belong to a group while acting against it. The pattern Internal Rivalry consists of being an enemy with a character belonging to the same group. Lies and Seductions Petri Lankoski and Tommi Horttana 4 The draft version of the design approach presented in article 6 was developed simultaneously with Lies and Seductions. 5 This could be described as the pattern, Trait Regulated Behavior that is introduced in article 6. This paper presents the game Lies and Seductions (Lankoski et al., 2009) that is a design experiment on a character-driven game. The design utilized research presented in the articles 2 and 3. 4 The game design of Lies and Seductions was loosely based on the characters and the main conflict from a novel Dangerous Liaisons and its film adaptations: Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions, and Untold Scandal. A player controls Abby, who has made a wager to seduce a rock stark, Chris, promised to stay a virgin until marriage. The gameplay is built around the pattern Actions Have Social Consequences. Each character reacts differently to the actions of the PC. 5 Certain actions are associated with impressions that influence how much the NPC likes Abby. For example, proposing sex is associated with the impression ‘slut’. While Chris dislikes persons that are openly sexually active, other characters might find that quality enticing. The gameplay evolves around finding out the preferences, dislikes and other information that can be exploited in social manipulation. Character-Driven Game Design: Characters, Conflict, and Gameplay Petri Lankoski and Staffan Björk In this paper we present an approach for designing characters and conflicts and deriving gameplay from character qualities and their rela-
4. Character Engagement and Game Design 39 tions. Gameplay design patterns (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) and character engagement model (see article 1) are used as bridges between the character design and the gameplay design. We utilize the character and conflict design part of an approach presented by Lajos Egri (1960) for dramatic writing. Egri proposes that a dramatic conflict arises from characters that are in opposition. The characters want something so badly that they are not willing to give up. Believable conflict requires that the characters’ goals and actions are believable. Egri argues that each character has their unique way of behaving. The behavior of a character, according to Egri, is influenced by its physiological, sociological, and psychological qualities: —— physiology includes features such as sex, age, height, weight, appearance, distinct features, and physique; —— sociology includes features such as occupation, education, family life, friends, enemies, and hobbies; —— psychology includes features such as moral standards, goals, temperament, obsessions, and intelligence. (Egri, 1960.) In terms of gameplay, a pattern Trait Regulated Behavior can be used to link character traits and character behavior. In the case of the NPCs, Own Agenda, Goal-Driven Personal Development, and Context-Dependent Reactions can be used to link character traits and behavior in terms of gameplay. This paper builds from the character engagement model, in which engagement is discussed in terms of recognition, alignment, and allegiance (see article 1) to look at the connection between a PC traits and gameplay. In terms of gameplay, recognition is guided by regulating actions and choices available to the player via goals, possible and impossible actions, and predefined functions. When designing gameplay, goals, possible and impossible actions and predefined functions can be derived from character design. Importantly, it is not possible to fix all aspects of the player character. The players’ choices and interpretations always have an impact on how the players see the PC. In general, the more choices the players have, the less the traits of the character are fixed. On the other hand, even when players can create their player characters, the characters are not totally open. In designing alignment, a high level choice is whether to use Detective Structure (the player’s information is restricted to the point of view of a PC), Melodramatic Structure (the player knows more than any single character), or some combination of them and whether to use single or multiple player characters. A choice relating to alignment is as to what kind of access to player character thought, affects, body states, and intentions is offered, and how the access is structured. In terms of allegiance, the question is how to guide players to evalu-
Page 4 and 5: Aalto University Publication Series
Page 7 and 8: Contents List of Publications 9 Ack
Page 9 and 10: List of Publications This thesis co
Page 11 and 12: Introduction To explain my interest
Page 13 and 14: 1. Introduction 13 Game designers h
Page 15 and 16: 1. Introduction 15 tertainment. Whi
Page 17 and 18: 1. Introduction 17 and involuntary
Page 19 and 20: 1. Introduction 19 dition, the game
Page 21 and 22: Game Characters Characters are an i
Page 23 and 24: 2. Game Characters 23 can fly, and
Page 25 and 26: 2. Game Characters 25 Figure 2.1: H
Page 27 and 28: 2. Game Characters 27 David Houghto
Page 29 and 30: Game and Gameplay Design First, I l
Page 31 and 32: 3. Game and Gameplay Design 31 Figu
Page 33 and 34: 3. Game and Gameplay Design 33 what
Page 35 and 36: Character Engagement and Game Desig
Page 37: 4. Character Engagement and Game De
Page 41 and 42: Conclusions My study has two primar
Page 43 and 44: 5. Conclusions 43 Factor Perceivabl
Page 45 and 46: 5. Conclusions 45 PC that lead to s
Page 47 and 48: References AARSETH, E., 2004. Genre
Page 49 and 50: References 49 Behavioral Neuroscien
Page 51 and 52: References 51 New York: John Wiley
Page 53 and 54: References 53 NICHOLS, S., 2004. Im
Page 55 and 56: References 55 K., C-64 version. Mas
Page 57 and 58: Research Material Assassin’s Cree
Page 59 and 60: Appendix 1 59 Quick Start Cthulhu.
Page 61 and 62: Gameplay Design Patterns In this Ap
Page 63 and 64: Appendix 2 63 Detective Structure I
Page 65 and 66: Appendix 2 65 accepted and disallow
Page 67 and 68: Appendix 2 67 References —— art
Page 69 and 70: Appendix 2 69 sibility of Surprises
Page 71 and 72: Appendix 2 71 —— Modulates: Cha
Page 73 and 74: Appendix 2 73 (Egri, 1960) of a cha
Page 75 and 76: Lies and Seductions Credits CREATIV
Page 77 and 78: Article 1 77 Characters in Computer
Page 79 and 80: Article 1 79 It is important to not
Page 81 and 82: Article 1 81 attacks, which are all
Page 83 and 84: Article 1 83 almost anything in the
Page 85 and 86: Article 1 85 situation(s) —— Ch
Page 87 and 88: 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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Article 2 115
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Article 3 117 Gameplay Design Patte
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Article 3 119 are constructed predo
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Article 3 121 ter, especially in ga
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Article 3 123 General overview Clau
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Article 3 125 similar goods. This i
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Article 3 127 Conversational Respon
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Article 3 129 is very strict one an
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Article 3 131
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Article 4 133 Gameplay Design Patte
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Article 4 135 described in this pap
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Article 4 137 the ANT, is seeing a
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Article 4 139 Egri’s Premise rela
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Article 4 141 Reactions as they do
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Article 4 143 this can be seen as a
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Article 4 145 heathens as part of o
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Article 4 147 Faction member will h
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Article 4 149 Discussions In this s
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Article 4 151 than character relati
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Article 4 153 Conference, 2007. 30.
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Article 4 155 Name Information Pass
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Article 5 157 Lies and Seduction Pe
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Article 5 159 Figure 2. A gameplay
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Article 5 161
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Article 6 163 Character-Driven Game
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Article 6 165 and physique); ——
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Article 6 167 —— providing goal
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Article 6 169 Part of a character d
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Article 6 171 Character Defining Ac
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Article 6 173 given that the traits
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Article 6 175 and want to be in goo
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Article 6 177 rectly available to a
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Article 6 179 4th ed. Steve Jackson
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Article 6 181
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Petri Lankoski MA, Lecturer, Game D
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