Character Driven Game Design

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44 Character-Driven Game Design 4 Sidekicks are sometime used for this. For example, foulmouthed Dax in Jak and Dax III (Naughty Doc, 2001) can emphasize the positive qualities of the PC. In Chronicle of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athens (Starbreeze, 2009) other inmates and guards make Riddick seem a rather noble person. with the features as follows: —— physical beauty (beauty relates to symmetry, v-shaped body of male, hourglass body of female, and cultural features associated to beauty); —— expressions of affection or fear; —— character is evaluated to be better than the other characters; 4 —— gameplay that makes a character seem physically, socially, or mentally adept. An alignment structure of a game can make a character to be evaluated initially positively and later negatively or vice versa. Game and Character Design Questions relating to game and character design are as follows: 4. How the PC design can be utilized in the gameplay design? 5. How can conflicts and gameplay be based on the social qualities of game characters? Regarding question number four, a part of the answer is to design the features contributing to character recognition intentionally to promote a certain kind of interpretation of the PC (see, table 5.2). (This said, I should point out that there would almost always be disparity between the designers’ intention and the players’ playing experience and character interpretation. However, a game guides interrelation and engagement as argued in the previous chapters.) I have proposed that Lajos Egri’s (1960) method for character design is useful in designing character-based games. Egri’s dimensions, for example, give information for designing perceivable features of the player character. Here, I am concerned about using the dimensions in gameplay design. Possible approaches for linking character traits with the features of a game system includes the use of gameplay patterns as follows: —— Use the pattern Trait Regulated Behavior and trait system and then translate the character design to numeric values and utilize those in the designed system. —— Use the pattern Enforced Character Behavior and map different traits to goals, possible and impossible actions, and predefined functions. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. Regarding question number five, the most straightforward way to set-up a character driven conflict is to design a PC and other characters that have ambitions or goals in such a way that only one character can reach the goal. In practice, this can be accomplished by using the gameplay design pattern Predefined Goals (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) and defining sought-after game states based on the goals and ambitions of the
5. Conclusions 45 PC that lead to success. Following this, the designers need to define the behaviors for the NPC based on their goals that put the characters in opposition with the PC and create the wanted challenges. To give an example of setting up a conflict, I use the characters and social structure of the Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, as the story contains well-known characters and the conflict is nicely grounded to the character’s qualities (conversely, I take some liberties in the translation of the conflict in order to simplify the description). Using the wellknown characters reduces need to explain the characters in detail and allows me to concentrate on describing how to translate the character design and conflict into the gameplay. Two Families (a family is a Faction) the Montagues and the Capulets have a dispute. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. Romeo and Juliet fell in love. The head of the Capulet family has arranged a marriage of Juliet to count Paris. However, Juliet wants to be with Romeo, but at the same time she wants to maintain her membership to the Faction. This is the source of the main conflict. Romeo has similar desires that forms the Internal Conflict. In order to complicate the situations further, Juliet has a protective brother, who will obtain a Continuous Goal (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) to prevent Juliet and Romeo from seeing each other if he finds out that they are in love. As the brother is hot blooded, he is likely to challenge Romeo to a duel to prevent their affair. As the local ruler has forbidden any duel between the two Factions (this can be described using the pattern Social Norm), the duel will lead to declaring the duelers as Outcasts if the ruler finds out about it. This is a form of the pattern Actions Have Social Consequences. The use of the pattern would be important in translation on a more general term, as the conflict looses impact without the choices having an impact to the gameplay. The head of Montague also has a Continuous Goal (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) of keeping his promise to count Paris, which is equivalent to the goal of keeping Romeo and Juliet separated. This setup can be utilized in different ways. Romeo is an obvious choice as the PC, because the story provides more for the design of the possible actions for Romeo, whereas making Juliet the PC requires more considerations of her possible actions. Game progression can be guided using goals and a goal structure. Depending on how tightly the designers want the flow of the game progression to follow the story of Romeo and Juliet, the goal structure needs to be set up in differently. Possible set-ups include: 1. If the designers want to follow the progression of the story, a goal structure can be used to regulate play. In this way, the player needs to reach a goal, which is Predefined Goals (Björk, Holopainen, 2005) in a predefined order that follows the goal structure of the story. 2. A sandbox style game can be supported by defining the winning
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 and 38: 4. Character Engagement and Game De
Page 39 and 40: 4. Character Engagement and Game De
Page 41 and 42: Conclusions My study has two primar
Page 43: 5. Conclusions 43 Factor Perceivabl
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
Page 89 and 90: Article 1 89 Banner. Obviously, it
Page 91 and 92: Article 1 91
Page 93 and 94: 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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