Character Driven Game Design

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80 Character-Driven Game Design Predefined functions Predefined functions are the parts of a game where the designers have control over the protagonist and it’s actions. This control can take different forms (this list is not meant to be exhaustive): —— Cut-scenes: Static, pre-designed movie-clips take the control away from the player. —— Dialogue: The player can have some control over the dialogue, but the lines are always predefined. (Dialogues can be alternatively presented fully in cut-scenes.) —— Character animation: The style of the character’s movement and its mannerisms and facial expressions. For example, Thief II (Eidos Interactive 2000) uses cut-scenes in the beginning of every mission where Garrett recounts the details and background of a mission (and the reasons why he chose to do it) in a personal way. The cut-scene hints at Garrett’s cynicism and also teaches the player details about the character’s thinking, his attitude and point of views. The cut-scenes are thus used to construct the nature of the protagonist similarly as in film or literature. In The Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts 1990) parts of the dialogue of the protagonist are presented in cut-scenes or cut-scenes where the player is offered choices on what kind of stance s/he wants to take or what direction s/he wants the game to take. The structure of the dialogue and the choices offered to the player in The Secret of Monkey Island present Guybrush Threepwood, the protagonist of the game, in a consistent way. The player is not offered choices that would be alien to Guybrush at any point. Ico in Ico (Sony Computer Entertainment 2002) needs to encourage Yorda to follow him. He can either call her or lead her by holding her hand and moving. These actions are always animated and in them Ico seems kind and patient towards Yorda. In Dead or Alive 3 (Tecmo 2001) the characters have a set of different Figure 1. Ico calling for Yorda to follow him up the stairs.
Article 1 81 attacks, which are all predefined functions. These also portray the character in certain ways. E.g., some of the Drunken style Kung Fu master protagonist’s movements will end in him lying leisurely on the ground even in the heat of the fight. These movements make him seem like a very relaxed and easy-going person—or perhaps annoyingly arrogant to the opponent. Some people may claim that the thought of people attributing personality to every character seen on the screen is overstated. Some game characters can certainly seem quite distant from proper characters. E.g., in Pac-Man the “protagonist“ is a ball with a mouth. It doesn’t seem to have much of a personality. However, Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass have showed strong evidence that people have a powerful tendency of assigning personality traits to fictional characters—and even inanimate objects invoke a sense of personality. This applies, even if an object doesn’t have a special set of psychological traits. They argue that assigning personality traits is automatic and something very basic for people. Even if personally is assigned with very limited information, inconsistencies in the presentation can diminish purity of the personality [10]. Thus consistency of presentation is important in any type of game, using any type of characters. A particular form of predefined action is the way other characters in the game act towards the protagonist. At it’s simplest; characters can describe (talk about, refer to etc.) the protagonist. E.g., in Silent Hill 2 —Director’s Cut (Konami 2003), the player will come upon a letter/dialogue describing the protagonist. Other characters’ actions or reactions to the protagonist’s actions also describe aspects of the protagonist. E.g., in Ico, Yorda’s reaction towards Ico is trusting and obedient. This will further establish the nature of the character as friendly and caring. Goals Goals are one way to reduce a player’s freedom in a game: If a player wants to make progress in a game s/he needs to achieve goals set by the game. Goals are a very powerful tool of presenting the nature of the character. Goals can be presented to the player directly (e.g. as a list of goals) and this makes them a very straightforward objective towards which the player will guide the character. Alternatively goals can be given less directly, as in Silent Hill 3 (Konami 2003), where they are implied by the back-story and setup of the beginning of the game. Goals, when given explicitly, will imply a lot about the character. The goal to smash a city will imply that the character actually is strong enough to do that and, that s/he doesn’t care whether a whole city is put to ruins. Vice versa, the character affects how reasonable the goals seem and how the player will attempt to solve the problems s/he is presented with. The use of implicit goals requires solid characters that make the goals seem natural and reasonable. If the goals (whether given or implicit) and the interpretation the player makes of the character are in-
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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
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 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: Article 1 79 It is important to not
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
Page 95 and 96: Article 2 95 elaborately simulated
Page 97 and 98: Article 2 97 affects and performing
Page 99 and 100: Article 2 99 (Björk and Holopainen
Page 101 and 102: Article 2 101 player would fear the
Page 103 and 104: Article 2 103 available and what po
Page 105 and 106: Article 2 105 Many games also use c
Page 107 and 108: Article 2 107 petty criminal, Tommy
Page 109 and 110: Article 2 109 site for empathetic e
Page 111 and 112: Article 2 111 Grodal, T. (1999). Mo
Page 113 and 114: Article 2 113 emotion. Personality
Page 115 and 116: Article 2 115
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
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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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