Level Up.pdf

T
LeveI 5
The Three Cs,
Part 1 — Character
While much of your game design is always changing, there are three
fundamentals that need to be established early in your preproduction. I call
them the “Three Cs” :
1. Character
2. Camera
3. Control.
If you change any of the Three Cs during the course of your production,
you risk massive problems with your gameplay, which may require extra
reworking, and you risk endangering your game. Don ’ t give me that look. I
know this sounds dramatic, but so many game elements hinge upon the
Three Cs that changing one thing will have a ripple effect through your
entire game. I have seen teams catastrophically screw up and cancel
their game because of their failure to stick to the plans of their
Three Cs.
While we talked about writing a character in Level 3 , I am now using the
term in a different context. I will be talking about how the character is
presented to the player and the activities the player does with that character.
The very important rule about character design is:
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Let this rule be your motto when designing anything. It will come into play
more importantly later on in the book, but should be your guide especially
when designing your game character. There are several great books on how