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Character Identification The Three Linked Elements Personality

The Three Linked Elements

In a character-based game, there are three intrinsically linked elements: environment, game play, and character (Figure 2).

A powerful character must be well adapted to its environment. Good characters typically have some element about them that makes them especially suited to their world. Take Indiana Jones, for example.

Indiana hangs around all day in tombs and ancient sites that are filled with dangerous traps and angry natives. He is a tough, strong person, but more importantly he is an archaeologist, and this is what makes him so well suited to his environment. From a character creator's point of view, you would probably come at this in reverse: the character is an archaeologist, so therefore his environment will be tombs and ancient sites.

Figure 2. Much of a character's design is determined by the decisions made about a game's environment and game play.

While the link between character and environment is true for non-interactive media as well as games, game developers must also consider an even more important factor: game play. Game play affects how an environment works. There is a link between what the player can do and what the environment contains. Game-play decisions are also dictated by a character's special abilities, so game play and character design are linked, too. Look at the character Bob in Shiny's Messiah. This little angelic character goes around and possesses people, and this attribute has massive game play significance, dictating exactly how his environment has to be populated and designed. Thus, as you change the attributes of any one of these three elements, the other two elements are affected as well.

Simply stated, the character design process cannot be isolated from the game design process. Many elements of a game character are completely decided by game play and environment.

Visual Design

The visual design of a character can be split broadly into two aspects: physiological form and the clothes worn (if any). Physiological differences between one human and another are fairly slight; there is some variation in skin tone, size, hair, build, and weight. Gender is the only major variance, and apart from that I'm afraid all humans look alike to me. Clothing, however, varies greatly in color, shape, purpose, and significance. That is why costume design is so important.

There has been a sudden surge of female main characters recently, which is good since it redresses the gender imbalance in our predominantly male industry. The choice of a character's gender is critical, and not simply from a marketing perspective. (I won't talk about any aspect of character design from a marketing point of view since I don't think it is wise to approach any aspect of design from that angle. If you design a character to be liked by players, marketing opportunities will follow of their own accord.)

A character must have dignity. Any design that objectifies the character (that is, encourages you to think of it as an object rather than a living being) will prevent players from empathizing with it and relating to it. Creating this living essence is the trick to making people like a character. Far too many female characters have been put into games simply as tokens, usually as sexy bodies for use by marketing departments. This is something to avoid.

Male and female players react to the gender of a lead character in different ways. Players usually want to protect a good character of the opposite sex, so drawing on a person's primeval and innate response to the opposite sex is a powerful tool. If the character is attractive, believable, and commands respect, players will grow fond of it. On the other hand, someone playing a good character of the same sex usually grows to admire the character and its characteristics. If the character has been designed well, the character can even develop into a role model for some players. Whatever the gender of the character, the fundamental rule for getting people to respond positively to the character is that the character must be likeable and admirable.

The Halo Effect

Some great psychology experiments have been conducted about the "halo effect," the results of which can apply to character design. Briefly, the halo effect postulates that we treat attractive people better than we do ugly people. Not only that, but we often make all sorts of subconscious assumptions based on looks. Good-looking people, according to Brigham (see References at the end of this article), are often assumed by strangers to have other positive traits such as being "poised, independent, sociable, interesting, exciting, and sexually warm." On the other hand, unattractive people are apparently seen by strangers as more "deviant," according to Jones and his colleagues.

I've heard arguments that game developers should not create a cast of highly attractive characters, either because it provides unrealistic role models for children or because some equate creating sexy characters with sexism. I don't consider it sexist to represent males and females in an equally distorted way, but action comics have been criticized for years because they portray exaggerated strength and sexiness in characters. Note, however, that as a medium comics command one of the largest groups of enduring and instantly recognizable characters.

Thus I would assert that character designers should do everything in their power to make characters as attractive as possible. A person's first impression of a character will almost certainly come not from what they do, think, or say, but what they look like. If the character makes a good first visual impression, players will likely stay focused on it, allowing you to further entice them with the character's personality.

Costume Design

Keeping a consistent costume throughout a game is the best way to help imprint the character in a person's mind, so costume changes should be avoided as much as possible until the character's visual design has become fully established. Once established, though, giving a character some costume changes will increase its believability.

Let's look at Indiana Jones again, as he appeared in films. Indiana wears his costume with some variations; sometimes without the jacket, sometimes without the hat, and in certain brief scenes he wears a completely different outfit. All in all though, Indiana keeps a strong sense of consistency which contributes to a solid, consistent image in our imagination.

The simpler a costume design is, the easier it is for a person to recognize and remember it (Figure 3). Complex, muddy, drab, and over-rendered clothing results in confusing, muddled characters. Try exaggerating essential elements of your character until you can strip it down to its essence, the simplest representation that gets across the meaning you are trying to represent.

Figure 3. The character shown left has been heavily overworked. The excessive detail and overuse of colors has left it muddy and confused. In contrast, the character on the right illustrates a cleaner design.

Color schemes should be kept bold and within a limited palette. That way the colors begin to symbolize a character, just as blue, gray, and a dash of yellow invoke Batman (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Batman's color scheme is so strong that even with the added confusion of the film versions introducing black, you still can recognize him.

It's always a good idea to try to put elements into a design that help symbolize the character's essence. Obvious examples of this technique include Hermes' winged feet or the web designs on Spiderman's costume. You can also leverage the subtler associations people make about clothing and accessories to provide more clues about the character: glasses for intelligence, cardigan sweaters for massive sexual magnetism, or whatever.

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Personality