Re: Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation
Abrigon Gusiq
Mike
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Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:31 PM
Subject: [InterdimensionalRPG] Building Character: An Analysis
of Character Creation
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Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation
By Steve Meretzky
I have been a game designer for nearly 20 years, mostly in the
adventure game arena. However, at the moment, I'm doing
something
completely different, working as Creative Content Director for
the
online gaming site, WorldWinner.com, and for the first time in
my
life creating games that are pretty much devoid of story and
character, which is pretty ironic given this articles
topic: "Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation."
Basic Terminology
First, some terminology 101. This is real basic stuff, but just
bear
with me for a minute for the sake of those who aren't familiar
with
these terms that I'm going to be bandying about for the rest of
the
talk.
The distinction between player-characters, or PCs, which are
characters under the player's direct control, and non-player-
characters, or NPCs, which are all the computer-controlled
characters
in the game. The main thrust of this talk will be PCs.
Second, with the category of PCs, is the distinction between
first-
person and third-person point-of-view, or POV. With a
first-person
PC, you're seeing the gameworld through the PCs eyes; examples
would
be Myst, or Quake. With a third-person PC, you can see the PC as
you
move him or her through the game world; examples would be Kings
Quest
or Tomb Raider. First-person PCs are often styled to "be" the
player,
as if the player were injected into the gameworld, in which case
the
PC is left characterless in order to preserve the fiction that
you
are the main character, and first-person games don't deal with
the
visual appearance of the PC, so its more rare in a first-person
game
to have a PC with a strong, fleshed-out characterization. Some
games
switch back and forth, such as the Tex Murphy games, Under a
Killing
Moon and so forth, which use a first-person POV for the
gameplay, but
use a third-person view for the cut-scenes, the movie-like non-
interactive sequences.
Character vs. Characterization
When we talk about creating a character in a game, we're usually
talking about characterization, which is everything observable
about
a character: what they look like, sound like, how they move, how
they
dress, intelligence, attitude, career, and so forth. I'll be
focusing
on characterization for the first and longest part of this talk.
Character, on the other hand, refers to what's underneath - the
human
heart, the essential nature. I'll be dealing with true character
during the second part of this talk.
The Importance of Character Development
The first question to deal with is why is good characterization
important? Of course, this is dependent on the type of game; if
it's
a real-time strategy game, for example, with its relatively
distant
point-of-view, and its large quantities of interchangeable
units,
characterization isn't that important. So for today's purposes,
let's
stick to games where character is important, such as adventures,
role-
playing games, action-adventures, platform games.
Of all the aspects of such a game - the geography, the inanimate
objects, the music, the action sequences, the interface, etc. -
the
element that is most likely to leave a positive lasting
impression on
players are the primary character or characters. Humans are
hard-
wired to respond to other humans (or human-like creatures).
This point was driven home for me a couple of years ago, when my
son
went through a period of extreme interest in The Three Stooges.
He
bought himself a life-size cardboard stand-up of the Stooges,
and
kept lugging it around the house and leaving it in different
rooms. I
kept walking past a room and spotting it for brief moment, out
of the
corner of my eye, and just that glance would often cause the
most
visceral, startled reaction. This continued even after the damn
thing
had been around the house for months.
If you're going to expect players to spend dozens of hours with
a
character you're creating, at the very least you want that
character
to be interesting, easy to identify with, and hopefully very
likeable
as well. The more a player can get into the skin of the
character or
characters they're controlling, the more the experience becomes
something that's happening to you, rather than something you're
doing. Also, a strong central character serves as an almost
iconic
representation of the game, which is damn useful as a shorthand
for
facilitating word-of-mouth, and is useful for all sorts of
marketing
hooks; furthermore, a successful character is a good, perhaps
even
the best, way to build a franchise.
Some Successful Game Characters
Let's look at a list of some of the most well-known and
successful
game characters:
Mario
Sonic the Hedgehog
Spyro
Crash Bandicoot
Rayman
Leisure Suit Larry
Putt Putt
Banjo-Kazooie
Lara Croft
Pikachu
Fatty Bear
Link
Duke Nukem
Carmen Sandiego
Gabriel Knight
Guybrush Threepwood
Certainly not a comprehensive list, and I'm sure just about
everyone
here could come up with a handful of good additions to this list
with
half-a-minutes thought. But it's a good, representative list,
with
characters from a number of different genres; a mixture of
characters
aimed at children, adults and at a crossover audience; a mixture
of
males, females, animals, and various fantasy creatures. But what
they
all have in common is that they're the focus of their respective
games, and have spawned sequels, in some cases many sequels in
addition to spin-offs into TV shows, movies, books, card games,
action figures, and so forth. In other words... a franchise.
By the way, I'm only going to be dealing with characters
originally
created for games; I'm not going to be talking about cases where
you're transporting a James Bond or an Indiana Jones from
another
medium. That process, of course, has its own set of issues.
High Concept
The first step in creating a successful character, especially
one
that you're going to hang a game on, is to settle on what we in
the
development biz call the "high concept" for that character. High
concepts for some of the characters on the previous slide would
be "a
cute talking car" or "a marsupial who's been genetically
enhanced by
a mad scientist" or "a female Indiana Jones with mammaries the
size
of Volkswagens". Remember the two things you're trying to do
with
this character: make an enjoyable and interesting character that
a
player will want to adopt into his or her life for the next few
weeks
or months, and create a character that will be different and
memorable enough to help you cut through the clutter of the
several
thousand other games that you'll be competing with for shelf,
magazine, and player-awareness space. So at this point try to
think,
what's interesting? What's cool? What hasn't been done before?
Naming Characters
Naming characters is a massively important step. A good name is
a big
part of what makes a character memorable; it is often what gives
people their first impression of what the character is all
about.
Often, that character's name will be the game's name as well, or
part
of it, so this is a good opportunity to take that power into
your own
hands rather than letting the marketing weasels bungle it a year
down
the road, unless of course we have any marketing weasels in the
audience, in which case, I meant to say, my very good friends
who so
skillfully and valiantly pilot our games through the intricate
complexities of the marketplace.
As with the high concept, a character's name should be
interesting
and memorable. In addition, it should be euphonious, pleasing to
the
ear, and rolling off the tongue rather than twisting it. It
should
fit the character. Studs Steelpike probably wouldn't be a good
name
for the skinny accountant who solves crimes with his amazingly
logical mind, and Milo Twigbody is probably a bad name for the
professional wrestler who becomes an ace assassin for the CIA. I
think Duke Nukem, for example, is an excellent name - easy to
say and
remember, and which instantly creates just the right mental
image.
J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, is a
master of
naming characters is. There's no doubt when you meet a Severus
Snape
or a Draco Malfoy that you'll meeting an unappetizing character,
that
Hermione Granger will turn out to be a studious know-it-all,
that
Percy Weasley and Cornelius Fudge will be prissy and
self-important,
that Peeves will be one extremely annoying poltergeist.
It's a fun exercise to think of the names of successful
characters
from various media, and notice how well their names conjure up
the
right initial mental image - the solidly strong James Bond, the
sinister Darth Vader, the human-doormat Arthur Dent, the
mischievous
Bugs Bunny and the everyman Homer Simpson.
Backgrounders
Before you start developing a character, you need to know and
thoroughly understand the character. The best way to do this is
to
write a background paper for each character. This can be just a
paragraph or two for minor characters, and several pages, even
10 or
20 pages, for your main character. This is really important. It
doesn't have to be in narrative form; lists are okay, and you
should
include stuff like:
where was the character born?
what was his or her family life like as a kid?
what was his education?
where does he live know?
his job
his finances
his taste in clothes, books, movies, etc.
favorite foods
favorite activities
hobbies
personality traits, and how they manifest
shy or outgoing? greedy or giving?
quirks
superstitions
phobias
what were the traumatic moments in the character's life?
what were his biggest triumphs?
important past romances
current romantic involvement or involvements
how does he treat friends? lovers? bosses? servants?
political beliefs, past and present
religious beliefs, past and present
interesting or important possessions
any pets?
unusual talents
what's the best thing that could happen to your character?
the worst thing?
tea or coffee?
paper or plastic?
The list could go on and on. And, if your character isn't human,
your
background has to go a lot further, explaining exactly what, in
your
universe, it means to be a hobbit, or a Jedi knight, or an
outcast
half-orc half-troll, or what it means to be a robot warrior with
a
malfunctioning ethics chip.
You've got to know everything about the character, become the
world's
biggest expert on them, even if you end up creating 10 times as
much
background as you'll ever use. That way, once you start figuring
out
what your character will do in a given situation, you won't have
to
figure out, you'll know. And your players will know you know,
even if
it is just subconsciously, because they'll see your character
acting
and reacting in be real, natural ways; don't do this, and your
character will be a shallow cliché.
Here's an exercise. Once you've written your background for a
character, try to think of a dozen mundane or not-so-mundane
situations, and say to yourself, "How would my character react
in
this spot?" How would he react when stuck in a traffic jam while
late
for an important date? When passing a panhandler? When
confronted
with a stray cat? When a comely co-worker makes a come-on? When
pushed out of an airplane at 15,000 feet? If you've done your
background development well, you should have the answers to
these
questions without even thinking.
I recently saw the movie Jaws for the first time since it was
first
released, and there's a terrific scene in it, when Roy Schieder,
Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are in the boat's galley,
after a
hard and futile day of chasing the shark. Dreyfuss' character,
the
naturalist shark expert, and Shaw's character, the hard-bitten
shark-
hunter, are trying to one-up each other, with near-shark
experiences,
rolling up their clothes to show off one scar after another.
It's a
wonderful scene, and the kind of writing that comes easily when
you've done your homework, but probably not at all if you
haven't.
( Cut )
Dialogue
Dialogue: writing the words that go in the character's mouth.
Your
writing may be the final form of the dialogue, if it will be
displayed as text, such as in an online game, where the size of
the
datastream is an issue, or a cart-based game, where the overall
data
size is an issue. Or, you might be writing a script that voice
actors
will use to produce recorded voices.
Try to find an interesting manner of speech for the character,
which
is consistent with who the character is. For example, I once
heard a
talk by Isaac Asimov, in which he was talking about the writing
of
his first "robot novel", The Caves of Steel, which is about a
pair of
detectives, one human and one a robot with human appearance.
Asimov
was trying to find a speaking style for the robot, R. Daneel
Olivaw,
and hit upon the idea of having him never use contractions: "I
do not
think we should go there." This was extremely effective in
making him
seem robot-like, since humans rarely avoid contractions. Asimov
pointed out that this trick was also used for Spock's dialogue
on
Star Trek.
Another example is the character Claude Rains plays in my
favorite
movie, Casablanca, chief of police Louis Renault. He is
constantly
producing suave and witty lines even in the most pressure-filled
situations; when Major Strasser asks him about the investigation
of
the murdered Nazi couriers, he says, "Realizing the importance
of the
case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of
suspects";
when Rick is holding a gun to Renault and points out that the
gun is
aimed at his heart, Renault says, "That is my least vulnerable
spot."
About 15 years ago I wrote a game called Leather Goddesses of
Phobos,
in which your primary sidekick character was named either Trent
or
Tiffany, depending on whether you were playing the game as a man
or
as a woman. This character was a massively overenthusiastic,
gung-ho,
can-do personality. When writing Trent and Tiffany's dialogue, I
always mentally imagined every sentence ending with half a dozen
exclamation points, even though they rarely appeared in the
actual
text; this helped me maintain the right tone for their lines.
Also, in his talk earlier in the conference on story elements in
computer games, Bob Bates pointed out an excellent way to use
dialogue to make characters memorable and underpin their
personalities, which is to give them a catchphrase.
Schwarzenegger
produces one of these in just about every one of his movies:
"I'll be
back" or "Hasta la vista, baby". Another good example is Robin
from
the Batman TV show, with his "Holy (whatever), Batman!" Of
course,
Bob rightly pointed out to be careful not to overuse it, which
is
easy to do in a game environment.
Voice Characterization
Voice characterization is a fantastic way to get a lot of bang
for
your buck. Even if you line up some very talented professional
voice
talent, you'll be spending a fraction on vocals than you will be
on
graphics. And the human brain is equally attuned to audio and
visual
signals, so voice characterization is an excellent and not very
expensive way to telegraph personality to the player.
Voice characterization is particularly important if your main
character is a first-person character, and is rarely or never
seen.
I think that Nintendo did a great job with Mario's voice in
Super
Mario 64, which is proof that you can get a lot of mileage from
a
little bit of audio. It's a cartridge game, of course, so
there's not
a lot of room for sound files. In fact, apart from his opening
greeting, "it's me, Mario!", I'm not sure he actually speaks in
the
game. But the game is loaded with grunts and whoops that
perfectly
paint exactly the right audio tone for Mario who, in my book, is
a "roly-poly guy who's had too much caffeine, too much sugar, or
both".
Here's another great Leon Schlessinger story that I heard at
that
Chuck Jones lecture. They'd just created the first Daffy Duck
cartoon, and Mel Blanc, who did all the Warner Brothers cartoon
voice
characterizations, was having difficulty coming up with the
right
voice for Daffy. Well, as a joke, he did Daffy as a slight
exaggeration of the lisping Schlessinger, and everyone was in
stitches, so they decided to go with it. But then, as they were
nearing completion of the cartoon, they realized with horror
that
Leon would be screening the completed film, as he did with all
of the
studio's cartoons. When the day for the screening came, the team
sat
frozen with fear, sure that they were all about to be fired. The
film
ended, the lights came up, and Leon turned to them and said,
"That
wath great! But where'd you guyth come up with that wacky voith
for
the duck?!"
True Character
Now we're going to move from characterization to true character.
People have been telling stories in one form or another for
thousands
of years, and certain principles about the role of characters in
a
story are well documented. Here's what Robert McKee says about
true
character, in his book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and
the
Principles of Screenwriting:
"True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes
under
pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation,
the
truer the choice to the character's essential nature."
I took McKee's three day course on Story Structure a couple of
years
ago, by the way, and I recommend it strongly to anyone
interested in
story-oriented games. Even though the course is oriented toward
traditional linear screenwriting, and not game design, there
were
many rules that translate very well to our medium, and many
thought-
provoking moments that made me look at game design from some
very
fresh perspectives.
So, if true character is revealed by the choices a character
makes,
under increasing pressure, what does this mean for characters in
games? In books or movies, a character makes decisions and we
follow
along with those decisions and learn about the character as
layer
upon layer of his facade is stripped away.
However, in a game, the character doesn't make his or her
decisions -
we, the player, make the decisions for that character. So,
characters
can never be observed to react to circumstances and through
those
reactions, reveal their inner selves. Sure, NPC characters,
under the
games control, can make decisions, and thus the potential is
there
for some classic character development. And you can have some
limited
story-telling by halting the game to play non-interactive cut
scenes
in which the main character's decision-making is taken out of
the
player's hands, allowing you to perform sporadic revelation of
true
character. However, it is pretty universally agreed that all but
the
most sparing use of such non-interactive sequences is terrible
game
design.
Furthermore, the spine of a story is often driven by a tension
between the main character's conscious and unconscious desires.
However, where a character's desires are the desires of the
player-
manipulator, how can such a tension exist?
So, are games hopeless as a medium for character development,
and
therefore destined to always be a weak medium for storytelling?
Perhaps, in saying so, we're failing to acknowledge the power of
interactivity, the power of putting decisions into the player's
hands. Because, even if player-characters cannot make decisions
under
pressure to reveal their true character, players can make
decisions
under pressure, and perhaps by doing so reveal aspects of their
own
character to themselves. Alternatively, perhaps, even more
excitingly, by making discoveries about themselves, players
could
even be a changed person by playing a game.
I don't think this has been done, I'm not sure anyone has ever
even
attempted this, but I think it's possible. I know it's something
that
I've never tried to do. I once did a game called Stationfall,
which
was a sequel to my first game, Planetfall. In both games, your
sidekick is an affectionate robot named Floyd.
In Stationfall, you're on a space station, which has been taken
over
by an alien doomsday device, a small machine that takes over all
the
machines in its vicinity and turns them into people-killers, and
turns them into a factory for manufacturing new copies of
itself,
which are then sent off to spread like a mechanical plaque.
After a
few days on board the station, Floyd disappears, and you don't
see
him again until the last scene of the game, where you discover
him,
in complete thrall to the alien device. He is the only thing
standing
between you and the device, and you have only seconds before it
launches its deadly copies and spells an end to all human
civilization. You have a choice - kill your friend Floyd to get
at
the alien device, or condemn all of humanity to death. It sounds
like
a classic choice under pressure that would reveal true
character -
except that it was really no choice at all. You could kill
Floyd, and
win the game, or launch the alien copies and lose the game. I,
as the
game designer, made the choice, not the player.
However, I think there is one arena where we might be seeing a
glimmer of what I'm describing. All the games I've been talking
about
so far today are single-player experiences. When you make
decisions
for your character, you know that you are not affecting anything
besides your own private, personal game universe, and only
computer-
controlled NPCs will be affected by your choices. Therefore, as
a
player, you make choices, which, like in Stationfall, the
dictator/author has mandated are the decisions you should make
to
succeed.
However, what about multi-player games such as the huge
persistent
worlds of Ultima Online or Everquest? Here, players know that
what
they do may impact another human being, perhaps profoundly.
Here, for
the first time, players have to weigh moral issues as well as
gameplay issues. Just a week or so ago, I was dining with a
friend of
mine who is a lead designer at Turbine, and she was relating her
experience with Asheron's Call. She quickly reached a point in
the
game where she became less interested in advancing her
character, and
more interested in helping newer players to succeed. She said
that
she was surprised to discover how nice she was as a character in
the
world of Asheron's Call...and, upon reflection, this made her
realize
that she was a nicer person than she'd realized.
It's nothing earth-shattering...yet. But it's a beginning.
Characterization is good; it's important. Do it well. But think
about
character too, because that just might be the key to the future
of
interactive storytelling.
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