Developing Characters

[Layabout]

Hey,

I found this article today, which may help alot of you. It discusses the vital information you need to bring your character to life.

http://www.thecareergamer.com/?p=155

Playing games where the characters are a lifeless bore is a tedious experience, especially in games which have a proper story. The public need to sympatise with the character. Developed characters are essential in driving your story forward, they can even help you write the story.

So read, discuss, input.

[Emerald]

My primary response would be a giant [size=20]DUH[/size]

That article is the basics of the basics...
Think about your character. Wow, what an ingenious literary technique.

[ThreeOhFour]

Sarcasm aside about the ingenuity of the article, obvious little things like many of the ones mentioned here are things that are often easy to forget.

I didn't exactly learn a load of new information, but it is good to read another person's point of view on the issue, and be reminded of some of the important things to remember when creating a character.

[Layabout]

My primary response would be a giant [size=20]DUH[/size]

That article is the basics of the basics...,
Think about your character. Wow, what an ingenious literary technique.

Emerald. I am going to say this once. You can fuck off.

You have only been a member of these forums for a few weeks and already you are pissing people off with your useless comments and the utter drivel that comes out of your mouth (keyboard... whatever).

If you have something intelligent to say, then by all means, say it. If you don't then shut the fuck up. You are starting to look like a 12 year old child, and if you keep it up, I will treat you as such.


That aside, yes it is the basics, but alot of people don't actually put any effort into creating their characters. It reiterates the basics, which are fundamentally what creates believable characters.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Easy, Layabout.  Remember one of our unwritten laws:

If you've got an issue with someone try to resolve it in private messages rather than start a war.

Other than that, if someone is giving you grief let one of us moderators know.

And Emerald:

Think before you post, please.  If you haven't anything constructive to say, consider whether it's worth posting at all.  Yeah, you are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't extend to pissing people off randomly.

[Layabout]

I'm sorry, but he really did press my buttons.

I should read the number 2 golden rule. So should he.

He seems to be the one trying to start a war.

[Emerald]

Sorry, I didn't mean anything against you, personally. You didn't write the article. At least, I don't think you did. Anyway, reading that, I guess I agree the sarcasm was beyond the 'cute' threshold...

I realise you're not the rough-and-tumble bunch I'm used to. I'll try to think harder about how what I'm saying might affect people...

Keep in mind, though, I'm not some kind of loser-asshole who wastes his time pissing people off over the internet to fill the void of despair in his miserable dead-end life.
I'm really just kidding around. It's how I bond with people...

[Dualnames]

Ok, I don;t know what Emerald thinks but i think it's a good source of info for newbies at character creating. And as a newbie in certain matters myself I consider the article as guidelines that might actually or not end up useful in some hands.

[Ghost]

I'd like to go a step further and say: This article isn't just basic. It really isn't at all.

First, it offers a good list of memorable characters; just by reading that list you can already get an impression how a good character is made. There must be a reason why few people can relate very much to Generic Guy, but remember Lara Croft; can hardly remember the colour of Flynn's hair but could name the number of freckles in April Ryan's face. So there.

Second- all the important questions are there. It's true that a back story will help you flesh out your character, but how many newcomers think about it, and how many pro's give you the feeling that they never did create such a background (while of course they wrote one)?
It's true that appareance and manners define your character, yet many adventures seem to rely on barely more than a catchphrase, and leave it at that.

It was a good read, and a good list of apparently basic "questions" (or checks) that nevertheless are key elements in character design. Thank you for sharing, Lay.

BTW: I remember a thread in GD or ARC that covered a lot of questions regarding character development- can't find it though, and forgot the title. I still have the thing as a text file tough, and will upload it later. It was pretty much in-depth...

*Edit*
And here it is- forgive the rather messy formatting. Maybe someone is able to find the original thread and link it, too?

http://www.mediafire.com/?cj46sdzmoul

[Emerald]

*Edit*
And here it is- forgive the rather messy formatting. Maybe someone is able to find the original thread and link it, too?

http://www.mediafire.com/?cj46sdzmoul

Now that's a good article. It's not stupid or patronising. I think that's deserving of its own thread.

[Ghost]

@Emerald:

The file I uploaded is a thread, I just copied-n-pasted it a long while ago. Unfortunately I can, for the life of it, not remember where it can be found. The first section was posted by the threads owner, and later stuff was added by community members. Glad you found it useful!

[Snarky]

Here.

[Layabout]

Yep I shared it because i thought it would be helpful to some. The GTD thread is a lot more in depth and certainly deals with the subject in a much more in depth manner.

[Ghost]

Still, that link you provided is useful and basically contains a lot of information, hidden behind innocent questions- and hell, I do know that it is tempting to just draw Mr. G Neric and give him a blinking idle animation, hoping that this will already create a distinguished character.

What sometimes makes me wonder is that there are quite a lot of commercial adventure games with very bland, very boring protagonists... Seems those who did set the standards forgot about them later.

I would like to shove a question into this thread: What do you (that's all of you) take in when you look at a character, what helps you guessing his/her "inner workings"? I was pretty baffled when, in the commentary for X2, I found a long discussion about how much time the designers spent on the Xavier student's clothes, trying to make it so that even in a couple of years people will watch the movie and recognise the dress code as contemporary. That's something I wouldn't have expected, and I wonder if there are designers here who too think this deep.

[miguel]

Hi to all,
I guess that on a professional level, when a company decides to make a comercial game, they form a team of people that is good at diferent subjects, character art, background art, music, story writers, etc...
All of you know that, but as an answer to your question I would say that for a guy that has a passion for adventure games, building it up from the start is one big chalenge and I would say that most of the times you'll get a game that excells on one of the subjects I've named before but fail on releasing a professional-looking game.
Having said that, we all feel delighted when someone or a group of guys like us, bring games like the ones that are on 2007 list for best games. They are there because they made a diference.
I guess that after you release a game, you can jump into another theme for the next one, but if you come back, you'll build up your characters and provide more depth into the story.
Myself, I've had dozens of projects that I aborted due to diferent reasons but feel that I've improved on trying to provide a good story with good characters more than anything.
Cheers