What Defines Successful Game Characters?

Posted by simoniker on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @02:10PM from the making-lots-of-money dept.

Thanks to TotalGames.net for their feature discussing what makes a videogame character popular. They point out that "almost every character-led game will see a significant chunk of development time spent honing, adjusting and, in some cases, scrapping characters", and discuss Link's famous make-over for Zelda: The Wind Waker, saying "...the outcry that greeted this graphical overhaul underlines just how important game characters are to players." However, the piece concludes: "But for every ignored genius, there are hundreds of mediocre and downright irritating game icons lurking on the shelves", citing Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and the Poochy-like Bitmap Kid as examples of the bad in character design.

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Re:Attitude. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-21 15:07 · Score: 2, Informative

I think you mean, "If a character steals attitude and humor from a B-movie actor, (s)he'll go far."
Re:Magic Pockets sucked! by Goldberg's+Pants · 2003-10-21 17:58 · Score: 2, Informative

If someone doesn't know where your sig is from, they're going to wonder about you:)

I actually liked Sonic 3D. Sadly it made feel ill playing it:(

Sonic was an established character by then. Had Sonic 3D been the first effort involving the titular blue hedgehog, it would have been game over for the franchise before it even started.