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Character Development In Games

Posted by Zonk on from the more-than-just-a-pretty-face dept.

Gamasutra has a piece up examining techniques for character development in games. The article describes these techniques using the movie standards of dialogue and relationships. From the article: "Character development in and of itself isn't going to make your gameplay any better, but it will create a more satisfying experience because you're furnishing a more well-developed context, a more immersive world for the player to explore. You can't read a review of an adventure game or shooter without seeing some kind of reference to the storytelling, the dialogue, the characters. Can you relate to the characters? Are they well-developed? Are they interesting? It's become an expectation, an industry norm. Cliches and stereotypes are unacceptable."

2 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Game - book - movie by tsa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think a good game should be like a good book or a good movie: good plot, interesting and life-like characters, no loose ends, etc. It's hard enough to achieve that in a book, where you have an in principle unlimited amount of pages, but in a game or a movie it's a mayor challange.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  2. Re:From the Article: by GaryPatterson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although it seems obvious to most people, perhaps it bears saying in your case: relating to a character in fiction does not equate to living like them.

    Think of the Master Chief in Halo. He's a hardened fighter, with experience in battling hordes of aliens. Can anyone relate to that?

    Obviously not.

    So the character is fleshed out a little. He makes pithy comments, other characters treat him in a certain way, in particular Cortana.

    Can anyone relate to that?

    Well, yes. A bit. He's not a very strong character, but then FPS tend to allow the player to project onto their character more than other games, so that makes sense.

    You don't relate to his experiences, you relate to the way people treat him. maybe that's how you'd like to be treated, maybe that's interesting in some way. Maybe you can empathise in some way.

    For most people, this is obvious. In your case, get out and rad a book. You know, those papery things with words in them. Even the weakest books have more character development than most games out there.

    And yes, you can relate to the characters therein! Achilles, the Mayor of Castorbridge, Romeo, Anna Karenina... It's actually quite easy!