2.2 Game Characters

 

 

2.2 Game Characters

 

1. Read Game Writing Chapter 6 “Game Characters”

 

2. Consider:

a. In contrasting a character with an “icon,” Walsh is not talking about art quality or detail, but about the way in which many games used to have (and some still have) a “player character” without a personality, one which exists only to allow the player to play the game.

b. Consider the conflict between creating a player character with a lot of personality and allowing a player to decide how his or her character will behave.

c. Sometimes, a way to balance freedom against personality is to make the player character mostly “blank,” but to lavish attention and care on all of the other characters.

d. Games Extra: computer and video games suffer from an excess of two kinds of protagonists: tough, rugged, macho guys with attitude problems, and tough but impossibly Barbie-shaped girls with attitude problems. If your protagonist is tending in either of these directions, consider taking the character in another direction. Before moving on, stop and consider this carefully. If “badass” is a good description of your protagonist, you’re teetering on the precipice of cliché.