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November
2000
CHARACTER-BASED
GAME DESIGN
by François Dominic Laramée
I hear rumors, beloved
readers. Wretched, unspeakable calumnies, the vilest of
which claims that I am nothing more than a
barely-literate hack who stumbled upon GIG's stand at
the GDC and quickly improvised himself a writer to make
an undeserved buck or two.
Not so. I am a
barely-literate hack who stumbled upon GIG's stand at
the last GDC and jumped at the opportunity to finally
put his name on a regular byline after decades of
relentless effort.
You see, I started
writing bad short stories when I was about 8 years old,
and for years before that I improvised my own bedtime
stories (which, although hardly memorable, were at least
quite efficient at putting me to sleep.)
Therefore, when I started
designing games, I usually did it from a sort-of
literary standpoint, starting with a character and
weaving a story around him and his aspirations. Not a
very typical way to do things in a business where
starring characters don't even always rate a name, but
one that occasionally produces interesting results. So,
on the odd chance that some of you are desperate enough
to emulate my meager efforts, here are a few tips about
character-based game design.
So,
What's Your Story, Stranger?
Suspense derives from
conflict, and all conflict derives from character. If
you want to have an interesting story (and therefore an
interesting game), you must pit characters against
problems which matter to them.
Note that this doesn't
necessarily mean that the problems in question have to
be of earth-shattering importance to the population at
large. While saving the world from total annihilation is
as good a goal as any, it's not the only one worth
considering. (And it's not even enough to make a good
story, as a certain big-budget John Travolta sci-fi
debacle aptly demonstrated last summer.)
Here are a few perfectly
valuable goals and motivations which may seem trivial
compared to universal salvation, but which gave us some
of the most memorable characters in history:
- Eating. Can't
get much more basic than that. Still, Pac-Man came
out at a time when just about every game on the
market involved alien invaders and dashing heroes
risking their lives for the common good, and he's
the one who made history.
- Getting a date.
Leisure Suit Larry was a goofy sleazeball with
absolutely no redeeming qualities, but no one who
was of game-playing age in the mid to late 80s has
forgotten him.
- Catching the
perfect fish. Captain Ahab, anyone?
The lesson is clear: just
about anything can serve as the starting point for a
game, if used properly. But first, you need the perfect
character.
Tips
on Character Creation
A character is only
interesting if:
- He or she wants
something badly;
- And he or she can't
get it without a struggle.
This may be a physical
possession, a relationship, a state of mind, etc.
Anything is fair game.
How do you pick a problem
for a character? I use any number of methods, including
the following:
Trait vs Trait:
The character is torn between two (almost) equally
important goals, or a personal flaw makes it difficult
to achieve something he desires. The simplest case of
this dilemma is "duty vs survival", i.e., save
the hostages even at the risk of your life. Others
include "revenge vs lack of self-confidence"
(Hamlet), "social justice vs law" (Robin
Hood), etc.
Double-Edged Sword:
What makes your character a hero is also what threatens
to destroy him. For example, Superman simply has to
right every wrong, even when the odds are impossible and
Lex Luthor is waiting with a half-ton of kryptonite.
Biography:
Write a detailed background for the characters. Does he
have family, friends, a hidden secret? What kind of
trouble does he get into? What does he like or hate
about himself?
Player
Identification
A character-driven game
design must follow a simple rule:
Give
the player time to identify with the character before
the trouble begins.
Compare the two big
fights in the film Rocky. The first takes place
during the opening credits; the viewer may not even know
who the main character is by then, much less care about
him, so it doesn't matter to him, personally, whether
Rocky wins or not. The championship match against Apollo
Creed at the end of the film is an entirely different
story: by then, all but the most heartless of viewers
are pulling for Rocky to score the upset.
To facilitate player
identification, begin your game with a short, relatively
safe scene during which the player will gradually
achieve suspension of disbelief and
"mind-meld" with the character. A good way to
do this (and to justify the fact that the player doesn't
know what's going on) is to put the character in an
unfamiliar situation. In Half-Life, the game
begins with the hero's first day on a new job. In Diablo
II, the player character is a wandering adventurer
who hasn't been in the area for a long time. Do it
in-game as much as possible, because not all players
read manuals or watch FMV clips.
And then, once the player
invests himself in his character mind, body and soul,
let the fun begin.
Death:
A word to the wise: think long and hard before killing a
character once the player has developed an emotional
attachment. There's a reason why the "Quake
guy" doesn't even have a name: once you build a
rapport with a character, seeing him die becomes
unpleasant, even more so if he's your own
character. That doesn't mean that the player shouldn't worry
that he's going to die: in fact, if he's always afraid
that something just on the other side of the door might
whip his butt, but still manages to escape with his life
every time, you have reached the perfect balance!
Villains
Sometimes, you have
little control over what the player character will end
up like. For example, this is common in RPGs where much
of the gameplay relies on building the character out of
millions of combinations of weapons, skills and
attributes.Does this mean that you
must abandon the idea of a character-driven game? Not at
all. However, the villain may then become a
better choice of driver.
As a designer, villains
are interesting to fiddle with, because they are 100%
under your control. Just make sure not to fall into the
tired old cliché of a villain doing evil for evil's
sake ("I will destroy the world! MWAHAHAHAHA!")
In real life, even dictators and serial killers believe
that what they do is right. And quite frankly, what's
more scary: a mad scientist with a doomsday device, or a
political leader who calmly, seriously advocates
genocide?
The lesson: Spend as much
time giving motivations to your bad guys as to your
heroes!
Character and Plot
Character and plot go
hand in hand. Sometimes, the character pops into my head
first; other times, I come up with an interesting
situation and then devise a character who will fit into
it. But the rule is always the same:
Hit
where it hurts, and keep hitting.
If your character is
Leisure Suit Larry, and what he wants most out of life
is to score with heaps of bodacious babes, make him as
unattractive as possible and throw everything including
the kitchen sink at him to thwart his carnal desires.
Again, again, and again. Another example: If your
character is a shy, lazy Hobbit who only wants to be
left alone, shove him into a starring role in an
apocalyptic struggle between the forces of good and
evil. That'll teach him.
Be merciless: the worst
the obstacles, the sweeter the player's final victory.
The
Horizon Effect
Now that you have a
character and a problem, how do you build the game's
plot and create suspense?
One good way to do it is
to begin with a seemingly simple, safe situation which
the player thinks he can solve in a single playing
session. Then, just before he reaches the solution,
throw another, bigger problem at him. Push back the
ultimate solution just beyond the horizon, so that it
seems barely out of reach -- no matter how far away it
actually is.
Repeat as often as
needed: the key to suspense is to fool the player into
thinking that, this time, he's really going to solve the
game within the next 30 minutes.
Be careful: don't expand
the player's quest book too fast and too far, or he'll
get lost. Having 5-7 quests open at the same time can
quickly become confusing, especially if you ever need to
return to the game after a few days away.
Conclusion
The debate between
"game" and "story" isn't closed yet.
Many very good designers even believe that they are
incompatible.Still, human beings have
been telling and enjoying stories for thousands of
years. It would be a shame to give up on it now,
wouldn't it?
Bio
François-Dominic
Laramée is a freelance interactive game designer, developer and
producer. He has been involved in one form or another of the game
industry, whether PC, console, online, set-top box or even play-by-mail,
for the past decade, including more than 8 years of experience as Head
of Studio, Game Designer, Software Engineer, Producer and Quality
Assurance Manager in the interactive entertainment and spoken dialogue
interfaces industries. Learn more on his website at: http://pages.infinit.net/idjy/
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