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The Making of a Hero
William Anderson
Ever
wonder what makes a great hero character for a video game? If so, then
sit back for a wild ride into the creative design process behind The
Making of a Hero.
Game heroes come in all shapes and sizes. From a medieval knight to a
pistol-packing debutante to an earthworm with a robotic suit they all
have one thing in common: they are our video game heroes.
Good or bad, short or ugly, the hero design for your product must be
right on target if you want to establish a following for your character.
A following for a successful game character can pay off in very
profitable ways, and not just in the interactive entertainment field.
This is not a task to be taken lightly. If it were easy to establish
such a hero every one would be doing it, but there are some basic steps
you can take to guide you down the right road.
To start, you should know that there are a number of primary approaches
to the development of an interactive entertainment product that guide
you in the creation of your hero. These are Character Centered Design
and World Centered Design, both are valid approaches to product
depending on the target concept.
Here is a simple explanation of each:
Character Centered Design. This is where the designer of the
product focuses everything in the game around the lead player character
of the game or a combination of characters like those found in 2D/3D
platform games and role-playing games.
Character Feature Designs. Found in 3D shooter games, these
products use the environment primarily for navigation and protection.
Finding the next great weapon or power-up for your character is the main
goal. You will rarely find a player becoming personally attached to the
Player Characters in these
games as they have a bad habit of getting blown up all the time.
World Centered Design. When the uniqueness of the game play
environment is more important than the lead character. Most of these
games are primarily puzzle-based concept where you navigate a basic
character with simple movements around an ever increasing complex series
of levels.
Although some game designers have attempted to mix some of these
different approaches, it often leads to disaster. Not because their
ideas or games aren't any good, but because there are established
markets for games that have been around for many years. This creates a
following of game players who expect a certain style of product with
established norms in how they work. If you break too far from the basic
expectations, you lose your audience and, most likely, a sale.
Unfortunately, some designers who are just starting out in this field
get extremely frustrated with marketing people because they have a great
idea for a game but can't even get it to first base. This is often
because marketing managers are like surfers, always riding the waves of
the established norms in the market -- they know if they break from that
wave in a totally new direction they could fall and fall hard. This, of
course, is not to say you should not try to establish a new wave of your
own, just try to take smaller steps which is generally more successful
then jumping in with both feet into a totally unknown direction.
Remember that just like in any business, large successes come from
building on smaller ones. For purposes of this article we will focus on Character Centered
Design, primarily because it is the one most widely used in today's
game concepts.
First, the whole idea behind Character Centered Design is that you and I
as game players will be focusing most of the time during game play on
and around the Player Character and his/her/its abilities and
personality. Therefore, all of the gameplay, from level mechanics to
monster designs, will focus around the unique design, abilities and
non-abilities of your lead player character.
Your design layout for this character
must be extremely tight in all areas. Like a keystone in a building, all
of the weight above rests on its strengths. Keeping this always in mind,
there are a number of key tasks to tackle when laying out the design for
your hero character, the following is a list of key tasks in order of
importance:
Looks. Looks are important in a number of ways. While not
necessarily physically attractive, there should be a uniqueness of the
character when placed next to all of the other lead player characters
out there. As a good friend once told me, "You're going to be
looking at this character for a very long time so it better be a
great!"
A good example of this was when I bumped into a designer a few years
back at a game show. He told me that when a certain well-known company
was working on an upcoming 3D Action Adventure game for the PSX they had
a meeting to discus what the lead character might look like. Someone
stepped up with the comment, "I don't know about you but if I have
to look at the back side of a character all the time it better be an
beautiful lady!" By this one simple comment video game history was
made and millions where made in the process.
And they were right on the money with the character design, if you just
think about the concept they were working on: a two-fisted shooter game
that would automatically fall right into the male 14+ category. But
could they have failed with this approach? Yes, if the character design
was weak or if some of the other items below were not balanced
correctly. (As we have seen with many copycat product that tried and
failed).
Movement Abilities. The movement and basic abilities of the hero
character are two of the most critical features of any game product. The
entire idea behind playing a video game is to give the player the
ability to control a character in a unique world. The easier it is to
use, the more satisfying the playing experience. I can't count how many
games I've seen that had every thing going for them but the basic
movement controls were just so bad that players just walked away,
without looking back.
This aspect is sometimes hard for a lead designer or product manager to
deal with -- if the programming
or animation staff just don't have the knack for putting smooth
movements into their work you are in trouble. Not to be underestimated,
this is a very special skill for both programmers and the artists to
pull off
seamlessly and in such a way to avoid bogging down the game with
unneeded code delays or animation frames.
Action Abilities. The action abilities are all of the special
things the hero character can do in the game. From combat, climbing a
rope, to pulling a lever on a wall these must follow the same rules as
the Movement Abilities, while also adding depth to the global gameplay.
By depth, I mean adding a basic toolbox of things the hero can do
throughout the game and adding to them as needed, while also pacing
these gained abilities throughout the product to give the player time to
adapt and learn. This will ultimately add a lot of uniqueness to your
concept and make the player want more.
With this you should also keep in mind that players -- especially action
game players -- get bored very
quickly if things aren't changing fast enough. This is why pacing out
rewards such as added action abilities, power-ups, treasures and secrets
throughout the game are vital to keeping players involved with the play.
Don't Over Simplify. Designers and Project Managers are under a
great deal of pressure these days to make every feature in the game so
simple that everyone on the production team and in marketing can play it
easily. Just say no! Game players are not created equally and neither is
gameplay. Remember the old expression "If you design a product to
please everyone, you've made a product that pleases no one!"
There should be a learning curve to gained abilities, while keep the
basic movements and abilities down to established norms in design. In
this way a player can dive into the game quickly but must advance his or
her knowledge to move to higher levels and greater depths of play. This
will automatically build Satisfaction into your product and that will
bring them back for more!
Weaknesses. Weaknesses are simply what can and can't hurt or
restrain the play during the game. This must be consistent with the
norms in design for this concept and consistent with your concept.
There are 2 basic norms you will need to follow when designing your
product:
1: The established gameplay norms of the similar successful games.
2: The norms you will establish and train the player in for your game.
As you may know, while designing a game, you will have to layout a
number of rules for your hero and the product that, once established you
should never break. If you do, the player will not be able to establish
for himself the dos and don'ts in your product and that will lead to
frustration.
Also, never establish a rule in one level or world and break it
in another. I know this is just common sense, but I've seen a number of
designers play this Joker Card and it has lead to their game CD becoming
a coaster for a soda can.
Enhancements. Player character enhancements and rewards are
totally expected in every game concept. From gaining a new weapon,
finding treasures and armor, to items that give the player the ability
to gain access to other locked off areas of the game like keys, these
items build life or what I like to call Draw into a product.
Why is Draw important? With some type of draw mechanism you as a
designer will have an extremely hard time enticing the player into
taking chances, and this is what gameplay is all about. Think of it this
way, the two most basic human emotions that we as designers must work
with and master in product development are simply Pleasure and Pain.
And in this there are also rules.
The first of which are the expected rules that were established by all
the successful games that have come before yours, and the others are
very simple:
1: The interface and controls should not interfere with game play.
2: I will not be punished arbitrarily.
3: I will be rewarded in an equal way for learning and overcoming
obstacles.
4: There should be an intuitive or logical solution to any challenge or
situation.
5: Basic instinctual human dangers should be valid! For example fire and
sharp object will always be avoided by natural human instinct unless
there is a clear understanding why not.
There are other branches of rules that you will discover as you go but
these are the most basic five. Remember that we all want pleasure and
will do anything to avoid pain, and by balancing these out in a fair way
we create a challenging world to which we escape.
If you follow the right steps it's not hard to make a unique and
compelling Hero for your game, but it's critical that you take your time
and work out as many details as possible before designing your world
around him, her or it.
If you need more help defining the Hero for your concept then I would
grab some paper, sit down with a number of good games and simply
document all that you can about how they work. List the number of
different moves, command controls, and as many of the thing above we
talked about.
Remember that your continued design education, outside of GIGNEWS, is on
the screen of every game you play, including the bad ones. All you have
to do is reduce what you see down to all of the key elements and think
about why the designer might have done things that way.
Bio
William Anderson is currently President
of Eagle Claw, Inc. a Game Development and Consulting Company. He has
been designing Interactive Entertainment products for over 20
years. Just a few of his notable accomplishments include Senior
Designer on Maximo for the Sony Playstation 2, Senior Designer on
the multiple award winning game Aladdin for the Sega Genesis,
Designer of Cool Spot and Global Gladiators. He was also
responsible for the original gameplay design for Abe's Oddysee for the
Sony Playstation. You can contact Mr. Anderson at
MagicByDzn@Hotmail.com. |
