In this 2014 GDC session, freelance writer Jeremy Bernstein dissects memorable characters in existing video games, address the unique challenges in establishing characters in games, and provide a framework for creating strong game characters that covers styles ranging from Portal to Dragon Age.
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11 replies to "Creating Strong Video Game Characters"
was looking for information on designing characters, as in, drawing them. found this by accident. loved it. fantastic food for thought here.
Your voice reminds me of Josh Tenenbaum and it’s blowing my mind
In this 2014 GDC session, freelance writer Jeremy Bernstein dissects memorable characters in existing video games, address the unique challenges in establishing characters in games, and provide a framework for creating strong game characters that covers styles ranging from Portal to Dragon Age.
well this just prompted me to replay Half-life 2 lol
I much prefer a silent protagonist no matter what this guy thinks. I can put whatever I want into his/her words when dealing with NPC's, could be grunts and nothing but grunts(My first Gordon sounded like an ape), sarcasm, wildly off topic rants followed by back to topic just before hitting the choice, or full on robotic down to business and only business. I the player headcanon the character and the character always matches the gameplay I choose to do. The character never ever says something that is out of character for the gameplay I am doing. Every voiced character I have played has said something completely different than how the character was played, every single one of them. Then you add dialogue choices… and do they match what was written and what was said and in the tone the player expected? Very rarely.
No matter what you cannot ever program every instance of what every human playing the game can create in their own head for dialogue. That is an impossible task. You can program the game to allow for every instance of what every human playing the game can create in their own head for dialogue by not adding dialogue to the protagonist… And that includes NPC reactions not matching the few words in the choice.
Doesn't the speaker contradicts himself when he says that a bad character is the one who is told to do something, but then if you return to his first slide where he lists types of protagonists, you realize that all of the protagonists in all of the listed games are told to do things.
BioWare games, Bethesda games, pretty much everything that isn't a sandbox game, characters get bossed around to do something for someone.
In Witcher games Geralt also follows orders, in KotOR 1 and 2, in Fallout games. Yes, some of these games don't have meaningful and impactful outcomes whatsoever, because those particular games are written with an illusion of choice, therefore nothing you decide matters, in other games you do have some amount of freedom but the end is the same – you get told to choose from a preset number of options.
So, I don't know, his definition of good/bad character is wrong. Maybe he confused it with player/character agency, and even then, that hardly matters in a linearly narrative games.
I still prefer silent protagonist lol
oh this helped me realize what's bothering me with Death Stranding. I've been playing for ~3h so far and I feel like the game keeps alternating between addressing me as if I'm either sam the character or me the character. on one hand I'm experienced delivery guy that seems to share history with people in Bridge organisation (Sam Proter, an established character I the player commandeer) and then it will switch and address me as if I'm an outsider who doesn't know anything about how stuff works around here (me, the player, interacting with the world through my avatar).
I don't mind the meta hints and explanations in form of on-screen text, but the fully voiced, in character dialogues explaining to Sam who his mother is w/o any clear in-world reason do bother me.
About "Last of Us"; I actually didn't experience any disunity of want or purpose at the end. I have a daughter who was close (enough) to Ellie's age, and part of the "feel" of the relationship resonated with me. I would have curb stumped every single living creature in that building to get her out, and fuck the world.
Just to say, that personal life experience goes a long way toward determining the difference between unity or disunity.
this was a great talk!
>Creating strong characters
>Narrative lead on the tryhard, "look MILLENNIALS we're HECKIN RELATABLE" Saint's Row reboot
Take this man's advice with a grain of salt.