Techniques for character development in games: Part 1 - Tarot
Good day. I would like to acquaint you, dear reader, with the translation of one entertaining article, which I came across recently while working on the plot of my game.
Character development is needed in many games. Even if the plot is linear and does not foreshadow sharp turns. When in the game a lot of faceless NPCs perform absolutely predictable actions to the accompaniment of predictable dialogues, then there can be no talk of anything atmospheric. Even worse, when the main violin in your orchestra is nothing more than a set of well-established clichés. The next article is a quick guide to building characters in games and I hope that it will help many.
The first part of the article will introduce you to the associative approach using tarot cards.
')
As games become more mature and sophisticated, expectations for the product continue to increase. These expectations relate to graphics, music and plot. The plot itself is the result of character development: what happens to the character at the time, as different events occur around him.
In itself, character development will not make the gameplay of your game better, but it can create a better experience ( note the translator for the player) as it allows you to hone a more developed context, and immerse the player in a world that he can explore.
It is unlikely that you can find a review on an adventure game or, say, a shooter without the slightest mention of the plot, dialogues or characters. What is the attitude to the characters? Are they well developed? Are they interesting? This has turned into an expectation, an industry norm. Cliches and stereotypes are unacceptable.
As a result, these well-designed characters will come into contact with the audience and immerse the player in an elaborate fantasy world. I am not talking only about heroic fiction. These techniques are applicable to a wide range of game genres. In all cases, we create a world that the player can explore and learn. However, this illusion can easily be broken by an uninspiring story or characters.
The final reason to consider the development of characters in the development process of the game itself is that these characters can become the personification of the brand. There are many characters whose names are synonymous with their own media franchises , for example, Master Chief and Samus Aran.
In this article, we will discuss several methods that can be applied during preproduction to help you with answers to questions regarding the characters of your game.
These methods are a means to an end and can be used by the writer or designer responsible for the plot elements. By themselves, these techniques will not create strong characters. This is the work of the writer on your project. But they are indicative signs on your way, because they will help the writer to create more believable, versatile characters.
Try these exercises during preproduction, as part of the process of creating your heroes. Using these techniques you will open the doors and start a dialogue; This is a form of Brainstorm. If you start from scratch, you get a bunch of stronger ideas as a result.
These techniques pose specific questions in relation to your characters. But under the characters, I do not mean all one hundred characters in the game. We are talking about the main characters, those with whom the players will intersect, or will have emotional contact with them (admiration, hatred, joy). These techniques belong to characters that must be fully developed actors in your game world. They are designed to answer questions about personal qualities that will later form game dialogues or in-game video.
The methods we consider are as follows: Tarot deck, critical situation, conversation, network of characters.
Tarot is a deck of cards with symbolic pictures on each card. There are many options for decks, some of them originate in the XV century. Traditionally, cards are used by soothsayers to see the future by arranging maps according to various schemes. Some people think that cards allow psychics to predict the future, while others think that the characters on the cards personify subconscious beliefs or that the meaning comes from the random matching of images, causing sudden insights. Still others consider it nonsense.
Used during the initial phase of development, the tarot deck can help you create more self-sufficient characters. After all, Tarot is only an associative tool. Think of it as a starting point, a Rorschach test from which you can draw inspiration. You will need a deck of cards that you can buy or make yourself. Tarot is sold in gaming and hobby stores. If you want to make your deck, then on the Internet there are many options for decks.
Before you interfere with the deck and deal the cards, you should familiarize yourself with the symbols and their meanings. For example, according to some, the Tower means a drop in pride or doom. The magician symbolizes some kind of divine holding, the Star - hope and immortality, etc.
After preparing the list of characters and their meanings, distribute several cards for each of the main characters in your game. Consider the symbols and the sequence of their appearance for each case.
For example, you are working on a game in the science fiction genre. One of your characters is a scientist named Lennic. We distribute three cards to it and get the Star (hope / immortality), Magician (divine holding) and the Tower (fall of pride / doom). So, if we consider the symbolic meaning of these cards, we can agree on the following: hope, divine holding, the fall of pride.
Perhaps Lenniks sees technology as the last hope of humanity, a way for people to go beyond their pettiness and fanaticism. Through science, he hopes to accelerate the evolution of people, pushing us to the level of higher intelligence. This venture ends in failure, and as a result, his pride suffers. Perhaps his experiments ended in death (or worse), or it was revealed and expelled. So Lennix is guided by guilt. He knows what he wanted to accomplish, and perhaps he felt that he was wrong, and he learned this lesson. Or he feels that he was broken, but continues his experiments in secret.
Reading maps in a different order gives different results. Let's say we distributed the Tower, the Magician and the Star. In this light, Lennix may have experienced some personal grief — a catastrophe that caused him much suffering. He has lost his faith in science, but has acquired a different faith - religion, magic or unity with nature, or something else - and now he believes that there is still hope. Foolish fool, there really is no hope.
Consider what the cards are responsible for and whether this interpretation fits the game you are developing. As the cards converge, think about the personal qualities of the characters you visualize, and ask if they really fit. If you like the characters themselves, but the order does not fit, you can change it, as in the example above. Take a closer look, which of the options suits you best.
An alternative is to create your own Tarot deck, based only on the iconography of the deck. This is not an innovation - TS Eliot quickly and freely played Tarot cards for his poem "Barren Land", as well as Stephen King in the stories of "The Dark Tower". You can try to create your own deck of archetypes, each with its own set of symbols.
To be continued...
Part 2 - Conversation, Critical Situation
Actually a link to the original.
I would be grateful for any feedback regarding the translation.
Character development is needed in many games. Even if the plot is linear and does not foreshadow sharp turns. When in the game a lot of faceless NPCs perform absolutely predictable actions to the accompaniment of predictable dialogues, then there can be no talk of anything atmospheric. Even worse, when the main violin in your orchestra is nothing more than a set of well-established clichés. The next article is a quick guide to building characters in games and I hope that it will help many.
The first part of the article will introduce you to the associative approach using tarot cards.
')
Why do you need to think about the development of character characters in games?
As games become more mature and sophisticated, expectations for the product continue to increase. These expectations relate to graphics, music and plot. The plot itself is the result of character development: what happens to the character at the time, as different events occur around him.
In itself, character development will not make the gameplay of your game better, but it can create a better experience ( note the translator for the player) as it allows you to hone a more developed context, and immerse the player in a world that he can explore.
It is unlikely that you can find a review on an adventure game or, say, a shooter without the slightest mention of the plot, dialogues or characters. What is the attitude to the characters? Are they well developed? Are they interesting? This has turned into an expectation, an industry norm. Cliches and stereotypes are unacceptable.
As a result, these well-designed characters will come into contact with the audience and immerse the player in an elaborate fantasy world. I am not talking only about heroic fiction. These techniques are applicable to a wide range of game genres. In all cases, we create a world that the player can explore and learn. However, this illusion can easily be broken by an uninspiring story or characters.
The final reason to consider the development of characters in the development process of the game itself is that these characters can become the personification of the brand. There are many characters whose names are synonymous with their own media franchises , for example, Master Chief and Samus Aran.
In this article, we will discuss several methods that can be applied during preproduction to help you with answers to questions regarding the characters of your game.
What is this technology?
These methods are a means to an end and can be used by the writer or designer responsible for the plot elements. By themselves, these techniques will not create strong characters. This is the work of the writer on your project. But they are indicative signs on your way, because they will help the writer to create more believable, versatile characters.
Try these exercises during preproduction, as part of the process of creating your heroes. Using these techniques you will open the doors and start a dialogue; This is a form of Brainstorm. If you start from scratch, you get a bunch of stronger ideas as a result.
These techniques pose specific questions in relation to your characters. But under the characters, I do not mean all one hundred characters in the game. We are talking about the main characters, those with whom the players will intersect, or will have emotional contact with them (admiration, hatred, joy). These techniques belong to characters that must be fully developed actors in your game world. They are designed to answer questions about personal qualities that will later form game dialogues or in-game video.
The methods we consider are as follows: Tarot deck, critical situation, conversation, network of characters.
Tarot deck
Tarot is a deck of cards with symbolic pictures on each card. There are many options for decks, some of them originate in the XV century. Traditionally, cards are used by soothsayers to see the future by arranging maps according to various schemes. Some people think that cards allow psychics to predict the future, while others think that the characters on the cards personify subconscious beliefs or that the meaning comes from the random matching of images, causing sudden insights. Still others consider it nonsense.
Used during the initial phase of development, the tarot deck can help you create more self-sufficient characters. After all, Tarot is only an associative tool. Think of it as a starting point, a Rorschach test from which you can draw inspiration. You will need a deck of cards that you can buy or make yourself. Tarot is sold in gaming and hobby stores. If you want to make your deck, then on the Internet there are many options for decks.
Before you interfere with the deck and deal the cards, you should familiarize yourself with the symbols and their meanings. For example, according to some, the Tower means a drop in pride or doom. The magician symbolizes some kind of divine holding, the Star - hope and immortality, etc.
After preparing the list of characters and their meanings, distribute several cards for each of the main characters in your game. Consider the symbols and the sequence of their appearance for each case.
For example, you are working on a game in the science fiction genre. One of your characters is a scientist named Lennic. We distribute three cards to it and get the Star (hope / immortality), Magician (divine holding) and the Tower (fall of pride / doom). So, if we consider the symbolic meaning of these cards, we can agree on the following: hope, divine holding, the fall of pride.
Perhaps Lenniks sees technology as the last hope of humanity, a way for people to go beyond their pettiness and fanaticism. Through science, he hopes to accelerate the evolution of people, pushing us to the level of higher intelligence. This venture ends in failure, and as a result, his pride suffers. Perhaps his experiments ended in death (or worse), or it was revealed and expelled. So Lennix is guided by guilt. He knows what he wanted to accomplish, and perhaps he felt that he was wrong, and he learned this lesson. Or he feels that he was broken, but continues his experiments in secret.
Reading maps in a different order gives different results. Let's say we distributed the Tower, the Magician and the Star. In this light, Lennix may have experienced some personal grief — a catastrophe that caused him much suffering. He has lost his faith in science, but has acquired a different faith - religion, magic or unity with nature, or something else - and now he believes that there is still hope. Foolish fool, there really is no hope.
Consider what the cards are responsible for and whether this interpretation fits the game you are developing. As the cards converge, think about the personal qualities of the characters you visualize, and ask if they really fit. If you like the characters themselves, but the order does not fit, you can change it, as in the example above. Take a closer look, which of the options suits you best.
An alternative is to create your own Tarot deck, based only on the iconography of the deck. This is not an innovation - TS Eliot quickly and freely played Tarot cards for his poem "Barren Land", as well as Stephen King in the stories of "The Dark Tower". You can try to create your own deck of archetypes, each with its own set of symbols.
To be continued...
Part 2 - Conversation, Critical Situation
Actually a link to the original.
I would be grateful for any feedback regarding the translation.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/216711/
All Articles