Techniques for character development in games: Part 2 - Conversation, Critical situation
Hi Habr,
I continue to translate the article by Rafael Chandler on techniques that will help work out the characters in your games in more detail.
The first part of the article told us about the method of using Tarot cards to compile the past and future characters, which will largely determine their fate.
The second part relates to two techniques that will help you develop a motivation for your heroes and make them more interesting for a sophisticated player.
Continued under the cut:
')
Reception of the conversation is used to determine the vocabulary and speech patterns for most characters in your game. One of the ways that can help differentiate the main characters from each other, is the selection of words - the way we speak.
The choice of words can play a decisive role in the development of character's character - his essence. Key words or phrases, diction, accent, code phrases, sentence structure, profanation, even the number of dialogues can all describe to players the persona of the characters you create.
In order to pick up voices, record invented conversations between the main characters of your game. Explore how the characters speak in the hypothetical conversations that occur in the game world. However, using these conversations in the game itself is not worth it. This is just one of the design resources that you create, no need to use it in game dialogs. This is a written exercise, nothing more.
So, it makes no sense to describe the scene itself in detail in the text. You just want to write as if the two actors are talking about something significant in the context of your game world. Let them communicate as you write — first the voice of one character, then the voice of the second. Gradually, in the process of their conversation, you will begin to catch the difference. For a start, it is worth choosing characters who personify opposing philosophies, so that there is a disagreement between them.
Continuing to write, watch the voices of these two people. Focus on one hero in different conversations.
For example, you are working on a game that is happening in the world of Roman mythology. Plant Mars first for speaking with Jupiter, and then with Venus. Perhaps they will talk about how Venus's husband caught them together. Then land Mars with Mercury and so on. Once you feel the testosterone-driven god of war, switch from him to this shrew Venus. Is she really that bad? There is only one way to find out.
These dialogues should not be very long. After a few pages, you really need to feel how your characters behave in conversation. If this helps, instead of recording the conversation, you can play it live. Take a voice recorder and speak to the recording of the voices of the two main characters. Make sure no one is around when doing this. you do not need anyone to catch you on this (“Oh, I love you so much!” “I love you too! You are the most precious thing in my ... oh ... damn ... guys. I did not think that Some of you will come this weekend. Tell me, no one will find, by the hour, leverage cyanide capsules? ”). When you're done, listen to the recording or read what you have recorded. What phrases are repeated? What interlocutors have diction, style, vocabulary, accent?
Try to find associations. Don't worry about grammar or spelling while writing by hand. Keep writing, even if you don’t know what you are leading to. Yes, most of what you write will go to the trash. But you will hear voices coming through.
You may want to sit down with a marker and mark in the texts the key phrases that somehow cling to you. If you notice something interesting, worthy of attention, ask yourself where it came from. What in the nature of this particular character inspired precisely this phrase? Does this relate to where this hero lived or studied? If ideas come to you during this part of the process, write it down. Do not think that remember everything later. Do not remember. Write down everything.
At the end of the process, you will have an understanding of where your characters come from, which can later inspire you to create game scenes or game clips. It can also give you thoughts on the philosophical views of the characters and help identify the main conflicts that will form the basis of the game.
It is not necessary to choose two positive characters to talk. Some interesting conversations take place between good characters and villains. For example, a fascinating conversation took place between the characters of DeNiro and Pacino in the movie “Heat” . They talked about dreams, death and each other. This conversation, calm reasoning between the criminal and the detective in the coffee shop, foreshadowed the final scene of the entire film.
The conversation between the two positive heroes does not have to be smooth and friendly. Toward the end of the game Rainbow Six: Lockdown , two anti-terrorists are hotly debating on how to deal with a terrorist group against which they are fighting. Both operatives have the same goal, but they disagreed on how to behave in a critical, vital situation, and the heated differences between them lead to a tough quarrel about who will make the decision. This scene came from various conversations that I wrote for these two heroes.
A critical situation is used to describe the various reactions of characters to difficult circumstances. This is a kind of unsolvable dilemma, a hypothetical situation that appears in the world of the game that you create. This is a problem in which there is no lesser evil, there is no better choice. She personifies each character in a critical situation, which requires a decision, but this decision does not come easily.
Write a description of how each of the main characters in your game comes out of a predicament and what turns his choice for him.
Describe one such situation for each of the main characters in the game, be it a hero or a villain. Do not worry about how he should behave. Most of the most interesting moments in games occur when a supposedly heroic character is shown self-absorbed (for example, Wesker from the original Resident Evil ), or supposedly negative heroes show humanity and compassion (for example, Craymen in Panzer Dragoon Saga ).
It is not necessary that each of the invented situations had a happy end. you may wish that many such situations would end in a triumph of tragedy; It depends on the overall focus of your game. If you are working on a dark, serious game, then an unlucky ending is more appropriate. It is important that you understand why characters make one choice or another. Ask yourself, as you write the outcome for each scenario: well, what made the hero do that? Can he make serious mistakes in his judgments?
One of the biggest drawbacks of most games that have heroic characters is that the main characters are excellent in all respects. It kills the whole depth of the drama. If the heroes cannot be deceived, betrayed, or transcended, the drama becomes terribly boring. There is not the slightest threat, no chance that the hero will be surpassed. But if the characters are human-like and, accordingly, can make mistakes, they become more interesting.
Establish the reactions of most actors to problems and critical situations and take a closer look at how they react to situations where they suffer losses. Watch how they adapt. Of course, there is nothing such that some characters behave in the same way, but you definitely do not need them all to have the same reaction.
For example: in the invented game about super heroes "Justice League", one of the heroes (Ice Queen) stands in the way of the bus, but does not see it. She is preparing to shoot a plasma beam at the bank robbers and does not know that the bus goes directly to her. The driver of the bus itself had just pulled the brakes, but could not stop on time and Ice Queen would die if the bus knocked it down. On the other side of the street, the robbers just ran out of a bank with stolen money and one of them is going to shoot a hostage who hid behind their car.
The main character, endowed with super power, Bulletpoint marketing director, has a choice: to save a hostage or his partner. It is impossible to catch both places at the same time. The answer depends on the values ​​of a particular character.
If Bulletpoint believes that saving an innocent hostage first of all, the Ice Queen dies. However, he can believe that choosing the path of a super hero implies putting his life in danger again and again, realizing that sooner or later, luck will turn away. And that means that an innocent hostage is one whose life deserves to be saved in the first place.
Either, Bulletpoint has a strong sense of loyalty and saves the life of the Ice Queen, despite the fact that this could result in the death of a hostage. Or it saves her, because she believes that a living Ice Queen will be able to save hundreds (even thousands) of life in the end. So, saving his partner, he acts for good, and the life of an innocent is a necessary evil. Or maybe he saves Ice Queen because he is in love with her.
This process describes how Bulletpoint relates to its work, to people whose lives are saved and to their partners. It shows how he sees the world.
The scenario can continue even after the choice has been made and the incident has been settled. For example, after rescuing a hostage and losing his friend, Bulletpoint in a rage kills robbers. Or after rescuing the Ice Queen and, letting the innocent die, he decides to give up the fight against crime because of feelings of guilt.
This approach will help determine what drives your characters.
To be continued…
Any comments on the translation, grammar are welcome. Please send them to me in PM and I'll fix it. Your discussions on the subject are also very interesting to me.
I continue to translate the article by Rafael Chandler on techniques that will help work out the characters in your games in more detail.
The first part of the article told us about the method of using Tarot cards to compile the past and future characters, which will largely determine their fate.
The second part relates to two techniques that will help you develop a motivation for your heroes and make them more interesting for a sophisticated player.
Continued under the cut:
')
Conversation
Reception of the conversation is used to determine the vocabulary and speech patterns for most characters in your game. One of the ways that can help differentiate the main characters from each other, is the selection of words - the way we speak.
The choice of words can play a decisive role in the development of character's character - his essence. Key words or phrases, diction, accent, code phrases, sentence structure, profanation, even the number of dialogues can all describe to players the persona of the characters you create.
In order to pick up voices, record invented conversations between the main characters of your game. Explore how the characters speak in the hypothetical conversations that occur in the game world. However, using these conversations in the game itself is not worth it. This is just one of the design resources that you create, no need to use it in game dialogs. This is a written exercise, nothing more.
So, it makes no sense to describe the scene itself in detail in the text. You just want to write as if the two actors are talking about something significant in the context of your game world. Let them communicate as you write — first the voice of one character, then the voice of the second. Gradually, in the process of their conversation, you will begin to catch the difference. For a start, it is worth choosing characters who personify opposing philosophies, so that there is a disagreement between them.
Continuing to write, watch the voices of these two people. Focus on one hero in different conversations.
For example, you are working on a game that is happening in the world of Roman mythology. Plant Mars first for speaking with Jupiter, and then with Venus. Perhaps they will talk about how Venus's husband caught them together. Then land Mars with Mercury and so on. Once you feel the testosterone-driven god of war, switch from him to this shrew Venus. Is she really that bad? There is only one way to find out.
These dialogues should not be very long. After a few pages, you really need to feel how your characters behave in conversation. If this helps, instead of recording the conversation, you can play it live. Take a voice recorder and speak to the recording of the voices of the two main characters. Make sure no one is around when doing this. you do not need anyone to catch you on this (“Oh, I love you so much!” “I love you too! You are the most precious thing in my ... oh ... damn ... guys. I did not think that Some of you will come this weekend. Tell me, no one will find, by the hour, leverage cyanide capsules? ”). When you're done, listen to the recording or read what you have recorded. What phrases are repeated? What interlocutors have diction, style, vocabulary, accent?
Try to find associations. Don't worry about grammar or spelling while writing by hand. Keep writing, even if you don’t know what you are leading to. Yes, most of what you write will go to the trash. But you will hear voices coming through.
You may want to sit down with a marker and mark in the texts the key phrases that somehow cling to you. If you notice something interesting, worthy of attention, ask yourself where it came from. What in the nature of this particular character inspired precisely this phrase? Does this relate to where this hero lived or studied? If ideas come to you during this part of the process, write it down. Do not think that remember everything later. Do not remember. Write down everything.
At the end of the process, you will have an understanding of where your characters come from, which can later inspire you to create game scenes or game clips. It can also give you thoughts on the philosophical views of the characters and help identify the main conflicts that will form the basis of the game.
It is not necessary to choose two positive characters to talk. Some interesting conversations take place between good characters and villains. For example, a fascinating conversation took place between the characters of DeNiro and Pacino in the movie “Heat” . They talked about dreams, death and each other. This conversation, calm reasoning between the criminal and the detective in the coffee shop, foreshadowed the final scene of the entire film.
The conversation between the two positive heroes does not have to be smooth and friendly. Toward the end of the game Rainbow Six: Lockdown , two anti-terrorists are hotly debating on how to deal with a terrorist group against which they are fighting. Both operatives have the same goal, but they disagreed on how to behave in a critical, vital situation, and the heated differences between them lead to a tough quarrel about who will make the decision. This scene came from various conversations that I wrote for these two heroes.
Critical situation
A critical situation is used to describe the various reactions of characters to difficult circumstances. This is a kind of unsolvable dilemma, a hypothetical situation that appears in the world of the game that you create. This is a problem in which there is no lesser evil, there is no better choice. She personifies each character in a critical situation, which requires a decision, but this decision does not come easily.
Write a description of how each of the main characters in your game comes out of a predicament and what turns his choice for him.
Describe one such situation for each of the main characters in the game, be it a hero or a villain. Do not worry about how he should behave. Most of the most interesting moments in games occur when a supposedly heroic character is shown self-absorbed (for example, Wesker from the original Resident Evil ), or supposedly negative heroes show humanity and compassion (for example, Craymen in Panzer Dragoon Saga ).
It is not necessary that each of the invented situations had a happy end. you may wish that many such situations would end in a triumph of tragedy; It depends on the overall focus of your game. If you are working on a dark, serious game, then an unlucky ending is more appropriate. It is important that you understand why characters make one choice or another. Ask yourself, as you write the outcome for each scenario: well, what made the hero do that? Can he make serious mistakes in his judgments?
One of the biggest drawbacks of most games that have heroic characters is that the main characters are excellent in all respects. It kills the whole depth of the drama. If the heroes cannot be deceived, betrayed, or transcended, the drama becomes terribly boring. There is not the slightest threat, no chance that the hero will be surpassed. But if the characters are human-like and, accordingly, can make mistakes, they become more interesting.
Establish the reactions of most actors to problems and critical situations and take a closer look at how they react to situations where they suffer losses. Watch how they adapt. Of course, there is nothing such that some characters behave in the same way, but you definitely do not need them all to have the same reaction.
For example: in the invented game about super heroes "Justice League", one of the heroes (Ice Queen) stands in the way of the bus, but does not see it. She is preparing to shoot a plasma beam at the bank robbers and does not know that the bus goes directly to her. The driver of the bus itself had just pulled the brakes, but could not stop on time and Ice Queen would die if the bus knocked it down. On the other side of the street, the robbers just ran out of a bank with stolen money and one of them is going to shoot a hostage who hid behind their car.
The main character, endowed with super power, Bulletpoint marketing director, has a choice: to save a hostage or his partner. It is impossible to catch both places at the same time. The answer depends on the values ​​of a particular character.
If Bulletpoint believes that saving an innocent hostage first of all, the Ice Queen dies. However, he can believe that choosing the path of a super hero implies putting his life in danger again and again, realizing that sooner or later, luck will turn away. And that means that an innocent hostage is one whose life deserves to be saved in the first place.
Either, Bulletpoint has a strong sense of loyalty and saves the life of the Ice Queen, despite the fact that this could result in the death of a hostage. Or it saves her, because she believes that a living Ice Queen will be able to save hundreds (even thousands) of life in the end. So, saving his partner, he acts for good, and the life of an innocent is a necessary evil. Or maybe he saves Ice Queen because he is in love with her.
This process describes how Bulletpoint relates to its work, to people whose lives are saved and to their partners. It shows how he sees the world.
The scenario can continue even after the choice has been made and the incident has been settled. For example, after rescuing a hostage and losing his friend, Bulletpoint in a rage kills robbers. Or after rescuing the Ice Queen and, letting the innocent die, he decides to give up the fight against crime because of feelings of guilt.
This approach will help determine what drives your characters.
To be continued…
Any comments on the translation, grammar are welcome. Please send them to me in PM and I'll fix it. Your discussions on the subject are also very interesting to me.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/217099/
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