HTML Injection Attacks: Impact and Mitigation Strategies
Character design
1. FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME
PLAY
Game Character Design Development
Instructor:
Sayed Ahmed
B.Sc. Eng. in CSc. & Eng.
M.Sc. in CSc.
Consultant
Just E.T.C Tech. Inc.
sayed@justEtc.net
3. INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Characters, and hence character design is an
important part of telling stories or evoking
an emotional response
The characters we play with and interact
with
make us believe the game world
Heroes, villains, innocents in distress, and
bystanders
without these characters the game will be
an empty shell
4. TOPICS
How to design compelling and believable
characters
Characteristics of the avatar character
Player Designed
Built-in
Gender specific character design
Common game stereotypes that you should avoid
Attributes associated with the character
Visual
Behavioral
Audible
Use these attributes to design your own character
5. TOPICS
Design Strategy
Art driven
Story Driven
Importance of good audio design for your characters
6. GOALS OF CHARACTER DESIGN
Game Play of many games center around the
characters
All of the following types of games use characters
to entertain
Action (fighting, platform)
Adventure Games
Action Adventure hybrids
Role Playing
Players usually feel for well designed characters
to
Identify with
Care about
Heroes to cheer about….villains to boo
7. GOALS OF CHARACTER DESIGN
Best games include characters that are neither
heroes nor villains
Appeal of the character is important
Not necessarily have to be attractive in conventional sense
But everything should fit to define him/her, and the role
Disharmonious elements can be used to introduce humor
http://www.mariowiki.com/Conker_%28series%29
Characters should have a personality and it should not be
broken
An evil ghost character should not feel sorry for babies
Avatar characters have an extra burden
The player should associate him with the avatar
8. Customers identify games with their characters
Games take their names from the characters
You can use the characters in books, movies, TV series, in toys, t-shirts
Even the Villain should be appealing
Players should believe in them – Darth Vader
10. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLAYER AND
AVATAR
The game character that acts as the protagonist of the
player
Most action and action adventure games provide only
one Avatar
Role playing games –
the player may be associated with multiple characters.
However, if there is a key character whose death leads to
defeat then he is the Avatar
Avatar may be the most displayed character
May need most animation
The animation should be smoothest for the avatar
don’t annoy the player (it’s him)
Movements must be attractive
12. PLAYER DESIGNED AVATARS
Most games predefine the Avatar
In some games esp. multiplayer role playing
games
the games allow the players to create their own
Avatars
Define: Sex, body type, hair, eye, color, strength, dexterity
For example: Lord of the Rings
In such cases, as a designer you do not create the
avatars but you give tools to create
The more and better tool you can provide to define the
physical as well as personality attributes – the more players
will like it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxfO9_pQhCg
13. SPECIFIC AND NON-SPECIFIC
AVATARS
Non-specific
Myst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIRtutbSwak
Not defined by the designer
No visual appearance
No defined personality
Designers did not specify about them
Half life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKg3TUPQ8Sg
14. SPECIFIC AND NON-SPECIFIC
AVATARS
Designers found non-specific to be limiting
They wanted to give some personality and visual
appearance of the Avatar
Modern games
use detailed characters with
Histories
Personalities
Of their own
Partially characterized – games with less or
without stories
The avatar – sort of cartoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olug8C2-hfo
Many avatars in action games
15. SPECIFIC AND NON-SPECIFIC
AVATARS
Also depends how the player controls them
As a guide
Be them
But do not care about their feelings as they are partially
defined
16. MALE AND FEMALE CHARACTERS
It is believed that male players will not want to
play female characters
Tomb Raider – Lara Croft:
Later found as long as the actions are men like – men don’t
mind
Females are usually ok to play with male avatars
However, females at one point get tired
and want to play with female avatars and with feminism
activities
Females don’t like
Blood Rayne: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_96uIcT34I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BloodRayne
Silent hill
17. MALE AND FEMALE CHARACTERS
Males do not associate them with avatars
Females do
Women tend to see avatars as an extension to
their own personality
You may want to give more options to define and
express
You may have more male or female avatars and
provide different story lines
Costly and complicated to implement
18. HOW TO DESIGN YOUR AVATAR
CHARACTER
Think how you want the player to relate him to
the avatar
Non specific?
Partially specific? Players sees but knows a little
about – no inner life
Fully specified avatar
Separate from the player, an individual with a personality
of his own – psychological and visual detail – how much will
he talk
More talk…more intelligent (may vary culture to culture)
Gordon freeman never talks (player)
Mario Lara croft don’t talk much (representatives of the
player)
April Ryan talks a lot (a person on his own right)
19. HOW TO DESIGN YOUR AVATAR
CHARACTER
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20. HOW TO DESIGN YOUR AVATAR
CHARACTER
Think how the player will control the avatar
Direct/indirect
Indirect:
Is distinctly someone else with a mind of his own
Direct
A puppet
Find the right balance
Create avatars that players like with bravery,
intelligence
Worst: avatar with qualities that the players
actively dislike
21. HOW TO DESIGN YOUR AVATAR
CHARACTER
Final Fantasy Viii
Bad avatar
Designers like to create semi specific characters
Zelda series
22. VISUAL APPEARANCES
Aside from nonspecific avatar based games, you
need to display the avatar
The way the characters look like has an
enormous effect on the player
Art Driven
Cartoon Like. Define characters by defining the
visual appearance, works well if the personality of
the character is not complex, does not change much,
good for other media
Story driven
Visual and behavioral design techniques
23. CHARACTER PHYSICAL TYPES
Humanoids, Non-humanoids, and Hybrids
Voice or animated objects
Cartoon like Qualities
Cool
Never get too upset, rebellious attitude towards authority, wit
than body force. Ratchet & clank. Game actions fast and
focused
Tough
Exemplify physical aggression. Usually male except Lara croft.
Exaggerated height and bulk. Large expansive gestures
Ryu from street fighter
Cute
Portions with human or animal babies. Large eyes oversized
head surrounded body, dress with colors. Jumping wide gaps,
climbing long ropes, firing large weapons
Goofy
Odd proportions and funny looking
24. CHARACTER PHYSICAL TYPES
Cartoon characters vary across cultures
Japan: large eyes tiny mouths
Americans find European cartoons to be ugly
Hyper sexualized Characters
Exaggerating the sexual attributes of Men and
Women to make them more sexually appealing at
least to the teenagers
Male: extra broad chest, and shoulders, huge
muscles, prominent jaws, oversized hands and feet
Kratos, God of War Games
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider hyper sexualized women
25. CLOTHING, WEAPONS, SYMBOLIC OBJECTS, AND
NAMES
Set clothing to set him/her apart
Do not add too many distinctive visual features
Two or three are enough
You can give your characters distinct names as
well
26. COLOR PALETTE
Lara Croft – tealed colored shirt
Superman wears red
Batman black
Choose your palette to reflect your character’s
attitude and emotional temperament
27. SIDEKICKS
A tough hero may travel with a cute sidekick
To provide some variety
Also, comic relief
Allow you to give the player additional moves and
actions
would not fit in a single character
Extend the emotional range of the game
Provide the hero with valuable information – that he
may not be able to get anyway…
Jack and Daxter
Ratchet and Clank
Legend of Zelda, ocarina of time
31. CHARACTER DEPTH
How the characters look has a significant effect on the
player
The look conveys a lot of information about him
However, the look only cannot convey all information
The look cannot define
how he will act in different situations,
what will be her general behavior,
how will he interact with the core mechanics of the game
Hence, you have to add personality to the character
Story driven character design is helpful here
Here you define the personality first then you go to
design/draw the character – so the character fits well
SSX Tricky – snowboarding game
Can make friends, chose friends and enemies – affect the game
play a lot
33. ROLE ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
Every character plays a role
The moment a character comes into the scene the
player wants to know about him….
voice and appearance can be ok for minor
characters
Major characters need richer personalities
To design them
List many questions
Answer them
Create character background form for each
character
34. ROLE ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
Attributes
Where was the character born
Family life as a kid
His education
His job
His finances
Favorite food
Worst thing
How does he treat friends
Try to imagine how he will behave in a variety of
situations
35. ROLE ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
Then think how they will manifest themselves into
the game story
Say if a character is a little dishonest but not a villain
– how will you propagate this to the players
Show rather than tell
But how?
Players like interaction – not to sit idle and watch the
character
Appearance, language, behavior
Appearance and language quickly defines a character but
can create stereotypes
Establishing through behavior takes long
You must give the player the opportunity to observe the
characters’ actions.
36. ATTRIBUTES
Status Attributes
Changes Continually
Hit points/health (Dungeon and Dragon)
Characterization Attributes
Constitution: the character's overall degree of hardness and
resistance to change
Does not change much
Recent Games
Model social relationships and emotional states
Sims – simulating the behavior of people living in a suburban
neighborhood
Defined some characterization attributes called Sims
Some status attributes like hunger, comfort hygiene
Conflicting Sims won’t get along
Game
Direct them to perform the activities
Happiness level increase or decrease
37. CHARACTER DIMENSIONALITY
Two dimensional characters
Movies, books
Not very interesting
Does not grow or change
Doesn’t feel fully human
Character Classification
0 to 3 dimensional
Discussed in light of the Lord of the Ring
Zero Dimensional:
Display only discrete emotional states
Emotional states never moves smoothly
No concept of mixed feelings
Orcs : hate and fear – only two emotions
Make the characters look like comics
Bugs bunny, Sylvester, change instantly from one extreme
to another
38. ONE DIMENSIONAL
Only one variable to characterize a changing
feeling
Largely fixed
Dwarf Gimli
Hostile and suspicious to elves
Later grows respects
39. TWO DIMENSIONAL
Are described by multiple variables that express
their impulses
Those impulses do not conflict
Orthogonal – no emotional ambiguity
Denethor – strong emotions – pride, contempt,
despair
Never faces moral dilemma
Duty and tradition trump all other
considerations
40. THREE DIMENSIONAL
Multiple emotional states that can produce
conflicting impulses
Distresses and confuses them
Cause them to behave inconsistently
Froodo, gollam
April Ryan, longest journey
Three dimensional are welcomed
Makes game industry more of an art form
41. CHARACTER GROWTH
If the game is not just about being episodes
But
Aspires to be more than a simple adventure
Seeks to have a meaningful story
Then characters must grow
Types of Growth
Action Games
New moves and new power ups
Mental state does not change
Adventure Games
Allow both personal and emotional growth
Role Playing Games
See character growth as a major challenge
Offer several dimension of growth
Personal
Skill – magic weapon
-
42. HOW TO PROVIDE CHARACTER
GROWTH
Decide which characters will grow
How they will grow
Physically – easy – abilities power
intellectually, morally, emotionally
How will you implement?
Change in the numeric or symbolic attributes
Change in the plot of the story
How the growth will affect the game play
How will you present it to the player
43. OPTIONS
Display numbers in the screen
Change character appearance
Chang the action available
Change to mature language and behavior
44. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Archetypes play a standard role in a story
They are not necessarily individual character
A single character can play multiple roles
Carefully think about which ones to use in your
games and when to use them
45. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Hero
Center of the story
Players avatar
Has one or more outer problems
Hero can also have an inner problem (flaw or dark
secret)
Story tells how hero overcomes these
Stories are about conflict and how to resolve it
Player must identify with the hero
Hero’s goals must become the players goals
Hero can be an anti-hero
Hero can be a team of individuals
E.g. in RPG games
The players plays one or multiple of them
46. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Mentor
Guides the hero/player
Wise man,
supernatural aid,
inner voice, ...
Sometimes the mentor can give bad advise
Hero/player must decide what is the good advise
47. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Higher self
The way the hero wants to be
Object of the game can be to become this (although
not explicitly)
Threshold guardian
Prevents progress of the hero until he has proven his
worth
Doubt in the hero’s mind
Warnings by a mentor
End of level boss
48. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Allies
Those that help the hero
Shadow
The main enemy that must be defeated
The ultimate evil
Does not have to be a character
Sometimes more important than the hero
Can be very present or hidden until the end
49. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Shape shifter
Changes form/role in the story
For example, ally becomes a shadow, or mentor
becomes a shadow
Often important for the plot twist
50. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Trickster
Neutral character that creates mischief
Can be a sidekick
Adds some comic relief
Can take the form of
puzzles in games
51. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Herald
Propels story in a different direction
Can be a simple message
Angle (Mother)
Heals the hero
Father
Gives good advise and stimulates the hero
52. CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
Within the next couple of minutes
Read the story again
Find the characters that represent the following
archetypes
Hero
Allies
Herald
Shadow
Threshold Guardian
Mother
53. AUDIO DESIGN
Character design also involves
Sound effects
Language
The sounds a character makes tell us something
about her personality
Sound – injury death
Sound design- psychological expectation
Deep : slow and strong
High sound: light and fast
Should match with visual texture
Mismatch to create funny situation
54. AUDIO DESIGN
Music composition
Keep music, sound effects, dialogs (spoken or
narration) in separate files
Music and sound effect should have separate
volume control
Keep them separate
55. VOICE AND LANGUAGE
The way a character speaks conveys a lot of information about
him/her
Vocabulary:
Indicates age, social class, level of education
Teenage slang, don’t read much – no strong vocabulary,
Accent
Place of origin
Social class
City people and country people talk differently
Accent = intelligence
Dumb redneck
Dumb negro
Delivery
Speed and tone
Try to steer clear of stereotypes – speed and tone use them to express
anxiety, suspicion, emotional state: hostile, cynical, guarded, and so on
Vocal Quirks
Define characters’ education, intelligence, and interests
Star craft which draws on a variety of American Accents to
create several different types of characters
56. REFERENCES
Fundamentals of Game Design, 2nd Edition,
Ernest Adams, Prentice Hall, 2006, ISBN-10:
0131687476. ISBN-13: 978-0131687479
http://computer.justetc.net