The inspiring evolution of game character design
The evolution in the way videos games look depends in large part on advancements in graphics and art capabilities, but that’s not the only thing driving the development of game design — especially character design. The appearance of game characters is a complex mix of cultural factors, reflecting what we as gamers think of ourselves and also what we want to think of ourselves.
Like any other form of storytelling, plot-driven games always have to have a well-designed and relatable protagonist. Some games like Portal have broken the mold by denying you the satisfaction of ever seeing the protagonist (you!) and instead focused on designing an engaging external world and antagonists, but these are the exception.
Games started out with pixelated, barely recognizable shapes for characters representing humans, fantastical monsters, machines and much more. The one clearly identifiable trend has been toward realism — in part of the industry at least. A large number of games today make efforts to give us characters with eyes that convey the emotion of human eyes, mouths that actually move to match their words and bodies that flow and sit well in their environment rather than choppily gliding over pixelated terrain.
This approach makes a lot of sense. More realism and relatability in the appearance of gaming characters means a closer connection with audiences. But there has also been a trend away from realism — and not only in fantasy games. What arguably started with Lara Croft’s exaggerated figure has continued in games to this day and manifested itself in games like Fortnite where cartoonish environment art is matched by cartoonish character proportions.
And it isn’t only women who have had to come to terms with a certain amount of objectification in games. Men have also generally been portrayed as overly-hunky heroes — the epitome of manliness. Some of this can be ascribed to the simple reality that many male game characters are combat-ready fighters who would most likely be in great physical shape in real life as well, but not all. And there’s only one Arnold Schwarzenegger in the world.
Most video game characters have also traditionally been white — but this is one point that definitely is changing. More characters of color are popping up across storylines and some franchises have happily adopted diversity in the best of ways, like when Assassin’s Creed took a dive into Native American culture. Too bad that was one of the worst games in the franchise in every other way.
In truth, character design styles haven’t changed much through the years. But they have diversified. While many games can still successfully find enthusiastic audiences with unrealistically proportioned characters, advances in graphics have made room for new kinds of games and different kinds of characters that can appeal to completely different audiences.
That’s good for gaming. Perhaps the best way to sum up the evolution of character design is personalization. No matter what kind of characters appeal to you, you can find them in one game or another. And if you can’t, you can always shape your own characters in games like the Sims, or Spore where you get to evolve your very own unique creatures and do all kinds of weird things with them. Gaming, in general, is becoming more egalitarian and that’s reflected in the characters we play with.
