Concepts for creating compelling characters
If your game includes characters of any kind, they can become one of the most important, but often most neglected, aspects of the game. Players latch on to a good character, identifying with them or loving to hate them. They are our gateway into a world, or a way to see our own world anew, through their eyes.
So how do you go about making a character, and what are the pitfalls to avoid?
The most obvious one is making a character that is little more than a cardboard cutout: a thing that exists just to spout exposition or make snarky comments. Characters should be fully rounded, with lives outside of the confines of the game. Too many feel like they’ve done nothing before the game, and won’t go on to do anything once the game is finished.
Their external life doesn’t actually need to be mapped out (although that can be a valuable exercise), but they should feel like it could be. The more broad the character is, the more important this becomes — why does that evil scientist want to take over the world? They must have a very good reason for it?
Villains are especially important to get right, as they are often the instigating factor in the game, with the player’s character on a quest to stop them.
The motivation behind any dastardly plan should be clear, but it’s important to remember the old adage, that every villain is the hero of their own story.
It’s not something that applies in every case, but it’s a good rule of thumb: villains that are just ‘evil’ aren’t often that interesting. Villains who believe that they are doing the right thing, whatever that may be, are more complex and interesting to defeat.
Creating characters that feel real will also help to differentiate them from each other, leading to distinct dialogue, that’s interesting to listen to, or read. Danny Salfield Wadeson spoke about this more in this article.
How to create characters
Writers of all kinds have come up with many different ways to help them flesh out characters and you may have experiment to find a technique that works best for you.
Creating a profile, like an RPG character sheet, is probably the most popular. Make a list of the character’s physical attributes, their age, education, family background, job, friends etc. There are many different templates available online, some going into far more detail than you’ll probably ever need! The important thing though, is that you think about the specifics of a character: any detail that you pin down will help to focus them in your mind, giving you a better idea on how they would react to a given situation, and how they got to where they are when the game takes place.
Writing a short biography of the character can be good too, leading you to move past their physicality and into their personality: into their hopes and dreams, the events that have shaped their lives and the details of their relationships.
Their personality will become apparent to the player through those actions — show, don’t tell.
Ultimately, the end result of all of this thought is that you have a better idea of who the characters are, making them real in your mind and leading you to understand how they differ from each other. Characters who have their own lives and personalities are more interesting for the players to spend time with.
Another good exercise, once you’ve got the basics of the characters worked out, is to write a short piece, where one character describes another. This can provide greater insight into both the characters — the public face of the one being described, as well as the inner thoughts and prejudices of the one doing the describing. Subsequently writing another piece, switching the roles, provides even more insight: the conflict between how the characters see themselves, versus how the world views them.
You’ll know that you’ve got the feel of the characters when you know how they’ll react to a situation.
Think of them being in a room together, and place an appropriate problem in that room. Think about how each of the characters would deal with that problem. If you know that they will react to it differently, and appropriately, then you’ve done a good job — you have interesting, varied characters.
When it comes to putting those characters into the game, you shouldn’t feel the need to flood the player with too much detail about them. You know how they will act, and their personality will become apparent to the player through those actions — show, don’t tell.
Andrew Ellard wrote a great piece on how the pilot for Friends manages to illustrate four of the main characters using only seven lines in the first scene. It’s a brilliant example of accomplishing a lot with very little.
(If you’re at all interested in writing, follow Andrew on Medium and Twitter: he’s a gold mine of useful information.)
Collaborating on Characters
Of course, all this is assuming that you’re creating characters from scratch, with no other inputs. In reality, you’re likely to be collaborating with other departments. It may be that the concept artist has already created images of one or more characters, or the designer has given you a list skills or traits that the character needs to have.
These ‘restrictions’ can actually be brilliant jumping off points for the character, giving you interesting questions to ask yourself. Why does the character have severed fingers hanging from their belt? Why can they run faster and jump further than the other characters?
Writers often try to use artificial writing prompts, to help them get started on ‘finding’ characters. These elements can act as superb writing prompts, taking you off in new directions that you wouldn’t have explored on your own. Your team are creative individuals, don’t be afraid to make use of that!
There have been millions of words written, over the years, about the ‘best’ way to create characters. Ultimately, the best way will be the way that works for you, and I hope that this has given you a few ideas on how to find that method.
