Gaming World Forums
Creativity => Game Design & Demos => Topic started by: Warlin on October 05, 2009, 05:03:44 am
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I wrote this like five times and it had several paragraphs and examples and shit. But uh, good rule of thumb is to keep it simple. So I will.
Simple as pie.
In every story, there's characters. And roles. Roles that need to be filled.
How do you fill a role?
As simple as I can say it, it's probably better to not try when filling roles at all. I mean, someone needs to be a protagonist and sometimes someone needs to be an antagonist, but most of the time, that's just something you know when you start designing the story. You'll have to make characters to fill certain roles obviously, but I've always found that it's pretty damn easy. Just make a character without thinking too heavily about the role and then shove them in it. I say this because most of the time when you tailor someone to a role heavily, you usually end up shooting yourself in the foot and someone will scream, "CLICHE." or "STEREOTYPE." or "THAT'S PRETTY GAY, BUD."
So basically when I say, "I need a role." I go off and start designing something that looks cool or awesome or has some sort of dynamic I can work with to do something awesome and provocative. Then I figure out how to shove them in the role I need them in. Like a bartender or something. Then I see what I can do with that to make that character stand out. At least for a bit anyways.
But that's not what I came here for. I need input. How do you fill roles and design characters for these roles? I'm sure of all of my infinite wisdom that I'm doing something wrong.
Oh uh, and pay attention everyone else. I'm sure someone will say something that can help you make your game juicy.
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That's a good question. I usually make characters first and try to make them fit in somehow, if I can't I throw them away.
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I tend to take the classic stereotype needed and add a personality quirk or two. (Healer. Also collects stamps. And is afraid of cats.) Voila! Role filled!
Of course if the role is going to be more fleshed out you'll need a few more quirks but for a quickie that tends to be enough. Have the stereotype and add something small that makes him/her stand out a bit.
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I talk to myself in different voices, personallities work themselves out from there...
What?
(On a more serious note)
Usually I make the sprite frist and work my way from there... once I know what they looks like I can start adding a personallity, thinking about how said character will talk, act, and think. Granted, the appearance has nothing to do with the personally design, it just depends on what mood I'm in...
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Every story is cliche. Always. Beginning, middle, end. Problem, climax, solution. The devils in the details.
I look at my characters the way I would act a role in a movie.
What are their short term goals/what do they want the current scenes? What is their super objective/what compels them from beginning to end?
When you answer those two questions for every character you should get a clear indication as to who they are. Relate these characters to people you know (fictionally and non) and pull qualities that match your game's theme. If you're game tells a love story, you're going to need two people who can fall in love. If it's about family, you'll need characters who can relate to one another in some way.
After that my characters just kind of come together and write themselves.
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Ah but the Mad Baker had his mind set on another type of role... a tasty PAYROLL!
I often start with an idea of some cool mechanic and then build the world around it. Like if I wanted 3 different classes I'd need 2 genders. Those 6 people would need personalities based on their chosen path, then they'd need someplace in the world to hail from. Why does this place exist? Why are they here now? What purpose could they serve? And how will they deal with it? The game just snowballs out from there.
- Mike
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i've never thought that roles was a great way of looking at a story. that's always struck me as a way to fall into the typical writing traps. it makes you feel obligated to create certain types of characters rather than simply create characters that you find interesting. i'm not saying that you're going to make bad characters by having ROLE characters. i've written some pretty interesting characters this way, but i'm a lot less likely to do so. it's a much better idea to create characters from the inside out, rather than the outside in. the inside of the characters is where the depth lies, and will typically make for stronger characterizations if that's where you start. it can be a bit problematic trying to implement proper character depth if you begin developing the character using mostly superficial, unspecific terms and thoughts.
on some general level you need a certain degree of protagonists and antagonists, but i always think more along the lines of how interesting i think it would be to have certain types of human attitudes in the story i'm aiming to tell. the essential relationships in my stories are not derived from how i perceive the "roles" that need to be filled, but by the vastly different ways people could perceive the things that are happening in the story.
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I make YOU the protagonist.
You learn to hate the antagonist.
The one difference for me is the setting of the place. Roles then are filled up with personalities that I see as I live my own life. A lot are assholes. A few are nice. You make friends with them. BAM, sidekick role filled. So, yeah, there's clish-ays, but life is a clish-ay. Usually, you can fill up a game's roles with people you know.
And I like what other people are saying. Totally just bookmarked this topic.
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Cliché characters are fine if they're justified. "Clichés" and "stereotypes" will forever be argued. It's not the elements of the characters themselves that's the problem: it's how they're used.
Mary Sues are different. When you have a cliché character without negative elements to balance out the defining ones, when you don't have reasons for the way they are, then the character is flat, and the player won't be able to connect.
Okay, I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I think that covers how I see it.
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Sometimes I just throw ideas around and make up characters to fill them- other timesI make a character to solve a plot requirement.- for example if our heroes are trapped in the dungeon the'll need a thief to break them out. Sometimes I create my characters and then examine the society they live in, then do the same with those who will join them- it varies.
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I make a character to solve a plot requirement.-
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I like to start out with a stereotype, and then expand on it. For instance, I have this fat kid that is supposed to be stupid and mention food in every other sentence. Then I dig into his personality throughout the game and see what I can find. The trick is to do something unexpected. It makes the character interesting.
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But the problem with that is sometimes things don't go as planned in a story and things change. That may be because you saw a new movie, read a book or something in your life change.
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In which case you can revamp the story and characters accordingly.
For example an early version of one game idea had one of the heroes break up with his current love for no good reason after a romp in the hay. In the revised version it's 'cause he's in a love triangle and must choose who he'll spend his life with.
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That could've been one good reason. That is actually a prime example of why story can change with time.
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I often look to books when I consider making a character for a role in my games. I read a few books that follow the same sort of theme and then look at how the books uses them as a tool to create opportunities and changes in the main character. Then I try to apply that with a character I make in the game and voila... my role filler.
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Growing from that- how do you guys make your characters unique, assuming that you want that? This is especially important if you start with an archetype or a character class. You want your characters to be memorable, so how do you make your level 12 paladin different from any other?
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make them question their faith lol
(are there any games that do this or are all paladins always LG INQUISITOR KIL LALL EVIL FOREVER types?)