Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As Kila wept, a dark figure of a man in the shadows at the far end of the alleyway
took a long drag on a cigarette, then dropped it to the pavement and extinguished
it with his foot. The stranger was pleased with what he had seen; this could work
out better than expected. Satisfied there was nothing more to observe, he turned
and got back into his car and drove away.
This story sets the scene for the game. A young woman's life is turned upside-down when
she finds herself part of a symbiotic relationship with Grae, the organism living inside her.
Grae can manipulate Kila's DNA in numerous ways, the main one being to show his true
form. Throughout the game, Kila struggles to find answers as to why this has happened,
while struggling with the overpowering evil that has invaded her body.
From a design point of view, Kila should be quite average looking, nothing too fancy or
flashy. There are two reasons for this:
Keeping her appearance average will allow the player to relate to the character.
A plain and not-too-fancy Kila will provide more of a contrast between her and the
monstrous Grae.
Note
This first, unremarkable design for Kila will work well as an introductory
character for this topic, allowing me to discuss the basic principles associ-
ated with creating a real-time character.
Grae'sdesign shouldbecompletely different fromKila's.Tostart, hewill belargerandhis
partswillhavemoreoutrageousproportions.Heshouldincludesomeofthemoreadvanced
elements associated with modeling creatures for games, such as wings and double-jointed
legs (dog legs).
Note
The Grae character will comprise advanced areas of character design for
the reader's instruction.
At this point, you probably have a few ideas of your own about how Kila and Grae should
look, but before we move on we need to gather some more information on the two charac-
ters. The following tables are a kind of “bio,” presenting basic details and some set pieces
of information about the characters.
