Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Planning a character's look
Creating a character is not an easy job, it can be done by creative insight or careful
calculation. The main hero is the soul of the game and whose avatar is used by a
player to explore the game world. Players identify themselves with that picture on the
screen, empathizing with it, enjoying, grumbling, and taking all the situations to heart.
Therefore, the objective is to generate an emotional connection between the char-
acter and the player. It is not necessary to provoke only positive feelings; ironically,
sometimes the player can hate his avatar. A graphic look of the character can induce
a wide spectrum of emotions, and these emotions can be calculated in advance. This
is based on the fact that humans usually have nearly the same reactions; in this case,
the rules of their behavior are pretty conspicuous.
To illustrate the principles, I created the
Scale of attractiveness
, made of four main
entries. At the very left, there is the
Cute
mark, in the middle is
Brutal
, followed by
Human likeness
,andtotherightwesee
Scary
.So,thechartbeginswithsomething
very adorable and sweet but end with a scary character. Each position has its own
collection of qualities.
Making characters cute
Cuteness is one of the most popular and demanded features that game designers
want for their creations. Protagonists of majority casual games are cute to some de-
gree; they look and act as sweet and comely creatures. It is simply impossible to ig-
nore them and not fall in love with them. Recall the famous image of Nintendo's Mario,
he is 100 percent cute. What is the secret of such popularity? First, the cuteness is
not about beauty (it is hard to call an alligator's baby truly attractive, but it definitely is
cute), which depends on personal taste and preferences, but about some basic pat-
terns and proportions. Here is a citation from
Natalie Angie's
article
The Cute Factor
published in
The New York Times
:
