Game Design: “Shadows on Deck” - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 167

Figure 7-1. This original mock-up shows how a silhouetted style can give a great atmosphere and a feeling of
mystery
So basically that is our starting point: a story-driven platform game in a silhouetted style.
Time to think. What looks good in silhouette? Well, normal people might be hard to
distinguish from each other. If we have humans in this game, then they need to have some
extravagant clothing to help recognize them. Aha! Pirates! Pirates have hats and scarves and
wooden legs and sabres and hooks for hands. Not to mention, pirates have a broad appeal, which
always helps in a game.
We could even have skeleton pirates, which make them look even better in silhouette.
Okay, so now we have some fierce pirates in our game. But who will the player control? We
must have a hero and a good story to throw him into.
The Hero
The player's character should be designed with great care. Clearly, it must be someone that the
player actually identifies with or it will put them off the game. In Chapter 8, we'll discuss how to
build characters in more detail, but for now, let's look at a few approaches to creating the main
character.
Make Him Invisible
We can make the character quite anonymous. The avatar won't say much and won't show
personality in any way. That allows players to actually be the character. The players bring their
own personality to the character and we interfere as little as possible with their choices. This is
how most first-person shooters function; most of the time, you never actually see the character
that the player is supposed to be playing. The player is experiencing the game first-hand, not
through someone else's eyes. With an anonymous character, it is quite hard to tell a good story,