Storytelling in Theory - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 193

Shadow
The shadow represents all that the hero is fighting against—even his own inner flaws and
insecurities. Games are full of shadows usually, as they are all the monsters and enemies the
player has to fight. Without the shadow, there would be no conflict and no story. Some shadows
are purely evil and must be fought; others are more sophisticated and represent some aspect of
the hero that he would rather be rid of. Darth Vader represents the dark side that tempts Luke
Skywalker, while the Emperor is just pure evil.
In Toy Story , we have both types. Sid is a pure shadow, while Buzz merely represents one. He
threatens Woody's ambition about being the favorite toy and the shadow that must be fought
here is not really Buzz but Woody's selfishness.

Filling Roles
As you can see, a character can play several roles in a story. Buzz plays the herald and a shadow at
first, but turns out to be a very strong ally in the end. Even the hero can take on different roles for
the people around him. When Buzz realizes he is just a toy, Woody takes on the role of mentor
and teaches him that being a toy is an amazing thing. Take a look at your story and figure out
what roles need to be filled and use that as a starting point.

Traits
Once a character in your story has a role in the game, you can then add some traits to his
personality to really make him come alive. Let's talk about the hero first.
As mentioned earlier, we want him to be likeable and someone that the player can identify
with. The first thing we need to do is to make sure he is not perfect. Perfect people are not
loveable. They are annoying. They do everything just right and have no dilemmas. They always
know how to act and what to do. Kind of boring, really.
If we give our hero a flaw, something that he struggles with every day, then we instantly make
him more likeable. Why? Because that makes him one of us. We all have flaws, things we don't
like about ourselves and would like to change. Alice didn't sit and listen to her lecture like a good
little girl. She got bored, stopped paying attention, and went on an adventure instead. That is
something we can all understand. Who hasn't sat in class and wished they were somewhere else?
The same goes for the rest of the characters. Try to give them all a couple of traits that make
them more real. If you want to make them more interesting, give them two traits that don't
normally go together. For instance, a girl who pretends to like dolls but would really rather play
football with the boys. Or a thief who takes in stray cats. These traits let you know your characters
better and even if the player never knows about these traits, they will help you figure out the
dialog and how the character would react in certain situations.
A fun way to assign traits is to write one trait each on a bundle of small paper scraps.
• Smart

• Devious

• Charitable

• Has a limp

• Hates his brother

• Color blind

• Has no confidence

• Day dreamer