Game Character Development - Video Game: Storytelling - page 147

▪ Design —describes the design need for the character (or character
class) and defines the character's abilities, strengths, weaknesses,
and overall role with regard to gameplay.
▪ Narrative design —provides the character's context, backstory, de-
tails, motivations, and dimensionality.
▪ Concept art —designs the character's look and feel, including her
clothing and gear.
▪ Final art/3D modeling (depending on whether it's a 2D or 3D
game)—creates the character's final in-game appearance.
▪ Animation —brings movement to the character.
▪ Casting —selects an actor to bring voice or even full performance to
the character.
▪ Audio/Performance —elicits the best performance from the actor.
▪ Implementation —places the character, with all appropriate assets,
attributes, and functionality, into the actual game.
Another variable that can affect the complexity and scope of this pro-
cess is the prominence of the character in question. For example, a main,
playable character will tend to go through many more character develop-
ment steps and iterations than an NPC who appears briefly in one minor
mission. And an entire class of combat enemies will have a different con-
ceptualization process than a non-combatant NPC. But these variables
aside, character development still tends to involve nearly every discipline
and sub-discipline on a game dev team.
Design
Every character in a game—like every character in a story—should be there
for a specific reason. The very first step in the game character develop-
ment process, then, usually comes from a Design requirement, such as:
▪ We need a main character for the player to become .
▪ We need a boss for the player to fight against .