Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
audience very much cares about her getting that thing or accomplishing
that goal. They are invested.
So, for the audience to care, the Hero needs to care. And it can't just be
an academic, dry, or sterile brand of investment. It needs to be something
primal. Life, death, health, family, love, sex—these are the kinds of connec-
tions and stakes that resonate most strongly with audiences.
Aliens
(1986) is a great example of this principle. The Hero—Ripley—is a
character most audience members immediately care about and want to
follow. But what does
she
care about? Ripley is initially motivated by a
chance to re-qualify to work on a ship again, but this isn't a goal that the
audience can really relate to on a core level. Later on, Ripley (and a good-
sized group of other characters) are confronted by aliens, and while Ripley
does care about all of their welfare, it's very clear that the young orphan
Newt is the one about whom Ripley is most concerned.
On a very primal level, Ripley has effectively adopted this child as her
daughter (making it a family connection) and will do anything to defend
her life (making it a life or death situation). It is no accident that when
Ripley has finally saved Newt from the ultimate threat, resolving the con-
flict, Newt runs into Ripley's arms and cries, “Mommy!” Nearly everyone in
the audience can relate to feeling protective of a child who's in mortal
danger, even if few of them have ever actually experienced that situation.
This same technique has been used in video games, with a prime ex-
ample being Telltale Games' excellent
The Walking Dead: Season One
.
Playing as ex-college professor and convicted murderer Lee Everett, the
player is thrown into a zombie apocalypse and soon happens upon a
scared and lonely eight-year-old girl named Clementine. The rest of the
game, the player (as Lee) is singularly concerned with getting Clem to
safety. It's powerfully effective.
This transitive property also gives the writer the flexibility to feature a
Hero who is thoroughly unlikable and largely unrelatable. The audience
can still be emotionally engaged as long as they are made to care about
what that Hero cares about. Conversely, audience members might have
little sympathy for the Hero's cause, but if they care about the happiness
and well-being of that Hero, it won't matter.
So, in the case of
Aliens
, maybe you don't really like Ripley that much,
but you feel very protective of Newt and want to see her survive. Or,
maybe you're a Ripley fan but find Newt annoying and wish she'd just stop
screaming. Either works. As long as you care deeply about at least one of
