Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Game characters include all intelligent people or creatures in a game.
Intelligent
means that the character is either controlled by the player or by the game software.
The specific software that controls characters in games is called
artificial intelli-
gence
,or
AI
for short. AI in games is becoming increasingly complex, to the point
that the player can interact with AI-controlled characters as if they were real.
Characters in games are becoming more and more lifelike. They don't just run
around and shoot things—they can also have emotions. An angry character will
not just attack with sword drawn; he will also have facial expressions and body lan-
guage to emphasize the attack. He might yell at you or even call other game char-
acters to help him fight. This increase in sophistication has increased the demands
on designers and game artists to develop interesting and engaging characters.
Games have many different types of characters, which can be broken into the fol-
lowing categories.
Player characters
■
Non-player characters
■
Enemies
■
Each type of character can be further broken down into subtypes. Player charac-
ters can be controlled by a single player or, in the case of a multiplayer game, they
can be controlled by many players. Non-player characters—or
NPCs
, for short—can
be allies, facilitators, or decorations. Enemies can be rivals, and they can be aggres-
sive, passive, or traitorous. These breakdowns are only a few of the many ways to
categorize characters in a game.
A player character is controlled by a player. In many games there is only one player
character—the one being controlled by you, the player. Some games, such as real-
time strategy or team sports games, have the player control multiple characters at
once with the assistance of sophisticated AI. In these team games, the player might
control individual characters directly, but most of the time the player characters
are doing their jobs as assigned by the game.
The amount of control the player has over a character will depend on the type of
game being played. For example, a fighting game will give the player a lot of control
