Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
When designing characters, the concept artist needs to understand what the char-
acter's role is and create a character that fits that role. A sleazy police informant
should not wear a three-piece suit. A military guard should not be slightly built. An
opposing linebacker should not be obese. Characters need to fit their roles. Players
should be able to tell a lot about your characters just from the characters' designs.
Enemies are all non-player-controlled characters that try to keep the player from
winning the game. The opposing team in a sports game is an enemy. The evil crea-
tures in a horror game are enemies. The other drivers in a racing game are enemies.
The vicious alien trying to kill the player in a first-person shooter is an enemy.
In some games enemies are very intelligent and cunning, whereas in others they
might just be aggressive. In a football game, the opposing team might be very good
at play calling and disguising play coverage. In a shooter, the enemies might be
very good at ganging up on the player. In a fighting game, the opponent might
have several combo moves.
In designing enemies, the look of the character is often as important as what the
character does in the game. The characters should be intimidating, causing the
player to feel a sense of accomplishment when he or she defeats them. Sometimes
the intimidation is from an imposing physical appearance; other times it is subtler,
such as in a quiz game where the opponent needs to appear intelligent.
Characters are some of the most complex models in games for a couple of reasons.
First, a game character is the focal point of the game. Players will be looking at the
character more intently than at any other element in the game. The second reason
is that characters tend to be organic rather than mechanical. A human character, for
example, is made up of many curves, which are difficult to create from flat poly-
gons. Because of their complexity, I will be very detailed in the exercises that follow.
In this first section, you will explore creating a model sheet to use as a template.
Next, you will cover building the character. Last, you will explore how to apply tex-
tures to the character. I chose a human character because it is the most common
character in games, but more importantly, because it is the measure by which art
directors choose who they will hire. Learning how to build great characters will go
further in helping you get a job in the game industry than knowing how to build
any other game element.