Character Development - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 144

situations, or how he will interact with the game's core mechanics. To address
those issues, you have to give your attention to deeper questions about who the
character is and how he behaves.
If you begin your character design with the character's role, personality, and
behavior rather than his appearance, you are doing story-driven character design . In
story-driven design, you decide these things first and only then let the artists begin
to develop a physical appearance for the character. Artists often like to work from a
detailed description; it helps them to understand and visualize the character.
Even games that you would not expect to have fully developed characters can gain
much by including them. Consider the multiformat title SSX Tricky , shown in Figure
6.7 . This is an extreme sports snowboarding game that pays attention to character
development. The player can make friends, foster rivalries, and enhance her charac-
ter throughout the game. The addition of these storylike elements makes it more
than a simple sports game. The player chooses a character and begins to identify with
her. This creates a greater sense of immersion in the game, and best of all, it's not
prescripted. The player chooses her own friends—or enemies—from the other char-
acters at will, and her choices do affect the gameplay. You can be sure that the
people you antagonize will try their hardest to sabotage your run, and there will be
a few sharp words exchanged at the finish line.
Admittedly, it's not complex interpersonal interaction, and it could be taken fur-
ther, but it's refreshing to see real character development attempted in the sort of
games for which it has never before been considered. Interaction between charac-
ters is one of the most interesting aspects of stories—sometimes more so than the
actual plot. Although a plot details the path of a story (which is covered in the next
chapter), the characters' interactions add the flavor and subtlety that differentiate a
well-crafted story from a fifth-grade English composition assignment.
FIGURE 6.7
SSX Tricky is a sports
game that includes
real character
development.