Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 6.11
Three-dimensional
characters can have
conflicting impulses
that produce inconsis-
tent behavior.
antipathy
psychopathy
HATE
neutrality
sympathy
LOVE
If you plan to allow conflicting emotional states to exist in a character, then you
must decide how this conflict manifests itself so that the player perceives it. At any
given time, one state will dominate, but if the character really is of two minds
about something, his behavior may become erratic as one emotion dominates and
then another. For example, a person doing something he really doesn't want to do
may be visibly reluctant, change his mind in the middle, or even subconsciously
take some action that sabotages his own efforts. There isn't space to discuss this
issue in depth here, but you will have to think long and hard about how to portray
your characters' mixed feelings, and you should also discuss the problem with both
your programmers (who will have to implement the necessary algorithms) and
your artists (who will have to create animations showing, for example, reluctance
or uncertainty).
Both the game industry and the playing public would benefit from more games
with three-dimensional characters. April Ryan in
The Longest Journey
and The
Nameless One in
Planescape: Torment
both face a number of moral dilemmas and
questions about what it means to be who they are. This kind of writing helps to
improve the public perception of our medium as an art form worthy of serious
consideration.
Character Growth
If a game aspires to be more than a simple adventure, if it seeks to have a meaning-
ful story and not just a series of exciting episodes, then it must include character
growth of some kind.
The way in which character growth takes place varies by genre. Action games typi-
cally restrict growth to new moves and new powerups; the character's mental state
does not change. Adventure games, which depend on strong characters and plots,
allow for a more literary type of change: personal and emotional growth, unrelated
to gameplay. Role-playing games focus on character growth as one of the game's
top-level challenges. Role-playing games offer several dimensions for growth:
