Elements of game design - part 3

Characters are the engine of every story. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game, film or book, you can’t tell a good story without a character. On the other hand, badly designed, half-baked character can easily damage even the most marvellous story. So there is no doubt that every character appearing in any kind of tale has to be thoroughly developed as it can affect one’s perception of the whole piece. So, how to create an interesting and appealing character? Is there any recipe for that?

I asked some friends what is their opinion on that and the most common answer I heard was ‘you need to make sure that the audience can relate to the character’. Sure, I can’t argue with that, it undoubtedly helps to sell the character, but it cannot be taken as a rule. After all, how many people can relate to a man-flesh eating murderer? Still, the character of Hannibal Lecter, played by sir Antony Hopkins is one of the most iconic movie characters ever. How did that happened? What is his secret?

Well, I believe that the key is a high contrast. You see an old man, gallant, extremely intelligent, loving history, art and classical music, but you know that a few minutes ago he has eaten someone’s face. Giving a character contradicting features is a good way to make it interesting and memorable and it is often used in games and movies.

A good example of that can be found in Tim Burton’s ‘Edward Scissorhands’, where the look of eponymous hero strongly opposes his personality. Although Edward resemble something between a demon from ‘Hellriser’ and a member of The Cure with scissors linked to his hands, he has a heart of gold, is shy, helpful and kind to everyone.

The above examples clearly show that it’s not good to judge book by its cover; nonetheless, movie makers and game developers constantly take an advantage of the audience stereotype thinking in order to make them perceive characters in a certain way. It’s especially noticeable among villain characters. When you look at Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort and Sauron you know at once that they are The Bad Guys, even though that the only thing that they have in common are the black outfits. Need a witch? Give her a black cat and broomstick. Archaeologist? Khaki shirt,  hat and whip!

Playing with stereotypes while designing look of a hero is easy and popular trick, although creators have to be careful not to over-use it as they may end up with a boring dummy, looking just like thousands of others. What are the other things that should be avoided? Don’t make you hero too powerful.

Superman is one of the most iconic, marvellous and simultaneously boring superheroes. He is as fast as light, strongest than any other man and he’s resistant to everything but one thing – kryptonite, which as a result drastically reduces the group of people that can stand up to him… and it makes all fights monotonous and predictable. In addition, he wears pants over his trousers – and that also should be avoided when creating a hero.

There are many things that should be kept in mind while designing a character. For instance, high contrast and playing with stereotypes are common methods of developing a hero. On the other hand, following stereotypes could result in copying previously created heroes which might be negatively received by the audience. So that, I believe that new ideas are worth trying as different doesn’t have to mean worst.