Week 10 - The elements of games design - story and character

Further up in the sky now, using the thermals to glide : )

Week 10 ->

Characters in games have to have personality to appeal to gamers.

Special effects will no longer sell games...

Well it will but they will not sell well because some gamers will buy them because they look good and return them when they realise what a pile of shit they are. They will then buy a game that isn't as astetically pleasing but the storyline and and characters are much more appealing and keep you hooked until the very end.

http://gamasutra.com/features/20060324/cifaldi_01.html

Gives you the differences between the two main characters of the XBox 360 game, Ninety-Nine Nights. One is cold and almost cruel while the other is more caring and empathic. This is importants as it effects the storyline of the game as while you are the more empathic character, you can choose to go another route and this in turn would change the events unfolding.

This sort of character development and story develo9pemnt appeals much more to gamers then that which is liniar and boring, and for a player to really become a character and fully emerse themselves in the game, they have to be able to understand the emotions of that character, and thier personality and traits, what they say and do, and thier body language displays a whole range of feelings and attracts people.

For example, in Final Fantasy X, which I will rant about later, the main charcater, Tidus, is telling the story of how they get to the point that they are at when the game begins, which is in fact somewhere near the end.

To start off with you really can not like Tidus, because he is a arogant stuck up git, but as the story develops we find out why he's like he is and he changes as the story goes on, acting less like an idiot and more like a person. This Character development is important to the storyline, as when he fades away at the end, when the dreams of the Fayth end, we really care, and we feel sorry for Yuna, who doesn't understand and doesn't want Tidus, who is in fact a dream of the Fayth made real by the power of Sin, to leave.

I find fantasy completely irriesitable because 1. I write it, and 2. I get lost in a good fanatsy, learning about the ways and customs and lives and magic and monsters and... lol, I'm going off on one again.

But the story isn't important if we're not drawn into it by an engaging main character.

That's what I would have said had I not got distracted.