Art-Driven Character Design

Art-Driven Character Design

Let's take a look at art-driven design in a little more detail. Historically, art-driven design was the main force behind character design. As we've said, the simpler games didn't rely so much on story, so the design emphasis tended to be visual.

Visual Design

The design of the central character in Pac-Man was purely artistic. The game designer, Toru Iwatani, was allegedly inspired by a pizza with one slice removed. Other famous game characters were also born this way: Lara Croft started life as the artist's dream girl and quickly became the "larger than life" heroine that we all know today. (This is despite the fact that somebody with those " proportions " would be unlikely to be as athletic as that ”and would most likely run into a few lower-back problems in later life. But this is the games industry: Realism doesn't matter ”self-consistency does.)

Characters that are developed from a purely artistic source tend to be far more super ficial and one-dimensional than those sourced from a story-based design. In fact, we could say that they are the bimbos (or himbos ”no sexism here!) of the games industry. This is not necessarily a bad thing. For many games, we simply do not need well-developed characters. It's far better to leave the character as a blank slate and let the player impose his own personality. This can aid the sense of game immersion greatly and is often the superior method, compared to trying to force a player to accept the role of a fully fleshed-out character. Even those games in which the player has a predefined character tend to be deliberately scant on background details, just so that the player won't have to change personalities to fit into the hero's skin. A small paragraph of backstory might give the player some direction, but trying to force a player into a role that does not appeal to her is futile.

At this point, we should mention that the second approach to designing characters is to develop a fully fleshed-out backstory before you even visualize their appearance. This approach tends to produce deeper and more realistic characters that the player will believe in more readily. Sometimes this can be a good thing, and sometimes not. It really depends on the result you are aiming for. For example, a fully detailed backstory for the aforementioned Pac-Man, detailing his likes, dislikes, hopes, and fears, certainly would not have added anything to the game. In fact, it would most likely have detracted from it. It would be as effective as replacing Heathcliff and Kathy from Bronte's Wuthering Heights with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. We cover story-driven design later in this chapter.

The ultimate aim of the exercise, whether story-based or art-based, is to create a bond between the player and the hero so that the player is compelled to play the game. You should attempt to make the player genuinely care for the plight of the character under his control. A good, detailed backstory is certainly one way to get the player to empathize with the hero, but this is by no means the only way. In fact, the advantage of computer games is that the bond can be created in a number of ways (such as graphically) and is not restricted solely to abstract concepts and literary constructs.

Physical Design and Super-Sensuality

For example, let's consider some physical aspects. Sexual desirability is an often-used method. In Desmond Morris's Manwatching , he discusses the issue of super-senses. In advertising, certain features are often exaggerated to elicit a specific response in the viewer. The classic example is that the breast size and leg length of women are usually exaggerated by about 33 percent, their waists are too small to accommodate the required internal organs, and their hips are disproportionately wide. This apparently increases the sexual desirability of the subject (termed "super- sensory stimulation" by Morris). We've seen this many times in the game industry ”I'm sure you can think of a couple of prime examples: Lara and Croft.

Cuteness works well, too. Some games attempt to bring out the player's protective feelings. In these games, the hero is almost supernaturally cute, and this causes the player to empathize with the hero much in the same way as he would empathize with a favorite pet or a baby.

Compared to fully grown animals, baby animals have large heads and eyes with respect to their body sizes. This can be exploited by a knowledgeable designer to create a "cute-appeal." Usually, this approach is aimed specifically at the younger game players. Targeting the younger gamer with the sexual approach would probably draw unwanted attention from the censors, so, for the most part, this is avoided. Super Monkey Ball (shown in Figure 5.2) uses the cute approach to good effect.

Figure 5.2. Super Monkey Ball.

The monkey characters follow Morris's super-sense guidelines ”large heads; large, round eyes; and comparatively small bodies. Coincidentally (and rather perversely, to Western eyes), this is also the approach taken by Japanese ultra -violent Anime comics, an example of which is shown in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3. A Japanese-style character.

We realize that not all Anime is violent. Nevertheless, the artistic style emphasizes childlike super-sensuality while dealing with adult-oriented topics.

Art styles vary wildly among different cultures, particularly for characters. Japanese animation often uses huge eyes and tiny mouths for their characters, but the mouths sometimes swell to huge sizes when they shout, which looks grotesque to Americans. European cartoon characters often seem ugly and strange to Americans, too. Two exceptions to this include Asterix and Tintin.

Care must be taken with the super-sensuality approach to character design because it can backfire badly . We're sure a few of you will remember Bubsy the Bobcat. Bubsy fell out of that oft-forgotten (and rightly so) area of design ”market-driven "me too" character design. At the time Bubsy was spawned, there had been a run of successful games based around cute characters. The end result was a hideously cynical "cute" character in a stereotypically poor platform game   la Sonic . Note that we believe that Sonic was a brilliant platform game, as platform games go ”attractive, quite variable from level to level, and relatively nonviolent. The Bubsy series of games (see Figure 5.4) was a pale imitation of this, and the designers didn't understand exactly what made the Sonic games so good. The character of Bubsy simply wasn't appealing enough to save them. Contrast this with a game series such as Crash Bandicoot , in which the games are good and the character is appealing.

Figure 5.4. Bubsy the Bobcat.

Figure 5.5 shows a small selection of the virtually infinite variety of cute characters out there.

Figure 5.5. A selection of cute characters.

This form of design has a number of secondary contributing characteristics. The primary consideration is the limitations of the target platform. What looks great as a million-polygon rendered 3D model might not look so hot as a 64-pixel-high sprite. Hence, the appearance of an art-driven character is (obviously) influenced by the technology used to display it.

The design of the art-driven characters is dependent upon the flavor of the game. You have to consider the target audience when you're deciding upon the style of the characters. For example, the adjectives cute and scary will mean two different things to a 5-year-old and a 25-year-old. Resident Evil -style monsters certainly won't go down well in a Mario -esque style of adventure.

An interesting twist on this unwritten rule was presented in the form of Conker's Bad Fur Day , shown in Figure 5.6. Rare transplanted their cute children's characters into an adult-oriented game. Well, to be more accurate, it was a preteen vulgar, humor-oriented game but that's probably due to the difficulty of taking cute children's characters into an adult world. This form of toilet humor is very British in style and doesn't necessarily translate well to the rest of the world. Fighting the poo monster really appeals to only a certain subset of the intended audience. Note that the reverse would not apply ”you couldn't put realistic Resident Evil -style characters in a children's game. It's a one-way transformation.

Figure 5.6. Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Another series of games that has attempted the same sort of thing (although without the humor quotient ) is Nintendo's Starfox series. Here, the hero, Fox McCloud, and supporting characters are anthropomorphized animals. This is a common approach in literature. Many stories have used this approach, with The Wind in the Willows being a well-known example.

Cute Sidekicks

Art-driven character design gives probably the most prominent common element in game design: the cute hero with an optional sidekick.

This doesn't always jell as well as it should. For example, Sonic and Tails didn't work well together as a team because Sonic was much faster than Tails and kept running away from him. In other cases, alternative approaches give more success. Even though Banjo and Kazooie are separate entities, they were really only one player avatar; they just worked together inseparably. Link's fairy in the Zelda games served as a sort of tutorial and hint system. Morte in Planescape: Torment told the player a lot of background information in a funny , wise-guy style, but he was a character in his own right as well.

Unfortunately, for cute-style characters at least, art-based design seems to have degenerated into an unoriginal money-chasing exercise. "Can we appeal to the kiddie demographic? Can we get the right mix of cute with 'tude?" Switch on the Cartoon Network for 30 minutes, and you'll see all the evidence you need: Powerpuff Girls , Dexter's Laboratory , Spongebob Squarepants , and the rest. You name it, it's there. The evidence is there in the games industry as well. Everyone's looking for the next big cute phenomenon . Check out Spyro the Dragon and Jak and Daxter , or any one of the plethora of other examples. It wouldn't be so bad if it were a new concept, but it's been around since the dawn of the industry. Figure 5.7 shows a fairly early example.

Figure 5.7. Head and Heels from Head over Heels .

These two characters, Head and Heels, are buddies fighting against the evil emperor. The only difference between these two and the majority of today's examples is the originality in the relationship between the two characters: Head and Heels are both symbiotic creatures . Head can jump and glide, and Heels can run fast. When they are linked together, they combine their abilities and can solve problems that would be impossible to achieve individually. The difference between Head and Heels and the rest of the cute brigade is that Head and Heels actually had unique characteristics that made an original difference to the gameplay.

NOTE

To an extent, this was also true of Banjo and Kazooie. Even though they were implemented as a single avatar (much like Head and Heels when joined), each had individual abilities that complemented the other's.

Most of the examples from today are just minor variations on a rather old theme. At least try to inject some originality into it. Don't just go for the "It's like Sonic, except that he's called Phaser and he's a Porcupine!" approach.

If we might risk boldly stating our opinion at this point, we believe that this strain of "cute with attitude" character design is getting very clich d. It also seems to be quite cold and calculating from a marketing point of view: The "cute" part attracts children, and the "with attitude" part alienates parents. With the recent troubles the games industry has had with the threat of censorship, a cute character spouting off attitude to other characters ( especially those representing authority figures) probably isn't the best way to ingratiate ourselves with parents ”and some of these parents are the people with the power to enforce regulation on the games industry. This doesn't mean that we should make our characters sugary-sweet and peachy keen, but we should be very aware of the age and developmental levels of our target audience.

NOTE

Don't forget that kids hate goody-two-shoes characters just as much as parents dislike characters with foul attitudes ”but just because a character doesn't cop an attitude with authority figures doesn't make him a goody-two-shoes. The Scooby Doo kids are a pretty good example of nonattitude characters who nevertheless retain their appeal: intelligence, bravery, and resourcefulness. Scooby is funny, too, because despite his large size, he is a coward ”hence, he helps make sure scary situations aren't too scary. In addition to this, because he's a dog and not a child, he doesn't get picked on or treated with contempt for being scared. This is actually a very clever solution. Notice also the Archie kids from the famous comic: You have the Everyman (Archie), the Goofball (Jughead), the Girl Next Door (Betty), the Fashion Plate (Veronica, whose beauty is offset by her vanity), and the Handsome Guy (Reggie, somewhat similar to Veronica in attitude). One common theme is that Jughead is pursued by an ugly girl, in a humorous (but actually slightly sexist) role reversal.