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Creating Strong Video Game Characters

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[Music]

[Applause]

all right I can't I can't I'm sorry I

just can't I just can't do it anymore I

cannot take it this guy Gordon Freeman

regularly makes every list of the

greatest video game characters of all

time and I don't understand why I can't

possibly be the only person in this room

who every time he picks up a controller

thinks that there is something wrong

with him

as he's walking around picking up ammo

and health packs and people are trying

to tell him important things before I go

on I've been asked to remind everyone to

turn off their cell phones and to please

fill out your evaluations after the

session unless of course you work for

valve in which case maybe that just got

a little awkward all right where was I

all right I was making fun of this guy

but this problem this Gordon Freeman

problem is to my mind just one

manifestation of a common problem in

video games today and that is weak

character work right now character is

hard and it's hard in any medium it's

particularly hard in games which have

some unique requirements for doing a

good job of establishing character right

first and foremost in games the audience

is expected to become the character we

are one of the characters it's not

enough to have empathy or sympathy with

the characters we actually have to have

a sense of oneness a sense of unity

between the two and secondly there are

so many different types of games so many

different subgenres and almost every one

of them has its own peculiar particular

requirements for establishing characters

I mean linear games write fully scripted

narratives these have completely

different requirements from open-world

sandbox games where anything can happen

and on top of the different types of

games we have different ways of

presenting characters within those games

we have the silent characters right the

ones who have no voice we have the

cinematic characters the ones who are

fully scripted we have the open

characters the ones where we let the

players choose who they are and most

games I think fit within these broad

category

they're spectrums right so there's some

hybrids that fall in between you have

game like a game like halo where your

character speaks but he doesn't really

say anything and you've got games like

Mass Effect right where there's lots of

player choice but it's still heavily

scripted so many different types of

games out there with so many different

demands is it even conceivable that

there could be some kind of grand

unified theory of character in games

that applies to all of them well as it

happens I think there is and over the

next 45 minutes I'd like to tell you all

about it but first I'd like to talk

about myself my name is Jeremy Bernstein

I am a - at writer and game designer I

have designed games about everything

from ben10 to congressional

redistricting super-sexy and I've

written games on everything from dead

space to to pretty in pink

I've also recently been working in

Hollywood as a television writer for the

hit series leverage now I've gone and

used a dirty word just there Hollywood

writers are not usually very well

thought of in the video game industry

it's generally perceived that they don't

understand the specifics of games as a

medium the things that make them

different from film or television and in

general I believe that's true

however as someone who's worked on both

sides of that particular divide I also

believe that sometimes we in the games

industry have a tendency to throw the

baby out with the bathwater when it

comes to the ideas that come out of

Hollywood because despite the problems

these ideas are grounded in 3,000 years

worth of fundamental human storytelling

traditions and whether you're talking

about Oedipus Rex or Walter White it all

kind of works the same so maybe just

maybe there's something that we can mine

out of these ideas that'll give us some

insight into this guy know before I go

any further a disclaimer every game that

I talk about today is a game that I love

games that I don't love I left out of

the talk

now as you may have noticed I am going

to be from time to time speaking

critically about some of these games

particularly about certain elements of

character right but these are bits these

are pieces these are moments that don't

work for me and I find deconstructing

those moments to find out why they don't

work to be extremely instructive but

every game I talk about is a game that I

love are we clear

all right let's start off with a

question then why bother why characters

why our character is important in games

our character is even important in games

Tetris didn't need characters well the

answer of course is no we don't need

characters well we need in games as

avatars we need something that we can

control and this is one of the first

pitfalls that we run into when we're

talking about character in games is

confusing character and avatar for

example I think most people would say

that pac-man is one of the most popular

video game characters of all time but

really when push comes to shove pac-man

is not all that different from this he's

an avatar not a character and if I were

looking to start a fight which it's just

possible that I am I might argue that

the original incarnations of these two

guys are really basically just Tetris

blocks so what's the difference between

character and avatar well the difference

is context avatars give a game

mechanical context I mean when you think

about it games are really just systems

of numbers what is space invaders other

than some vector calculations three hit

point reservoirs and collision detection

but nobody wants to play that so we

create an avatar to make some sense of

it it's a way to create engagement with

the players that the sheer system of the

math wouldn't have so avatars provide a

mechanical context but characters

characters provide emotional context and

this is important because we are

emotional beings characters engage us

emotions engage us and if you want proof

look no further than this game

now if you played this game and you

didn't have an emotional experience I

don't think you're fully human but it

was because of the character work not

because of the gameplay there's barely

any gameplay in fact there's a whole

talk this morning on whether or not this

is actually a game and by the way if

this isn't a game then I don't want to

be a gamer but more than that there's

even data that suggests that characters

are more engaging in games to players

the narrative is if anyone was at the

game narrative summit earlier this week

there was a presentation from Deborah

Henderson a user researcher at Microsoft

about measuring player engagement in

games and one of her key findings was

that game characters were more memorable

to players than the plot so those who

asked why character I would respond in

short because science says it will make

people like your game more I'm

paraphrasing dr. Henderson slightly

there so character where do we start

well as with all good things let us

start with a definition

what exactly is character well broadly

speaking I would say the people in the

story

I bet everyone is feeling really good

about paying for those badges right

about now but I bring this up for a

reason right because character are the

people in the story so in order to

understand the definition of character

we first need to understand the

definition of story now whenever

somebody at a games conference gives a

talk about story someone in the audience

inevitably asks this question story and

games must we

and like character know of course we

don't need stories but we want stories

we like stories we crave stories human

beings apply storytelling to every form

of art that we have invented music

doesn't need story but we create opera

paintings are perfectly happy to be

landscapes or portraits but we're not

happy with that so no we don't need

stories in our games but damn it if

we're gonna have stories in our games

let

do them right and good stories require

good characters not just for all of the

reasons I'm about to explain but also

because science all right so back to our

definition of story if you've ever heard

me talk before then you know the

definition of a story that I subscribe

to and that is this someone who wants

something badly and is having a hard

time getting it and the reason that I

like this definition so much

particularly for games is that it splits

stories into two fundamental elements

objectives and obstacles and these are

terms that were used to thinking about

when we think about games objectives are

so important we put them right up front

on the HUD an obstacle well that's just

another word for game play and right

here is why good story requires good

character all stories start with someone

this someone is our character we

generally call them our protagonist the

protagonist has an objective something

that they want badly in between the

character and their want there are a

series of obstacles the character

proceeds forward pursuing their want

overcoming the obstacles till they reach

their objective and the story ends

that in a nutshell is every story so if

this is our definition of story someone

who wants something badly and is having

a hard time getting it then our

definition of character must logically

be someone who wants something badly

someone who wants something badly

and by the way this isn't just a good

definition for a protagonist ideally

this is a definition for all of your

characters all the characters in your

story want something the antagonist

wants something and whatever that

something is it is that which creates

the obstacles that are puro must face

love interest wants something presumably

what they want is the protagonist every

character every sidekick every quest

figure every Mook every random NPC every

character in your story should be

someone who wants something badly and

that's one of the reasons why I think

the story in this game is so effective

all the major characters in uncharted to

have a strong want and more than that

these wants are almost always in direct

competition with each other it's not

mutually exclusive

from each other let's start with Drake

now Drake actually has multiple wants in

this game first and foremost he wants

the treasure

a want in which he's opposed by the

antagonist lazarevich who also wants a

treasure well they can't both have it so

right there our wants lock us into

conflict now Nate also wants revenge on

Flynn for double-crossing him and this

is a want that Flynn understandably

opposes and by the way Flynn also wants

the treasure right so there's another

angle to that particular conflict

romantically Nate wants a relationship

with Elena or possibly also a

relationship with Chloe the two of them

both want a relationship with him which

outside the realm of fan fiction are

mutually exclusive once

and by the way Chloe also wants the

treasure so she is part of that whole

mess as well so you have all these

different characters all with their

conflicting objectives all with their

diametrically opposed wants all bouncing

off of each other to make life difficult

for our hero for the player and that is

why good story requires good character

because opposing launce create conflict

and conflict is not just drama conflict

is going to play

so this is how we define character

someone who wants something badly all

right now how do we create character

well character has three elements and

the first most fundamental of those is

this what do they want which makes sense

right this is our definition of

character it seems like a good place to

start when we start thinking about

character and the best part is that

thinking about this first want excuse me

this first element leads us directly to

our second element and that element is

action what do they do to get what they

want our protagonist has an objective

they're opposed by obstacles they

progress towards their objective

overcoming those obstacles through

action and the actions that they take

the things that they do to get what they

want those tell us who that person truly

is if the whomped is a definition of a

character then the action they take in

pursuit of that whomped is what defines

them as a character Hamlet

wants to avenge his father what does he

do he differs and that did the ring is

what defines him Luke Skywalker wants to

avenge his father what does and fight

the Empire right what does he do he

becomes a Jedi like his father maybe a

bit too much like his father and that is

the emotional conflict of this movie

Batman wants to avenge his parents what

does he do he wages a never-ending

crusade against crime and we've heard

this before right that character is

action

it's an old chestnut but I think it's

particularly applicable for games why

well because if character is action an

action is gameplay

well then character is going to play and

oh my god is that not the best

definition for character in video games

of all time and by the way that's one of

my problems with Gordon Freeman

what is Gordon's overriding action what

is the thing that Gordon Freeman hero of

the resistance

in every level the thing that he does

time and time and time again what Gordon

does is what other people tell him to do

so what does that define Gordon's main

quality as obedience

yeah there's a hero I want to be and I

pick on Gordon but this is certainly not

a problem that's unique to Gordon it

happens with a lot of silent heroes it

happened in Dead Space 1 in fact I used

to refer to this specifically as the

Isaac fetch my slippers problem and I

think it's one of the things that makes

players disengage from story in games

this is the opposite of what we're

trying to do with character it's the

opposite of engagement it always makes

me think of that old far side cartoon

right

what dog what we say to dogs what dogs

hear blah blah blah blah blah ginger

blah blah blah blah blah well come on

all right so our first two elements of

character what does the character want

what do they do to get what they want

and the third element is all the things

I haven't talked about yet which is to

say all of the things that we usually

think of when we think about character

we think about what they look like we

think about where they live how they

grew up who their family is what their

job is their class all of that stuff

this isn't character it is an element of

character and that element is

characterization who a character seems

to be what their traits are how you

would describe them not define them but

describe them and the thing that's

important about characterization is the

characterization is external it is the

outward appearance that forms a shell

around the character and if you want to

know who a character really is you need

to get past that shell you need to get

to what's inside well we can't see

what's inside and some games we can but

what's inside the character is there

won't

that comes from within and want leads to

action an action is external so action

becomes a window that what's a see past

the characterization into the heart into

the core of who that character really is

and that's why when you put these three

elements together you get a fully

developed character who they seem to be

outside who they really are inside and

how we can compare the two all right

that's all well and good but does any of

it actually apply to games well I think

it does because when we take a look back

at all those different types of games

that we looked at before what we find is

that not only do these three elements of

character apply to games they're also

explanatory towards games what

differentiates these types of games from

each other is who gets to decide those

elements of character right

the difference between a linear game and

a sandbox game is who makes the choice

about what the player does in a linear

game it's the designer in a sandbox game

the player has that choice what do I do

to get what I want now there's a

spectrum there to be sure right many

linear games are very wide railroads and

many sand boxes have tracks running

straight down the middle but by and

large the difference lies in who chooses

and how much choice you give the player

as to what they do similarly with the

various character types right the

difference between silent cinematic and

open characters lies in who chooses

their characterization in cinematic

characters that choice is made by the

designers and open characters that

choice is made by the player and silent

protagonists well in those cases no one

chooses now it's not as bad as that

sounds right there's actually a very

deliberate choice being made there the

choice being made there is to create a

negative space that the player can then

fill with whatever they read into it and

this can be extremely effective once

again right this is a silent protagonist

but she's negative space

by and large we know a couple things

about her but she's firing away the

least interesting person in his family

from what we know in the game but we're

still on board with her we're still I at

least was supremely invested in her but

not because of her characterization

because of her want she wants to find

out what happened to her sister and the

character work they do with the sister

the way that they establish her that

makes me want to know what happened to

her as well

there's the engagement because want is

the central element of character and

this is another place where things get

interesting because when we look at all

these varying types of games and all

their differences the choice of blonde

is almost always made by the designers

now sometimes you get a little bit of

player choice of Blanc

right mostly in open character games or

sandbox games but it's almost always at

the low level you don't get a choice in

the high level wants in these sorts of

things in Fable your high level one is

established for you you want to stop

Lord Lucien you want revenge for your

sister

the low level wants all the things you

want while you're on that quest those

are the things you get to make your

choices about you get married you get a

job are you gonna be good are you gonna

be evil you're gonna kick chickens right

that's the stuff that you get to choose

not what's also interesting is that

there is in fact a whole class of games

in which the players get to decide what

they want games like minecraft games

like The Sims but what's particularly

interesting is that in almost all of

those games you're not playing a

character you're playing a god or you're

playing an avatar generally not a

character so because of that they kind

of fall outside the scope of a talked

about character in games but I thought

it was worth mentioning right that this

theory of three elements of character it

predicts there should be a whole range

of games based around this and sure

enough there they are alright moving on

these three elements we can see that

they apply very well to an understanding

of how to treat character in all the

different subgenres of games

so clearly this theory is applicable now

what about the other difficulty that we

run into with character in games that I

mentioned before this issue of unity

between player and character in linear

media we don't have to worry about this

we just need to get the audience on the

characters side but in games we want to

take those two separate entities and we

want to make them one we want to create

unity between them and this of course is

why we get these negative space

characters like Gordon the idea is that

anything that the character does that

the player wouldn't do anything he says

any opinion she expresses any element of

characterization that's opposed to the

player will shatter that unity and you

end up with a non immersive experience

well now we have a slightly different

framework to use think about unity

because if there are three defining

elements of characters what they want

what they do and how they seem then

creating unity between player and

character means we need to accomplish

three different things we need to

establish three different kinds of unity

unity of trait unity of action and unity

of purpose we need to talk about these

three things each separately because

they are not all created equal what

happens if we don't have unity of

purpose if I as the player can't get

behind the want of the character well

what happens in short is we have a

problem

because I don't care I don't care what

they're going through I don't care what

they're doing and that means I don't

care about the story I have no emotional

context and by and large that means I

quit right now here's an example I want

to stress this as a personal story in no

way should anyone think this is a

problem with the game if anything it's a

complement to the game because it

managed to get me role playing so well I

screwed myself out of being able to play

the game the original Dragon Age my

character was a dwarven Noble and every

time there was a choice that was smug or

arrogant or superior I went with that

particular choice as a result the way I

ended up

playing this character which says a

wildly racist dwarf who had nothing but

contempt for all non dwarves to the

point that when NPCs started saying to

me the bad guys are going to destroy the

world I actually found myself thinking

not the Dwarven part I mean use surface

guys you're pretty much screwed but

we're dwarves bring him on my one no

longer aligned with the wants that the

game was pushing on me and I couldn't

play anymore so I broke unity of purpose

I did that to myself but nonetheless it

meant I had to stop playing a game I was

enjoying because I just wasn't engaged

so unity of purpose critical

now what about unity of action if we

don't have unity of action things get

interesting because there's two

different ways that a break in unity of

action can play the first way that it

plays is that the player looks at it and

says that's not what I would do now this

is a problem because basically this is a

form of ludonarrative dissonance the

story in the system are at odds with

each other and the as a result the play

experience is broken and I check out and

this again by the way this is one of my

big Gordon Freeman problems Gordon and I

do have unity of purpose right I'm down

with getting rid of the combine we're

good there but unity of action that's

where we have a problem because Gordon

doesn't do what I would do what would I

do I would answer people who talk to me

these are scared worried people who are

excited to see you because you are their

hero and what does Gordon do give them

the cold shoulder unity of action is

broken and I'm how and the problem here

isn't the silence it's not a silent

protagonist thing because gone home

works and portal works the portal

channel is my hands-down favorite silent

protagonist of all time

but those games work because those

characters don't have anyone to talk to

there's no violation of unity of action

and gone home she's all alone in portal

GLaDOS is talking to you over the PA

system but she's not actually present

and by the time you are actually in the

same room with her there's really not

that much left to say so unity of action

is preserved in portal and there's a

great controlled experiment for this

which is portal to Wheatley and GLaDOS

are both right there with you during a

huge chunk of this game and as much as I

love it as much as I love the gameplay

as much as I love the writing am I the

only one who really at some point wanted

to say - GLaDOS you know what you're a

french fry and I have a portal gun I'm

gonna take my chances but you can't so

portal gives perfect unity of action

challenge or two - not as much now I

said there were two responses to a

breakdown in unity of action first is I

wouldn't have dude I wouldn't do that

the second is I wouldn't do that but my

character would and this one actually

turns out to be okay in fact there's no

better example of this in games than

this guy right

Batman and I we totally have unity of

purpose he wants to stop crime I am good

with that unity of action do we have

that well what does Batman do to get

what he wants

now none of these are things that I

would do but what's awesome about the

game is that I get to be Batman the

fantasy is the attraction so even if I

wouldn't do it he would so he'll is yes

let's do it together

and that creates unity of action but

imagine for a moment imagine that the

Arkham games let you do this well now we

have a problem because killing people is

not only something that I wouldn't do

it's something Batman wouldn't do it's

out of character which breaks unity of

action and I quit and some people have

this response to the Uncharted games

right as Nathan Drake there are certain

things that I expect to do I expect to

jump I expect to climb to sneak to solve

puzzles to fight what I don't expect to

do is Nathan Drake is go on a murder

spree now personally this didn't bother

me right to me it just read as an

extension of the fighting body count I

didn't care but I know that some people

do and I can see why because it's a

break in unity of action and again it's

just because that doesn't seem like

something Nathan Drake would do right if

I were playing a Gears of War game then

murder spree makes total sense in fact

I'm not sure any other action makes

sense in a Gears of War game

all right so unity of purpose critical

unity of action variable can be fatal if

you break it but it can also be a

critical element of the fantasy to break

it so what about the last element unity

of trait what happens if we don't have

unity of trait well as it turns out not

so much unity of trait is kind of not

that important I mean think about this

insanely popular video game badass now

this may be the only game the original

Metroid the only game I can think of

that used a silent protagonist to

establish unity of trait with the

audience and then deliberately shattered

unity of trait for half the audience and

minds were blowing and it's not like it

heard of popularity honey so it's okay

if we don't get all the way to here to

unity of trade it may even be okay if we

don't get all the way to unity of action

as long as we get to unity of purpose

because two people who aren't the same

who want the same things but aren't the

same do you know what we call them we

call them partners and partners can work

together very well you don't have to be

the same you don't have to have the same

worldview you don't even have to like

each other if you want the same thing

you can work with them but if we end up

here if we end up with two people who

are the same but who don't want the same

thing who have unity of traits but not

unity of purpose you know what we called

them them we usually call enemies this

right here this is the real silent

character problem when the push for

unity of trait the push of for seeming

comes at the cost of unity of purpose or

unity of action you don't need to make

me be your care

I just need to want to work with them so

these are our three unities of character

shown by order of importance unity of

trait largely optional unity of purpose

important but fungible shoot me even if

you have action important but fungible

unity of purpose that one is critical

okay so these elements are so important

right let's get practical how do we

establish them well there are a lot of

different techniques that one can use to

establish these various types of unity

and games each sub-genre of course has

some of its own unique requirements but

I do think that there are some best

practices that apply across all of them

right so let's talk about unity of trait

first now I just said that you don't

need it but it's nice right it can

create identification with a character

if it's open it can create agency you

can create ownership for a character and

these are both forms of engagement so if

we can get there it's nice okay let's

not break our backs so how do we

establish unity of trade well let's look

at each of our three different types of

characters for silent characters we

don't establish unity of trait we

establish nothing that's what they're

there for

for cinematic characters we also don't

establish unity of trait we just let

them be themselves and we get to be

their partners although by the way as

long as we're on the topic I'd just like

to say that given that unity of trait

isn't as important as everyone seems to

think maybe we could share it a little

bit with people who don't look like this

alright our last type of character open

character's right where the player gets

to decide who their character is how do

we establish unity of trait here well

that's pretty well a solved problem

so that's unity of trait how about unity

of action things get a little bit more

interesting here are two different types

of games that are differentiated by

action linear and sandbox right both

have very different requirements in this

case but in both cases the easiest way

to determine if what you're doing is

going to help maintain a unity of action

is the same it's ask yourself one simple

question what would I do

does this action make sense to me or to

my character given the situation

and once you've got unity of action

maintaining it particularly in a sandbox

game it's usually pretty easy because we

let the player choose what they want to

do if they don't think their character

would do something then they don't do it

the tricky bit here is just making sure

you've got your bases covered enough

right so that you've got most of the

wants that people want

that's what play testings for now in

linear games where the player doesn't

get to choose where the designer tells

the player what it is that they're going

to do there a couple of different

techniques to use to establish unity

here first and foremost I cannot stress

this enough don't make them do anything

that's stupid this is a real pitfall

particularly in games right because

sometimes somebody comes up with some

really cool gameplay but there's no

narrative reason for it

so they just slap together some

half-assed excuse and you get a tortured

story players look at this and think

what am i doing why am I doing this

that's the opposite of engagement now

the other thing that you need to do to

establish unity of action is that you

need to make sure that you have already

secured unity of purpose action comes

out of want and nine times out of ten if

you're violating unity of action it is

probably because the player isn't

onboard with the same launch that you're

pushing right now this was something

that happened to me in the original dead

space alright and this game did a

fantastic job of establishing launch I

absolutely had unity of purpose

I wanted off that ship right so I go to

hell and back in order to try to fix a

shuttlecraft so we can get the hell out

of there we had unity of action on that

front too and then I meet this guy this

guy is still alive on a ship full of

people where everyone else who's still

alive is entirely batshit crazy and this

guy says to me you know maybe just maybe

I'm just throwing this out here

I know you fixed that shuttle because

what you really want to do is get the

hell out of here but I was thinking that

maybe instead of getting the hell out of

here what you could do is take this

giant obviously evil artifact that we

think was probably the cause of this

whole mess take it down to the planet

below and just kind of put it back where

we found it boom that is not what I

wanted to do I wanted to get out so a

disconnect and unity of purpose

disconnect in the whomped caused a

disconnect in unity of action right what

actually happened well Isaac went ahead

and said oh yeah what did I want to say

I wanted to say this nine times out of

ten problems with unity of action are

really problems with unity of purpose so

that being the case let's talk about how

we establish unity of purpose and this

takes us back to our definition of

character someone who wants something

badly now as it suggests there are two

components to unity of purpose what do

we want and why do we care and this last

part is critical it's not enough just to

get the player on board with the

characters warmed you have to get the

player to want it badly you have to make

them care and this is where we talked

about creating empathy in games this is

where we talk about the fields making

the player and the character share

feelings now for my money there is no

better example in games of establishing

unity of purpose than the opening

minutes of this game so let's take a

look at the first minute in 13 seconds

and see what they do

[Music]

yeah that's my blood

there's my life part of my blood

[Music]

okay is anybody here not clear on the

launch anybody here not onboard with the

launch

right this is a great example and by the

way in that minute and thirteen seconds

they spend like the first 20 seconds on

that quote which does nothing so how do

they pull this off right how do they

create this degree of unity well the

first thing they do we start on the

inside of the train and what are we as

the player thinking in that moment we're

thinking what is this what's happening

here right and then we cut to Nate and

what's the very first thing that he says

what's going on that's exactly what

we're thinking right so we're sharing

thoughts we don't know where he is he

doesn't know either we are in the same

boat together and this is a technique

that I like to call sharing is caring

this is the easiest way to create

empathy right by sharing something

between player and character right it

can be a thought having the characters

say what it is that the player is

thinking it can be a mystery or a secret

right this is the Princess Bride moment

I am NOT left-handed right we knew that

so we have a shared moment shared

emotion make them feel what the

character with what the character is

feeling right it's possible in your game

depending on the type of game shared

choices or it's a moment where it feels

like the player is turning to you and

say I don't know what do you think and

maybe my favorite way to get players and

characters sharing in games is this

shared experiences because interactivity

experience ality that's the art of games

in film we say show don't tell in games

we say do don't show and you can use

gameplay to create empathy heavy rain

does a fantastic job of this right your

want in this game

Ethan's want I should say is to save his

children what does he do to get what he

wants that's what the games about right

you get to decide how far he'll go will

you crawl

through broken glass will you chop off

your own finger will you pull the

trigger on another human being well none

of those questions mean anything if you

don't want to save his children badly so

they have to get you on board with that

and how do they do that they let you

play with his kids you play

Ethan's love for his children and that's

what makes you care all right back to

uncharted the next trick that they use

after sharing a thought right Nate

realizes that he's been shot he looks

down he's covered in his own blood right

that's my blood that's a lot of my blood

what does this do well it makes him an

underdog and the thing about underdogs

is that everybody loves an underdog

right so what is this duel it's a trick

to make him likable that's another great

way to get people to be on board with

your character to care about them to

engage with them make them likable let

them be an underdog and be funny or

maybe like someone who makes them laugh

wouldn't be noble what can be admirable

make him sympathetic someone that we

feel for not just feel with because the

more that the player likes the character

the more that they want to be partners

with them so to walk through the rest of

that opening right next thing that

happens at the same time that Nate does

we realize the Train is hanging on its

side and in that moment BAM something

falls on top of us another shared

emotion surprise then he falls down the

back of the Train right he slams into

the rail as he falls wow that looks

painful

oops right sympathy poor boy that hurt

and then my favorite bit he's hanging

off the bottom of the Train I don't know

if you could hear this on the audio but

what does he do hang it on the bottom of

the Train he laughs he laughs and he

says haha crap right and this is all the

above first of all it's likability

because he's funny and second off it's a

shared joke because he's thinking I

can't believe this at the same time that

we were thinking can you believe

so boom were there we're thinking what

he's thinking and then we finally get to

his wand

what is his want to not die that's a

pretty easy one to grok as these things

go and that's another great trick

and another great take-home when it

comes to establishing unity of purpose

keep it simple if the player can't

understand the wand then the player is

not going to share the launch this is a

bonus the more basic the more elemental

the wand the less time you have to spend

establishing it unless you run into

exposition overload survive avenge

escape avoid acquire these are all very

elemental wants very easy for people to

get so that's unity of purpose establish

what they want establish why we care by

and large you built unity of purpose so

that's what I got as far as things to

talk about I hope I have managed to

convince you all to hate this guy as

much as I do

any questions

they're microphones up at the front yeah

I I it's more of an opinion on your part

but going through my head while you've

been explaining all this I've been

trying to figure out how the original

bioshock's character Jack kind of fits

into it because there seems to be a lot

of pros and cons for that character that

you've talked about but just your

opinion on him

um he's not my favorite silent character

but I think he works pretty well it's a

little they have a kind of clergy excuse

for why he never responds but you don't

know that for a huge chunk of the game

and so I think you kind of have to put

your it's a silent protagonist I'll roll

with it hat on and then you get that

surprise later on which is oh wait hang

on this is not you know this is this

exactly intentional so he works he works

all right but I think there are moments

where you definitely have that

disconnect of like why am I just

standing here not having any kind of

agency in this conversation

thank you I kind of had a similar

question to what he stated but it's

about another naughty dog game The Last

of Us I think that's a pretty good

example of a change in the unity of

purpose with what the player thinks I'm

just wondering if because it's something

so ingrained in what the character would

do if that makes it okay um yeah I mean

I think that I think that even when the

actions in that game are not what the

player would do I think that you look at

them and you say yeah but that's totally

something the character would do and I

mean I've spoken to people who have said

in so many words like I really didn't

want to do it but I couldn't begrudge

you know so yeah I mean III think that

works regarding establishing unity of

purpose like we all know that how like

different things about games affect

different people in different ways like

a friend of manic I personally liked

gone home another friend of

call it a walking simulator so is there

like any like golden rule of making and

making even casting a net wide enough or

is it just something that's just

stumbling in the dark I mean I think

that's a decision that you need to make

project a project is is are you gonna

try to appeal you're gonna try to be all

things to all people I think from the

way that I phrased that answer I think

you can tell what my opinion on that is

which is that is madness um you know I

think gone home in particular I think

was gonna run into problems from people

who it's an expectation management

problem people who went in expecting a

conventional video game are going to be

disappointed you know and that's true

with anything you know if you have huge

expectations for something and you come

in and it's completely subverts them

that's often a very disappointing

experience you know so I think that's a

that's a unique and interesting edge

case but yeah I mean I think if you get

get someone on board with a want right

if they want what the character wants

then they're gonna be invested that's

fundamentally what it all comes down to

thank you thank you

could you tell us some more Texas you

loved drama t-piece or anything

games for well certainly Walter White I

think from Breaking Bad is one of the

most I I will freely admit that I maybe

felt like identified with him a little

more than I'm comfortable with but he's

I mean he's a great example one of the

things especially in linear media it's

harder to apply to games but it's not

untrue in games right one of the things

that makes characters really interesting

is when you have maximum contrast

between their characterization and the

actions that they take right so you look

at someone like Walter White he's

characterized as a meek chemistry

teacher what does he want he wants

success or money depending on you argue

it what does he do he becomes a meth

kingpin and runs a crushing drug empire

chemistry teacher crushing drug empire

that's an interesting character and it's

consistent it makes sense right you know

you see that in

a characterization in a GLaDOS was

actually another great example all right

one of the reasons GLaDOS worked so well

especially early on I mean everybody

knows that GLaDOS is almost idle lunatic

now right but when you first start

playing that game

she's cold she's clinical she's robotic

right she comes across character I had

characterized as a machine as something

a logical being of science right and it

takes a while and about the time the she

starts to try to set you on fire when

you realize no this is actually a

passive-aggressive murder machine right

that's what makes her such an

interesting character so you know those

are the things that I look for when I'm

creating characters and when I'm looking

for what media I'm going to consume so I

have a question about sidekicks and

other side characters sometimes you you

have all unit of action and trait and

everything with your main character but

some time when he is interacting with

other NPCs and other characters

sometimes can the the main character

like another NPC that the player hates

like kind of mascot then it's really

annoying but the main character really

likes that can help to break the any

kind of unity yeah that is I would argue

that's a problem in terms of what your

sidekick does when it comes to what do

they do to get what they want

if what they do to get what they want

even inadvertently is annoy the crap out

of everyone around them I would consider

that a poor choice on the designers part

so it's a good question my question is

mostly regarding multiplayer games or

cooperative games I'd like to take the

example of journey which in my opinion

works with the hero's journey in in a

very interesting way because usually the

first time you're playing you're like

the hero so you don't know what to do

and then you find a mentor around which

is the other player and after you finish

the game and play a game you become the

mentor so in the gameplay they've found

a way an amazing way my opinion to kind

of close that cycle and make you feel

that journey and I mean in the in this

case it was a brilliant solution for

that kind of gameplay it matches very

well but I was wondering of other types

of cooperative employees how do you do

to make all the characters

and look as important as I don't know

the hero mm-hmm well I think I mean one

of my favorite examples of establishing

character through gameplay is also the

left 4 dead games right and they do that

through the enemy design because there

are multiple types of enemies that you

cannot defeat on your own right the ones

who pull you away from the group my

favorite ever where they call the

Belcher's right where they they vomit on

you and you go blind and all of the

zombies in the area come running towards

you right that mechanic would be

unconscionable in a single-player game

right but because you are dependent on

other people to survive right it creates

an emotional connection between you as

as characters right or between you as

players I guess I mean that's a game

where trait is pretty minimal in that

game right but want and purpose those

two things I think you create a great

degree of unity if I'm not working with

these people I'm gonna die therefore

what do I do I work with these people

so it's typical to say in TV or movies

that a character has a fatal flaw and

for a lot of it because they're outside

you're not you're not their avatar you

know you can watch them do horrible

things and you can root for the

difference between what someone wants

and what they need can you speak a

little bit to how character flaws work

in video games character flaws are

tricky in video games they're easiest in

cinematic games like Uncharted right and

that's you know Drake pulls off a

perfect arc in that in that perspective

but they're easiest because you can

script it when you're dealing with flaws

with characters in video games because

the player to some extent is getting to

choose what they do you know the

question with a fatal flaw is always do

I succumb to my flaw or do I overcome my

flaw right and that becomes a choice for

the player to make in most games that

try to deal with that now there's one

way you can do that you can do that

explicitly right which is pretty much

what fable 2 does right when all is said

and done you have a choice do you save

the dog or

you save or do you do take the money

right that's a question to ask who are

you and what's really important to you

what are you going to do but they make

that explicit in lots of games that

stuff becomes implicit and when it's

implicit this choice between whether I'm

going to shoot someone in the face or

not right a lot of times it passes

unnoticed by the players there's no

question there you know and that to me

is a problem so I think fatal flaws can

work but they're tricky and you need to

make sure that the player understands

the choice that they're making

you know you need to make that a

dramatic moment for the player not let

that be something that's thrown away in

the in the heat of combat time for one

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YouTube Transcript:Creating Strong Video Game Characters

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Creating Strong Video Game Characters