I worked for seven years for a major multiplayer online game company. Being exposed to so many of these games, I saw that most relied on sophisticated graphics, sound, and compelling shoot-em-up game-play while character development and story were deemphasized.
The plain truth is that story and character development at game companies are most often left to the designers, and writers are rarely hired. And when they are hired, they're usually brought onto the game team after most of the design has been etched in stone.
Unfortunately, too often traditional storytelling and character development are labeled "old school." There are, however, exceptions to this rule, such as Microsoft's brilliant Halo games.
Create a bubble diagram to determine how your characters will interact. Go beyond the basic emotions of love and hate. Like real life, humans are shades gray, some forming alliances with people they hate and others experiencing deep conflict with people they love.
4
Create dialogue for each character even if you never intend to have them speak in the game. Allow them to have conversations with each other. This is an exercise that could fill out your characters and, as a result, strengthen the game story.
5
Buy two essential classic books that focus on character development: "The Art of Dramatic Writing" by Lajos Egri, and "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell.
Tips & Warnings
Many games with minimal character development and story are still bestsellers.
"Such as Microsoft's brilliant Halo games."
Hohohoho!
RicardoJul 21, 2011
2
NikitaJul 11, 2011
This guide is garbage. I was expecting a brief overview of the technical aspects of game character design, not an authors disillusionment with the industry's lack of story development.
Video Game Development Colleges. Video game development is inclusive of a wide variety of computer programming and design disciplines. An education in...
bubble diagram from Gamasutra
