Iconic Character Development in Computer Games

Posted by Brian on January 13, 2010 under games design | 2 Comments to Read

To begin with, take a few seconds to look at the silouttes below.

Recognise any of them? Of course you do – they are the central characters in some very successful computer games.

I spent some time earlier this week with David from Denki, discussing the process of games design and we got onto the topic of characters in computer games. We talked about how important the lead character in a game is and how it relates to the success of game.

When we think about ‘character’ we often think about the characters personality, characteristics and their personal history/background. In the context of creating a computer game in school, it seems like the ideal opportunity to investigate character in an English class. After discussion and writing a charcters background, they should be able to use it to influence how the character should look. Which brings me on to my main point.

The look of a character should reflect their persona, however, the character itself should be easily idenifyable. Hence the silouettes at the top of the post. When creating an easily recognisible character, you are possibly creating a worldwide marketing tool. How many lunchboxes, wallpapers, mugs, birthday cakes, hats, trainers etc are branded with an iconic computer game character? There is a great post by Aldric Chan here that discusses the importance of character further.

Just off the top of my head, I see great potential for embedding game design, in particular, character design into the Curriculum for Excellence eg…

Write characters in English
Explore their characters further in Drama
Create distinctive character designs in Art, even model using clay?
Use tools like Scratch to build thir own games
Use their characters in other areas of the curriculum eg
- Create character objects in CDT like keyrings
- Create caps/tshirt etc HE
Advertise and market their games in Business Studies

I am really keen to expore the area of characters in computer games further and will be working on a some resources for this at the Consolarium.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has used this idea in their school or any ideas people have about it.

Tags: CFE, charcter, consolarium, cross curricular, curriculum for excellence, denki, games design, literacy, scratch

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Athole McLauchlan said,

Excellent stuff, Brian. My P6 class topic last term was Japan. After watching the Dragon’s Den of games design at the SECC I was inspired to kickstart our own Godzilla’s Den around a similar theme. The core of the team project was storytelling through designing characters, levels (or sets), game play and the challenge of presenting to and being tested by the Godzillas (one journalist, one film-maker / games designer / one games addict). The class was highly motivated by the topic throughout and it was amazing to tap into their own understanding of computer games, linking it to storytelling and moving image education. We played and talked about classic computer games and the development and history of consoles, learned about Japanese culture and art, played around with manga drawing techniques, watched and discussed anime, learned and wrote about old Japanese folk tales / characters and became completely immersed in the cult of the Godzilla movies (including the classic Blue Oyster Cult song that became the class anthem). Writing opportunities were continuous – the research, the descriptions of the game, the creative writing of stories, the functional writing of newpaper articles, the presentation script and the purposeful writing of sharing their learning and enjoyment on the class blog. Each group animated 2 of their games levels and then wrote scripts, created slideshows, rehearsed short dramas and found costumes and music for their final presentation. The Godzilla day was an absolute blast. Like you say, you could take this in so many different angles – Enterprise and real game design being the most obvious. Actually,3 of the boys in the class begun making their game at home using the Little Big Planet PSP game. Although they said it could be temperamental if you wanted to upload it to share online. It’s been a while since I messed around with Scratch. Can they upload their own artwork into Scratch? With character and set design I think it is really important to start with their own photos, drawings and sketches. In primary school, it is a wasted week if you can’t find an opportunity to mess around with paints and pencils for learning! Is this the kind of project you were thinking of?

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