Character Design: I'm Different, but that's Cool!

In the countless blog posts that I’ve typed, the story is a huge reason as to why I’m so passionate about video games. I’ve also mentioned how certain factors help give hints about the story or virtual world as it unfolds for the player, such as dialogue, side-characters, character development, and a bit of the relationship aspect in some video games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but those aren’t the only ones. There’s, in fact, a bigger element that plays a dynamic to the game, and it’s the most important and obvious one that reveals to the player the type of virtual world that they’ll be enthralling in for the next 100 hours, and it’s called character design.

Courtesy of DeviantArt User: UrukkiSaki

What is Character Design?

Character design is somewhat similar to character development (which I talk about in my 7^th blog post), but there’s a difference. Character design focuses on the characters appearance, such as the body/facial structure, motion/body movement, clothes, and etc. Character development also focuses on the characters appearance, but it mostly centers on the change that appears in characters from beginning to end, such as seeing a young boy go on an incredible journey and come out as a man.

Now I’m not an expert when it comes to the entire process of how artists and graphic designers are able to create unique characters for games, but as far as I can tell, there are some key factors that might be important for possibly making these characters come to life. 

1) Race:

In my opinion, a game that holds a large diversity of races/creatures for the player to play as or interact with, such as humans (w/ feature to change cultural background), elves, orcs, dwarves, aliens, robots, and much more, makes the story become more rich and detailed because of the many intricate backgrounds and culture the game developers and writers must make for these creatures and characters. Furthermore, many people from a particular race have a certain physical feature or trademark that’s very common for most people of the same origin. For example, the color of a person’s skin is just one main factor, another on could be the shape of one’s nose or eyes, or even body proportions (I don’t believe that this last one is true). In video games, game developers, artists, and writers try to collaborate to make an analogy of what a particular race would look like and what certain physical feature(s) will make them stand out from the other races, and since it’s all being done in a fictional setting, there are no limitations as to how different and over the top the races/ creatures have to be. 

Courtesy of dragon-age.pl

2) Cultural Background:

In reality, most cultures around the world are very unique and different because of either a religion or customs the people correlate into their everyday lives, so it’s fascinating to me to play a game where I can explore and learn more (heh that rhymed) about the back story of a group of people or creatures that someone or a group of people were able to make from scratch. The amount of effort and creativity is unbelievable, and I’m not really sure if people truly understand exactly how detailed-oriented the entire process must be, but I can only imagine. In the real world, religion and/or customs lead back to almost more than a hundred years ago and they usually tell an intricate story of how that particular culture came to be as it is today. Take the Bible for example, it’s supposedly said to be the center of all religions, but it branches out far enough to the point that so many of today’s cultures are different and unique. Over time, people worship different gods, live in different structurally societies, wear unique clothing, and etc. This entire concept can also apply to different races in video games, and show how and why a certain race may focus on a particular thing more than the other. 

3) Personality:

Now it’s important for all characters or at least the more important ones to have personalities because it’s imperative to that the “characters do not have dull personalities, because no one will want to choose to play with them!”[1] When it comes to video games that contain over a million NPCs, it would be extremely difficult to give every single one of them a unique personality, so if they can’t all be distinct personas, why not have a certain race think differently from the other races, but think alike within their own race. For example, let’s draw up a contrast between the most well-known fantasy races: the elves and the dwarves. Elves (like in all fables or cinema) are said to rely and be well-versed in “magic and spirituality” to heal or fight, while dwarves are said to be more focused on “mining and smithing” their weapons that they rely on more when it comes to fighting against their enemies.[2] So what I’m trying to day is that a races’ way of thinking can have a huge part in their overall personality. 

A good example of this can be seen from a PC game called Guild Wars 2 (an RPG or Role-Playing Game), where there are a total five races (Human, Norn, Asura, Charr, and Sylvari) that have completely different racial origins and physical features, cultures, personalities or way of thinking, which make them all completely unparallel from each other. 

Human	live and thrive in the countryside ruled a queen and society full of nobles  worship the Six Gods: Balthazar (god of war), Dwayna (goddess of healing), Grenth (god o death), Kormir (goddess of truth), Lyssa (goddess of beauty), and Melandru (goddess of nature) very knowledgeable in history and agriculture
Norn	live and hail from the North; frozen and snowy landscape the tallest race averaging at about 9 ft. shape-shifters; can become humanoid beasts at will  live for the hunt and glory; hold tight to ancestry line generally proud, optimist, loyal, and sometimes brutish worship the Spirits of the Wild: Bear, Snow Leopard, Raven, and Wolf no government: closest thing to leadership would be those who have the most respect or have done the most heroic deeds known for their combat and tracking skills
Asura	very short and averaging to about 4 ft. known for their intellect and intelligence in technological devices, such as golems (robotic androids), gate networks (aka teleport systems), and some weaponry that involves electricity  view other races as being incompetent, slow-thinking, and brutes religion: Eternal Alchemy - the idea that all beings and magic in the world are a part or function of a greater purpose or "machine". no particular from of government; have certain groups of asura that are specialized in a particular field of work that oversee distinct areas
Charr	huge, ferocious feline creatures live in a dry, safari landscape known for being the most militaristic and industrial race no longer have a religion or worship any gods due to their long, detailed history government is similar to the rank system in military organizations rarely show any emotion, except for anger and blood thirsty rage on the battlefield
Sylvari	humanoid plants very honest, straight-forward, tranquil, and eager to learn and understand the most mysterious race of Tyria; suddenly appeared and mostly keep to themselves all sylvari originate from the same place: the Pale Tree; making them all somewhat connected, but don't have the same strong bond as most families do, and allows them to form intimate relationships with one another follow the will and testament of an ancient artifact called the Ventari Tablet, which contain peaceful morals and ethical works; out of all the other races' religions, they are very skeptical about the humans' gods all live and reside in the forestry lands of Tyria, mainly the Caledon Forest (the home of the Pale Tree) no structural form of government; whenever the sylvari need counseling or guidance, the Pale Tree will manifest into a spectral being to assist them. However, for the more critical and serious decisions, the Pale Tree will ask the First-Born of the sylvari to lead the people

Well, that’s it for today’s blog post! Keep Calm and Game On!

Courtesy of DeviantArt User: ChaosMMO

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[1] Ng, Florence. "Game Character: How To Bring Your Characters to Life." Udemy Blog. 30 May 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://blog.udemy.com/game-character/>.

[2] "Why Do the Dwarves and Elves Hate Each Other?" - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/79901/why-do-the-dwarves-and-elves-hate-each-other>.

"Human – GuildWars2.com." GuildWars2com RSS. ArenaNet, LLC. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/human/>.

"Human." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 25 Apr. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human>.
"Sylvari – GuildWars2.com." GuildWars2com RSS. ArenaNet, LLC. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/sylvari/>.

"Sylvari." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 13 Dec. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sylvari>.  

"Ventari's Tablet." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 8 Apr. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ventari's_Tablet>.

"Norn." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 25 July 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn>.

"Norn – GuildWars2.com." GuildWars2com RSS. ArenaNet, LLC. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/norn/>.

"Charr." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charr>.

"Charr – GuildWars2.com." GuildWars2com RSS. ArenaNet, LLC. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/charr/>.  

"Asura – GuildWars2.com." GuildWars2com RSS. ArenaNet, LLC. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/asura/>.
"Asura." - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W). ArenaNet, LLC., 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. <https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Asura>.