I am having trouble figuring out what kind of person my character should be. I want my game to be playable for all, but I also want to make sure I keep my story interesting. It is hard trying to find a balance between making something relatable and exciting/unpredictable at the same time. In class today, during our first analysis, a classmate brought up the ability to empathize with a game and I wonder what would be more critical to the player in my game. With a little more analysis of this, I will try to choose which one to follow through with.
My Player
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4 responses to “My Player”
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I can definitely relate, it can be very tricky to create a character. Instead of having to create one yourself, have the player do it themselves. Maybe you can have a general outline of the character (ie. where they live, and what they do), and then allow the characters to fill in the blanks. For instance, they can decide their name, pronouns, quirks, strengths, weakness, and any other interesting facts. If you were to use a tool like Twine to create your story, you could include all of those variables within your text. This would be really fun in terms of interactivity, because the player would be able to write / type in all of their answers and have a direct influence on the story. In addition, it would solve your problem of “find[ing] a balance between making something relatable and exciting / unpredictable at the same time”. Let me know what your thoughts are, and I look forward to seeing your final project. Good luck!
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Yea, that’s definitely a struggle. Of course, you’d want as many people to be able to play your game as possible, but I don’t necessarily think that the character has to fit the player. It could also be the opposite. For example, if the character that the player will be playing is a girl, but then you’d argue, what about male players? Well then, they’d have to think how their character would think, instead of thinking of what they’d do. You could take that further, and make the character non-human. For example, let them play as an animal, like a dog. And so, the player would have to play like a dog. Or a mythical creature, like a fairy. Fairies are tiny, so players would have to be more careful about things like walking on the floor, or any other ways that fairies could get injured or killed. I don’t think that trying to make the main character interesting would be the same as being exclusive. Like you mentioned, you’re just trying to make an interesting story. However, if you’re still a little worried about that, maybe you could do something like the game “The Temple of No” where the player chose what character they wanted to play. Then you could copy and paste the same story, with a few changes, along with the character’s name.
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This is a good point! Being specific with the playable character doesn’t necessarily make the story exclusive, now does it inherently mean that a totally customizable character is more inclusive. It all depends on how you have them interact with the story. I think one of the beauties of stories and video games, in general, is that the player will start off already suspending their disbelief and accept whatever the game gives them as the “truth”.
If the main character is an assassin I don’t need to be one to be empathetic, I sympathize with them because I’m going through this journey with them.
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I’m having the same trouble with you. I don’t know how to find the balance between interesting content and the “audience”. But after few days of thinking, i think i should focus more on the content instead of the “audience”. Because if the story is exactly what i wanted, i don’t need to worry about too much about the “audience”, because i think every one has different type of taste, and in my option, one game is not aimed for everyone.
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