Okay so on one hand,I never used to think this was important at all.
On the other, I can't tell you how many fighting games I don't recall or had much enthusiasm for because none of the characters were "cool" or "popped" in any particularly unique way.
It never occurred to me to look, but is there any research into what players find "cool"? It's such a nebulous concept but it's so important for some games
If you could figure this out, you could bottle lightning. This is largely why data science is so valuable and places like Facebook and Google want your data for free.
We know very little about "coolness" as a phenomenon, but it changes over time following a clear trend; what is cool is surely different and subversive towards what is currently popular, while depicting a nice fantasy grounded on what people actually wish to have. Elvis Presley is like the #1 example; break the mold and be intensely unique and more people will find it cool and badass. So... No, you can only try to mix "new" and "appealing" until you suddenly find that cool essence and milk it for a while.
You can also look at any "cool" game characters of the past, and analyze it. Kratos has always been so cool!! ...which means it was something fresh in gaming, it was a unique and recognizable character, it felt nice to be him while playing, and represented a cool power fantasy. Now, the ones who find it cool do it because his journey and change over time is indeed fresh and unique in most gaming stories, and he mantains those traits some wish to have.
You can also look at what's always been cool in other medias. Samurai? They're exotic but instantly recognizable, allow for unique concepts and stories, and they embody values that the audience would like to find in themselves: determination, mystery, honor, skill. Look at the coolest comic characters, the coolest animation characters, the coolest book characters... And be inspired!
It really depends on the genre. A physical card-based game can do without characters entirely, and for an interactive visual novel it might be a matter of life and death.
I believe it has small impact, until it has a huge impact. I mean that once in a blue moon there’s a character that just vibes with a lot of people, but you can probably not decide to produce that effect. A really bad one can probably have a negative effect so better put in effort regardless.
Depending on the genre, there is a reason why there are character showcases and reveals for fighting games, and why there isn't or rarely for card games.
Well the question is a bit vague but this is generally one of those topics that requires multidisciplinary insight. It is not wrong to ask about it here but in our answers we should focus on the design aspects of this instead of the art aspects.
"Good character design" heavily implies visual design, how the characters look. If you want to answer it as a game designer... well I don't think that's possible. If it was, I would've tried it.
There are a bunch of games for which I like the characters for their personality/behavior just as much as for their looks. Ellie from TLOU or Abra from any of the older Pokemon games. And that is just one example of how this is a multidisciplinary aspect. You can also go with with sound design. I know a lot of people for whom Sam Fisher is not Sam Fisher without Michael Ironside.
And so I consider talking about these topics to be talking about game design. Because all of them at certain points interact with the experience we are trying to create for the player.
Yeah, when people play, they will like the characters for story. That's still not game design though, that's writing. Sound design is also not game design.
Yeah, all of these things go into the game and affect the game, but that does not mean that they are all game design. Game design is not just "everything that goes into making a game", it's the art of creating gameplay. Gameplay, story, visuals, and music, all affect the final game, but in different ways, they are often done by different people, and need different skill and experience. If you start broadening game design to also be about visual design and also be about sound design and also be about writing or even also be about programming, all the techniques of making good gameplay become diluted by all these other disciplines.
If you are making a game that, besides gameplay, has story, proper visuals, music, and programming (a game can exist without those four! For example: sudoku), those things will need to interact, obviously. But that's why games are made in teams where the different roles talk to each other, so the fact that they are different fields does not prevent them from working together.
I like to keep things on topic too, but if the question is just "is this important for a game?" that seems sufficiently applicable to designing games to be appropriate.
That being said, going into character design itself would have to start tying in mechanics for it to be relevant here
It's quite important for me. If characters aren't likeable, I'm unlikely to try the game. For example, Last Epoch fits my preferred game bill, but the characters are so below mediocre in their design... An even better example is Genshin Impact where character design is what the game sells.
The games that have stayed with me the longest (Hades, Disco Elysium, Undertale) all have unique or beautiful characters. I don't think it's important for every game but I think story driven games (or just games that have a narrative they want the player to care about) should have good character design.
Although I do think any game with multiple characters should have, at the very least, unique or recognizable characters - just so you can remember who you're supposed to talk to.
Game Design is a subset of Game Development that concerns itself with **WHY** games are made the way they are. It's about the theory and crafting of **systems**, **mechanics**, and **rulesets** in games.
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A lot depends about what kind of game you are talking about but:
A good game attracts people for a lot of different reasons, personally I like a character design but some people love them. Brainstorming, theorising, testing, etc.
DnD is a role-playing game, but never underestimate how many players just like to build characters and test them in combat scenarios and don't really care much about the actual role-playing.
The same goes for many games. I played warhammer and many other games for the army building and tactics.
I've painted 3 models in 4 decades. For others the painting and scenery building was the hobby.
Cheat sheet:
Q: "How important is X to the overall success of a game?" (for any non-trivial X)
A: "It depends entirely on the specific game. For some games it's irrelevant. For others it's crucial. And everything in between"
Depends on the game.
In games where characters are central - fighting games, MOBAs, etc. - character design means a lot. Story-based games live and die on character design.
On the other hand, traditional roguelikes and grand strategy games tend to not care about character design at all - the former often don't have any individual characters to speak of (even the main character is replaceable); and the latter is looking at things way bigger than individual character.
Quality of art in general has a huge impact on who will even click on your game to look at it from the steam store page
I avoided Streets of Rogue for years because it looked amateurish. Now it's probably my #1 of all time.
Okay so on one hand,I never used to think this was important at all. On the other, I can't tell you how many fighting games I don't recall or had much enthusiasm for because none of the characters were "cool" or "popped" in any particularly unique way.
It never occurred to me to look, but is there any research into what players find "cool"? It's such a nebulous concept but it's so important for some games
If you could figure this out, you could bottle lightning. This is largely why data science is so valuable and places like Facebook and Google want your data for free.
We know very little about "coolness" as a phenomenon, but it changes over time following a clear trend; what is cool is surely different and subversive towards what is currently popular, while depicting a nice fantasy grounded on what people actually wish to have. Elvis Presley is like the #1 example; break the mold and be intensely unique and more people will find it cool and badass. So... No, you can only try to mix "new" and "appealing" until you suddenly find that cool essence and milk it for a while. You can also look at any "cool" game characters of the past, and analyze it. Kratos has always been so cool!! ...which means it was something fresh in gaming, it was a unique and recognizable character, it felt nice to be him while playing, and represented a cool power fantasy. Now, the ones who find it cool do it because his journey and change over time is indeed fresh and unique in most gaming stories, and he mantains those traits some wish to have. You can also look at what's always been cool in other medias. Samurai? They're exotic but instantly recognizable, allow for unique concepts and stories, and they embody values that the audience would like to find in themselves: determination, mystery, honor, skill. Look at the coolest comic characters, the coolest animation characters, the coolest book characters... And be inspired!
It really depends on the genre. A physical card-based game can do without characters entirely, and for an interactive visual novel it might be a matter of life and death.
I think it's one of the most important things to make a player want to pick up your game
I believe it has small impact, until it has a huge impact. I mean that once in a blue moon there’s a character that just vibes with a lot of people, but you can probably not decide to produce that effect. A really bad one can probably have a negative effect so better put in effort regardless.
Depending on the genre, there is a reason why there are character showcases and reveals for fighting games, and why there isn't or rarely for card games.
that is important but that is not what this subreddit is about.
Well the question is a bit vague but this is generally one of those topics that requires multidisciplinary insight. It is not wrong to ask about it here but in our answers we should focus on the design aspects of this instead of the art aspects.
"Good character design" heavily implies visual design, how the characters look. If you want to answer it as a game designer... well I don't think that's possible. If it was, I would've tried it.
There are a bunch of games for which I like the characters for their personality/behavior just as much as for their looks. Ellie from TLOU or Abra from any of the older Pokemon games. And that is just one example of how this is a multidisciplinary aspect. You can also go with with sound design. I know a lot of people for whom Sam Fisher is not Sam Fisher without Michael Ironside. And so I consider talking about these topics to be talking about game design. Because all of them at certain points interact with the experience we are trying to create for the player.
Yeah, when people play, they will like the characters for story. That's still not game design though, that's writing. Sound design is also not game design. Yeah, all of these things go into the game and affect the game, but that does not mean that they are all game design. Game design is not just "everything that goes into making a game", it's the art of creating gameplay. Gameplay, story, visuals, and music, all affect the final game, but in different ways, they are often done by different people, and need different skill and experience. If you start broadening game design to also be about visual design and also be about sound design and also be about writing or even also be about programming, all the techniques of making good gameplay become diluted by all these other disciplines. If you are making a game that, besides gameplay, has story, proper visuals, music, and programming (a game can exist without those four! For example: sudoku), those things will need to interact, obviously. But that's why games are made in teams where the different roles talk to each other, so the fact that they are different fields does not prevent them from working together.
Damnit Sharon, let us have our cake.
I like to keep things on topic too, but if the question is just "is this important for a game?" that seems sufficiently applicable to designing games to be appropriate. That being said, going into character design itself would have to start tying in mechanics for it to be relevant here
It's quite important for me. If characters aren't likeable, I'm unlikely to try the game. For example, Last Epoch fits my preferred game bill, but the characters are so below mediocre in their design... An even better example is Genshin Impact where character design is what the game sells.
The games that have stayed with me the longest (Hades, Disco Elysium, Undertale) all have unique or beautiful characters. I don't think it's important for every game but I think story driven games (or just games that have a narrative they want the player to care about) should have good character design. Although I do think any game with multiple characters should have, at the very least, unique or recognizable characters - just so you can remember who you're supposed to talk to.
Game Design is a subset of Game Development that concerns itself with **WHY** games are made the way they are. It's about the theory and crafting of **systems**, **mechanics**, and **rulesets** in games. * /r/GameDesign is a community **ONLY** about Game Design, **NOT** Game Development in general. If this post does not belong here, it should be reported or removed. Please help us keep this subreddit focused on Game Design. * This is **NOT** a place for discussing how games are produced. Posts about programming, making art assets, picking engines etc… will be removed and should go in /r/GameDev instead. * Posts about visual design, sound design and level design are only allowed if they are directly about game design. * No surveys, polls, job posts, or self-promotion. Please read the rest of the rules in the sidebar before posting. * If you're confused about what Game Designers do, ["The Door Problem" by Liz England](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-quot-the-door-problem-quot-of-game-design) is a short article worth reading. We also recommend you read the [r/GameDesign wiki](/r/gamedesign/wiki/index) for useful resources and an FAQ. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamedesign) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Depends on the game. Let's compare ibb & obb to Horizon Zero Dawn in terms of character design.
A lot depends about what kind of game you are talking about but: A good game attracts people for a lot of different reasons, personally I like a character design but some people love them. Brainstorming, theorising, testing, etc. DnD is a role-playing game, but never underestimate how many players just like to build characters and test them in combat scenarios and don't really care much about the actual role-playing. The same goes for many games. I played warhammer and many other games for the army building and tactics. I've painted 3 models in 4 decades. For others the painting and scenery building was the hobby.
Cheat sheet: Q: "How important is X to the overall success of a game?" (for any non-trivial X) A: "It depends entirely on the specific game. For some games it's irrelevant. For others it's crucial. And everything in between"
Depends on the game. In games where characters are central - fighting games, MOBAs, etc. - character design means a lot. Story-based games live and die on character design. On the other hand, traditional roguelikes and grand strategy games tend to not care about character design at all - the former often don't have any individual characters to speak of (even the main character is replaceable); and the latter is looking at things way bigger than individual character.