Hi everyone, I have been thinking about characters. It seems like pre-made characters have a lot more potential for narrative and depth. Because when that character is in the hands of the developer the character’s story can be seamlessly integrated into the world of the game. Whereas with the custom character the narrative is severely limited to where the game can’t really say much about the character. The player can make up their own story about their character but honestly how far does that go? What’s your view on this topic?
I’d say that depends on the game. I could neither imagine Zelda with custom chars nor Sims with pre-made ones. Furthermore a good story goes along great personalities and customization is a possible income.
It all depends on the game, if you really want immersion go for custom. If you want to focus heavy on story go with premade. A nice compromise is a premade character with lots of customization.
You can have custom characters with an interesting story(ex. Skyrim)but the story still probably wont be as good as something with premade character(ex. Bioshock Infinite)
Really? I was thinking premade characters would be better for immersion.
It depends on the budget, among other factors.
That makes no sense at all because you whether a character is custom or pre-made the story can be written before you have either using pronouns.
I’m sorry I don’t quite understand.What doesn’t make sense? You’re not being very specific.
I don’t think character customization has any impact whatsoever on the potential of narrative depth unless you make it so. 95% of games with character customization have stories that are absolutely unaffected by the customization anyway, its just an aesthetic thing. What exactly is it about custom characters that you think limits the narrative?
One would expect that a burly warrior would get quite different reactions to an ancient whip thin sorcerer. If the games character is predefined as a burly warrior then it you can add depth to the story by making the bravado full thug cower when he is confronted by the burly warrior. If it was the wizard the thug might be confrontational (maybe trying to rob the wizard) until the wizard demonstrates his power.
By knowing what the character is, how they look, etc, you can craft a much deeper and believable story.
(I think that’s what the OP is getting at anyways).
- John A
Exactly, with a premade character you can make a certain character have a certain event or encounter and actually give them an interactive back story. Instead of a simple written background which is pretty much as far as you can go with a custom character.
+1
You can’t make the character’s background part of the game. The custom character’s background will just be a piece of text sitting somewhere and while you can roleplay with a certain background that’s as far as that will go. Think of Skyrim for moment. Did that game actually acknowledge a certain trait of your character? At best you’ll here a comment about doing x quest or being good in y skill.
This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately for a new game I’m just starting. It’s definitely true that a pre-defined protagonist allows you to tell a deeper story, or at least one that is much more closely tied to the character’s personal journey. Even a simple thing like allowing the player to choose if the character is male or female has a huge impact on your ability to tell a specific story about that character.
I’ve opted to define the primary character that the player starts out with, but allow them to take control of the “random” characters that join their group throughout the game, essentially making all characters in the game “equal” but diverse, but still introducing the world through the eyes of one specific man.
You’re (incorrectly) making the assumption that allowing character customization precludes the developer from writing a backstory for the playable character. Did you ever play Mass Effect? You can customize literally everything about your character, yet the narrative is incredibly deep (because the narrative is unaffected by your character customization). They even get around the voice acting problem because you can only change your character’s first name, his/her last name is always Shepard, and everyone addresses you as such in the VO.
Bioshock, Zelda, etc. would not suddenly have to be rewritten or redesigned if it allowed the player to pick booker or link’s beard and hair color. Booker would still be a pinkerton who was at wounded knee, and link would still be a backgroundless silent protagonist.
Oh, take Cinderella for example. The entire story can be rewritten using pronouns and without illustrations. So the worry about custom vs pre-fab characters isn’t important, the story is important.
Exactly. Or you could make a game about Cinderella but allow the player to fully customize her appearance. the story is equally unaffected.
why not a little of both? You could buy pre made and make changes to them without the need to be an expert 3d artist. It would save alot of time and give your game the feeling of being unique.
Hes referring to allowing character customization in-game (Mass Effect, Skyrim) versus having a pre-designed, static protagonist (like Nathan Drake or Link), not custom vs. stock 3d art.
At any rate, if your story is so good or the game so fun then you make the decision to use your own unique pre-fab characters like Mario Bros so that’ you’ll have ‘intellectual property’ to support you into old age. Otherwise, customized characters are a selling point, particularly in multiplayer games.
It’d be so frustrating to get lucky with a really fun game and make a lot of money only to wind up with no intellectual property for the game because all the characters were generic custom characters but again that depends only on the story and game play. Deciding with the character(s) will be custom or pre-fab can be the last decision.
Personally I’d think I’d allow both, particularly since in a Multiplayer game there is, e.g. Mario, Lugio and then you need to add more prefab or allow customization or both.
Well, if you have the time and the patience to make sure it ALL works seamlessly, by all means, go nuts! Just be sure that you are able to keep up the level of quality…