Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach

by Isbister, Katherine

• ISBN13: 9781558609211
• ISBN10: 1558609210
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-14
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

Game development is still in its infancy, but games are poised for a major evolution. They are at a stage of development that is similar to where movies were in the late 1920's: Ready to move from mostly plot-driven stories to more character based ones. The problem is that the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction are not widely understood in the game development community. And gender and cultural issues within the game genre are growing in importance. Katherine Isbister has spent 10 years examining what makes interactions with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences. The key is to understand what's memorable, exciting, useful, and engaging to the participant about real-life social interactions, and applying that to character design. Game designers who create great characters often make use of these principles without realizing it. Better Game Characters by Design gives game design professionals and other designers a framework for how social roles andperceptual,manipulations function, so that they are more aware of what they are doing when they design characters, and why it works. * Includes extensive illustrations, game examples, interviews with game designers, and clips from popular games on the DVD to illustrate concepts and best practices.* Uses a non-technical approach appropriate for artists and designers as well as developers.* Introduces and explains key concepts from psychology and social science, including cultural and gender specific roles and perceptions, and includes design exercises to explore ideas further.* Includes interviews with Marc Laidlaw (writer for "Half-Life" and "Half-Life 2"), Tim Schafer (creatorof "Grim Fandango" and "Full Throttle"), localization experts for Sony in Japan, and others.

Author Biography

Katherine Isbister is an associate professor in the department of Literature, Language, and Communication at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Foreword

Preface

About the DVD

First Impressions

Social Surface

Practical Questions--Dominance, Friendliness, and Personality

Focus on the Player

Culture

Gender

Using a Character's Social Equipment

The Face

The Body

The Voice

Characters in Action

Player-Characters

Nonplayer-Characters

Putting It All Together

Process

Evaluation

Appendix

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.