Bringing Game Characters to Life

1
Bringing Game Characters to Life

• Steve Crane
• Midway Games

2
Game Characters are Dreadful

• Why are they dreadful?
• Why does it matter?
• How can we improve the situation?

3
Why do characters matter?

• Mainstream entertainment is based on interesting
  characters

4
Games Lack the Broad Appeal of Movies

• Not everyone is goal-oriented or competitive
• Hand-eye coordination fades
• Game graphics arent quite there yet
• Game characters fall short

5
Action Movies vs. Action Games

• Games are good at the action scenes
• Games fail to deliver the quiet moments that
  define character
• Great action memorable characters massive
  hit
• Should be an easier problem than simulating all
  of human behavior

6
Character Can Drive New Kinds of Gameplay

• If there isnt any gameplay during the quiet
  moments, they might as well be cut scenes.
• Ill get back to this later

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Where Do Game Characters Fall Short?

• Theyre often autistic

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Where Do Game Characters Fall Short?

• They respond too similarly

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Where Do Game Characters Fall Short?

• Theyre wooden

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Where Do Game Characters Fall Short?

• They repeat themselves

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Where Do Game Characters Fall Short?

• They dont interact believably

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How Do We Make Game Characters More Interesting?

• Challenge 1 Characters shouldnt act like idiots
• They need to respond to events believably
• Characters should vary their behavior

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How Do We Make Game Characters More Interesting?

• Challenge 2 Characters should display a baseline
  level of human behavior
• Their behavior takes relationships and past
  events into account
• They have moods
• They behave differently around people they know
  versus ones they dont
• They express themselves (at a minimum) via body
  language

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How Do We Make Game Characters More Interesting?

• Challenge 3 Characters should have recognizable
  personalities
• One-note personalities are acceptable for
  supporting characters (e.g.tough guy, weasily
  coward)
• Ideally, main characters have at least two
  competing traits. This enables meta-games.

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How Do We Make Game Characters More Interesting?

• Challenge 4 Characters should be able to engage
  emotionally with the player

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Special Cases

• Zombies

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Special Cases

• Soldiers

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Special Cases

• Law Enforcement

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Special Cases

• Stone-cold killer

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Special Cases

• Sports

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Special Cases Crowds

• Real crowds are non-uniform

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Special Cases Crowds

• Real People Respond Differently to Events

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Personality

• Heroic

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Personality

• Villainous

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Personality

• Likeable

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Personality

• Ditzy

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Personality

• World-weary

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Personality

• Intense

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Personality

• Cool

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Personality

• Irritable

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Facial Expression and Body Language as Indicators
of Personality and Mood

• Animators figured out the rules long ago

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93 of human communication is through body
language

• A search for body language on Amazon generates
  1373 hits
• Body language is straight-forward to implement

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Body Language

• Level 1 Brain-dead obvious

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Body Language

• Level 2 Subtle

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Body Language

• Level 3 Obscure
• Dont over-think it. Players wont get it.

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Body Language

• Static postures are the place to start

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Body Language

• Posture plus movement can provide an unmistakable
  signal

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Body Language

• Crowds can tell a story

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Body Language

• Body language can express a changing relationship

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Body Language

• Another example of a changing relationship

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Body Language

• Invading personal space creates tension

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Body Language

• The message is clearest when postures reinforce
  each other

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Body Language

• Mixed messages are interesting

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Body Language

• You can always tell when someone cares

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Body Language

• Group dynamics are a harder problem

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Case Study - Poker

• There is no such thing as a poker face

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Case Study - Poker

• Poker is a game and a meta-game
• The meta-game is all about body language

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Case Study - Poker

• A player is either acting or he isnt

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How Character Can Drive Gameplay

• Imagine that you cared about an NPC
• Would you change your play to avoid hurting their
  feelings or alienating them?
• Suppose an enemy NPC had human weaknesses that
  you could exploit?

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Case Studies

• The guard
• The alien abductee
• The plucky heroine

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Connecting Emotionally with Game Characters

• Can an NPC be your friend?
• Shared interests
• Shared experiences
• Responsiveness
• Friendly gestures
• How about if you choose your friends?

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Summary How Do We Make Game Characters More
Interesting?

• Characters should react to whats happening
  around them
• Characters should display a baseline level of
  human behavior
• Characters should have recognizable personalities
• Characters should engage emotionally with the
  player

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Questions?

• (Oh, and by the way, Midway is hiring AI
  programmers. Lots of them.)