Creating Emotions by Characters Design for Computer ... - CiteSeerX

Creating Emotions by Characters Design for Computer Games? F. You1 , I. Palmer2 , W. Godfrey3 , Z.B.Zheng4 1

4

School of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-Sen University, GuangZhou, P.R.China fang [email protected] 2 School of Informatics, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK [email protected] 3 University of Bradford, Bradford, UK [email protected] Institute of Computer Application, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P.R.China [email protected]

Abstract. Firstly, the methodology for characters development in computer games was analyzed from both aspects of art-sourced character development and story-sourced character development separately from the different views of various research fields. In the second section, four different techniques relating to character design and the creation of emotion has been deeply discussed. At the end, the four diverse designs for character OEDIPUS were given according to the plot development based on the background of tragical fable of the ancient Greece. Keywrods:Characters Development, Creating Emotion, Characters Design, OEDIPUS

1

Characters Development in Computer Games

Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams [1] suggested character design in two ways: through art-sourced design or through story-sourced design. With art-based design, the appearance of a character is decided upon first, and then a background story is fleshed out to augment it if necessary. Generally, the simpler games didn’t rely so much on story, so the design emphasis tended to be more visual. For the simpler sort of games, normally use art-based design. In another hand, using the characters’ animation in games to express characters personalities and emotions, is a big issues for both of design approaches - art-sourced development and story-sourced development. As the following, we analyzed the relationships between those two ways of characters development and other research fields from various views which is different from the demonstrations of Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams [1]. ?

This paper is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.60403039 and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province under Grant No.031538.

1.1

Art-sourced Character Development

Signifier and Signified. Stuart Hall [2] argued that representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things . Saussure, who is know as the ’father of modern linguistics’, analyzed the sign into two further elements. The first element, the signifier, which is the form such as the actual word, image, photo, etc.; the second element, the signified, which is the corresponding concept it triggered off in your head [2]. Saussure also gave the name of this approach: semiotic approach. The relation between the signifier and the signified, which is fixed by our cultural codes, is governed by our society, historical periods, and its environmental world. There is no sign that is permanently fixed.

Sign and Culture. Since people who belong to the different cultures must share the different conceptual maps, so they have the various interpreting the sign of a language. In this way, even people have the same signifier, but they can have the different signifieds. The signifieds have a very close communication with culture, history and society. Representation is the process by which signs or any signifying system to produce meaning. And this meaning, is not fixed, is always change, from one culture or history period to another.

Semiotic Approach and Art-sourced Characters Design. As a general method, the semiotic approach also can be utilized to analyze characters design, especially for art-sourced characters design. For art-sourced design, we mainly consider characters’ appearances and movements, and hope to present characters’ personalities and emotions according to their appearance and movement, so game players can identify with the characters, then the further, understand the game. If we consider appearance design, the following physical aspects for characters normally will be concentrated on: face, body figure, clothes, and equipment. For instance, the basic physical function for clothes is to cover and protect body from the weather and environment. But as signs, clothes construct a meaning and carry a message. An evening dress may signify ’elegance’; miniskirt, ’sexy’; a bow tie and the tail, ’formality’; jeans and trainers, ’casual dress’. These signs enable cloths to convey meaning and to function like a language-’the language of fashion’ [2]. In the same way, if we want characters’ movements to convey meaning and to express something about characters, we can use another language -’body language’.

1.2

Story-sourced Character Development

Generally speaking, the better approach to develop a well-fleshed-out character is to start with the consideration of the background and story behind characters. Based on the deep understanding of characters personality and the detailed description of characters, the designer can really understand and visualize the character. Whatever happens on the games must be for a purpose. Design something that is meaningful. Let characters always act with a purpose, and reasonably. The game narrative is directed immediately arouse players’ feeling and emotion. All such feelings are the result of something that has gone before. Based on story-sourced design, the following aspects can be considered to express characters personality: Language. language is a key cue to a character’s personality. His grammar and vocabulary send all kinds of signals-about his social class, education, ethnic origin, and so on [1]. It is just like the character’s accent, which indicates a great deal of characters’ 1background. Growth of the Character. The growth and progression of the hero is an important part of the story, even than the plot itself. The common game character growth cycle is similar with the hero adventure cycle in the myth or films. J. Campbell (1993) demonstrated that the adventure cycle for mythological hero can be summarized in the following diagram [3]:

Fig. 1. The adventure cycle for mythological hero [3]

Similarly, A. Rolling and E. Adams [1] described a character growth cycle based on the diagram shown in the following figure:

Fig. 2. Character Growth Cycle [1]

The hero, having achieved mastery of the special world, becomes a novice of circumstances in a new special world. That is why their growth or adventure always is a cycle. According to this Cycle, we can analyze the relationship between the narrative and characters design. In the different periods of the hero adventure, there always have the certain characters would appeared to be helpers, testers, allies or enemies of the hero. The same development rhythm can be found in games, myth, films or novels etc..

2 2.1

Characters Design for Creating Emotion in Games Why Put Emotion into Games and Emotioneering Techniques

It is one of the issues for game design - how to offer the emotion range and depth in games as the traditional entertainment can offer. The reason for most people play the game is entertainment. Players hope can obtain some different experiences from real life, and to do some ’meaning’ things which is very hard or impossible to do in the real society. Those entertainment experiences would contribute to or enrich game players’ life in some way, or let the players get the mental relaxation in the game world. There are many people who prefer to watch film and television than play games, since they hope to invest their time in the meaning entertainment. If the game can offer the emotion range and depth as the traditional entertainment can offer, there will be more people attracted by games.

Emotioneering is the vast body of techniques created and/or distilled by David Freeman [4] in 2004 that can create, for a player or participant, a breadth and depth of emotions in a game or other interactive experience, or that can immerse a game player or interactive participant in a world or a role. It also means the application of these techniques. The Goal of Emotioneering is to move the player through an interlocking sequence of emotional experiences (p.9). There have 32 distinct categories demonstrated in David Freeman’s book [4], and it is described as the techniques of Emotioneering. Generally speaking he argued those categories from following aspects of techniques: NPC, dialogue, groups, situations, plot, characters design, story and opening cinematic. 2.2

Creating Emotion by Characters Design in Games

In this section, the Four different techniques about the character design mainly contributed to creating emotion will be deeply discussed, which are different views from the Emotioneering Techniques of David Freeman [4] in certain degree. Role Induction Techniques. David Freeman [4] argued that role induction techniques is an art to pretending, and also are the techniques that make you willing to identify with the character you are playing. He suggested a number of ways to encourage a player to become emotionally caught up in a role. Game designers can use those techniques separately or be used in combination, such as Rewards for Playing the Role; Against all odds; Accomplishment; Leadership Attitudes and Abilities; A Valuable and Appreciated Role; License to Break the Rules; Beguiling New Identities; Abilities Beyond the Norm; The Character has Emotional Responses; we Recognize and can Identify With; Self Auto-Talk and Self Auto-Thought; Fewer Words Usually Invites the Player to Identify with the Character Character Silence; Generalizing a Problem. A Character Arc is the character’s difficult path of growth through an emotional fear, limitation, block, or wound. If game designers succeed in creating a game that leads the player through personal growth, the game can be quite emotionally gripping. The Look of Characters and Their Related Equipment. In this section, we choose one of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online games)- (WOW) War of Warcraft , to discuss how to design the character for MMORPG with semiology method, which is mainly focus on how to design the appearances of characters. Semiotic Analysis. Semiology is introduced by Arthur Asa Berger in his book as following in1998 [5]. Semiology is the term for the science of signs explicated by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. A different science of signs, semiotics, was first elaborated by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Semiotics is the term now

generally used to refer to both systems. Both are concerned with how meaning is generated in ”texts” (films, television programs, and other works of art). Text is frequently used interchangeably, and refer to a signifying structure composed of signs and codes which is essential to communication. This structure can take a wide variety of forms, such as speech, writing, film, dress, car styling, gesture, and so on. Different readers of text can read or respond to text in different ways, which is quite depends on readers’ culture background and themselves knowledge for the content of text. When readers contact the signs and codes of text with their historical and cultural context, they can deduce diverse functions and possible effects of characters in a particular way. Characters Analysis for MMORPG using the Semiology Method. In MMORPGs, we can consider the characters in games are text, and game players are readers of games. The procedure of read is the procedure that players read and identify with the characters. In WOW, characters are designed according to Races and Classes. The characters of WOW [11] is given according to the categories in the game. Based on Races, the characters divided into eight categories – Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, Orcs, Tauren, Trolls and Undead. An alliance was made by Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves; Orcs, Tauren, Trolls and Undead made a Horde. Based on Classes, the characters divided into nine categories Warrior, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Druid and Shama. Indeed the characters in MMORPGS were purposefully designed according to the categories they belong to. The certain attributes of characters can be found through analyzing characters in the different categories (races and classes). For instance, all the characters of human have obvious human characteristics and good-looking, easily can be judged to be good group-Alliance; ; All the Mages, even in the different races, wear copes and has a magic weapon which is not huge but with mysterious magic. Comparing with the other classes, Mages look like more intelligent and literary. For the WOW, the following aspects of meanings can be represented by different signs of characters as showed in the Fig.3. Enhancing Emotional Depth through Symbolic Techniques. Symbols have been used in film, television and comics to give characters, scenes, and stories emotional depth and resonance. In games, symbols not only have the emotional power but also useful in gameplay. Symbols in Comics and Films. Scott McCloud [6] demonstrated ’symbols’ are sorts of images which are one category of icon. Normally there are the images we use to represent concepts, ideas and philosophies. As showed in the figure 4. Peter Wollen [7] suggested that cinematic sign are of three orders: the icon, the index and the symbol. The symbol is an arbitrary sign in which the signifier has neither a direct nor an indexical relationship to the signified, but rather represents it through convention.

Fig. 3. Signs and Meanings for Characters in WOW

Fig. 4. Symbols [6]

James Monaco [8] argued words also are symbols since the signifier represents the signified through convention rather than resemblance. James gave a example the symbol was used in the film, as showed in the Figure 5 (p.166). Symbols in Games . Symbols are a very powerful tool to resonate with emotion, but in games, it is not necessary for a player to notice a symbol to be emotionally affected by it. But they not only do this in games, they often can be used or

Fig. 5. SYMBOL. Bergman often uses coffins and corpses as symbols in his films [8]

given a function in gameplay as well. For instance, in one game, a magical sword can be a Symbol of the player’s Condition or change in Condition; On the other hand, the player can uses the sword to accomplish his or her final tasks, this is a Useful Symbol.

3

Characters Design Based on Oedipus

In this section, based on the most tragical fable in the ancient Greece - OEDIPUS, diverse characters appearances were designed for the same character OEDIPUS according to the various states during plot development in the story. 3.1

Expressionism Methodologies

Based on the analysis of recent popular games and the research on characters design [9], we will adopt the expressionism methodologies to design the characters in OEDIPUS. The particular features for different characters will be exaggerated to show their personalities and emotions. With the development of game narrative, the key characters appearances would be changed from one state to another state which indicates their personalities have changed from inside, even this situation would not happened in our real life. In order to let game players still can recognize the same character in the different game states, the main features for the character will be kept or have the similar attitudes which can give the clues for audiences to realize it is a same character. 3.2

Drawing Style

For the drawing style for characters, a certain Asian drawing elements was added to the sketches, for instance concentrating on some essential details, adopting the line drawing which is quite normal in Chinese traditional drawings, etc..

3.3

Design for Characters

The following Figures are the design for characters. They were divided into four parts according to the plot development: Young Oedipus, Love Queen, King Death, Remorse. The original size of sketches for character designs was A0.

Fig. 6. Young Oedipus - Powerful, Handsome, Evil,Passion

Fig. 7. Love Queen - Sweet, secret, Flamboyant (When the character has this appearance, take [10] as the reference)

References 1. Rollings, A., Adams, E.: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. New Riders.pages 122, 135. New Riders.(2003) 122–135 2. Hall, S., REPRESENTATION: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage Publications. (1997) 15, 31, 37 3. Campbell, J.: The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Fontana Press. (1993) 245 4. Freeman, D.: Creating Emotion in Games. New Riders Publishing. (2004) 5. Berger, A.A.: Media Analysis Techniques. Sage Publications. (1998) 6. McCloud, S.: Understanding Comics:The Invisible Art. Harper Perennial. (1993)

Fig. 8. King Death -Evil, Incest, Power, Treasure

Fig. 9. Remorse (Realizing Truth) - Self-injure, Wandering, Destiny

7. Wollen, P.: Signs and Meaning in the cinema. British Film Institute. (1969) 8. Monaco, J.: How to Read a film. Oxford University Press. (1977) 27, 166 9. F. You: The Creation of Characters that Have or Convey Emotion and Personalities with the Context of a Computer Game. OMSc. Dissertation, University of Bradford, UK. (2005) 10. Wei Qi nan: Bronze (Animation) , (1989) 11. http://www.wowchina.com/index.shtml, last visited (Nov. 15, 2005)

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