Video Game Character Design: A Comprehensive Guide

Investing time and effort in character design is vital for any game’s success. Characters are the lifeblood of a game, as they are the ones you interact with and guide you through its world. So, to make sure you have an immersive and engaging gaming experience, character design should be at the forefront of your priorities.

The character design process involves creating a concept and building a compelling story around it that the character can embody within the game. This includes developing both the visual and functional aspects of characters, such as artistic design, technical development, and narrative elements. Collaboration between game writers, designers, and character artists is essential to creating fun, engaging, and believable characters. A great video game character is multi-dimensional and has many different qualities that make it interesting and complex.

The character design process can be intricate yet challenging at times, but this guide is here to provide you with a comprehensive overview to help you create memorable and well-developed characters.

Start with a Character Archetype

To create a compelling character for your video game, you should begin with a character archetype that can help you focus on defining their behaviors, gameplay, and even opposing enemies. There are twelve common archetypes or personas recognized across literature and mythology, such as the Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester, and Sage.

Build their Backstory

Once you have chosen an archetype, it’s time to develop their backstory. Just like people in real life, characters are shaped by their past experiences, goals, and aspirations. A strong backstory is crucial to building a good character, as it helps artists and animators make the character more believable. While some aspects of the character’s backstory may not be revealed in the game, it’s still important to define their history, relationships with others, and the world around them. This will help you better understand the character, inform their potential arc, and identify where they might grow and develop.

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Brainstorm their Attributes

Once you have determined your character’s starting point and end goal, you can begin to develop how they will evolve throughout the game. It’s important to create an emotional and physical journey for them to embark on and consider how these factors will impact not only the protagonist but also the other characters in the game. It’s also essential to consider how your character’s appearance aligns with their backstory and the overall concept of the game. This includes details such as clothing, facial features, height, weaponry, and their home environment. By observing how your character handles challenges and conflicts, the player will gain a deeper understanding of their personality, leading to greater empathy and immersion in the game.

Add Visual References & Character Traits

It’s important to start visualising the appearance of your character by creating sketches and gathering reference imagery. For instance, if your character is an old, wise man who lives by the sea, it can symbolise timelessness and eternity. At this stage, you can also begin to define your character’s traits in more detail.

Define their gameplay

It’s time to think about how your characters will move, attack enemies, and defend themselves in the game. You should consider their weight, speed, and style. Can they possess a superpower or acquire special powerups that transform their abilities? Additionally, think about how they interact with other characters in the game.

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Define relationships

Character design involves more than just their appearance and voice. The relationships that characters have with others also play an essential role in defining their personality and how the player perceives them. These relationships help to shape the character’s behavior and actions in the game world, providing the player with a better understanding of who they are.

Provide an aesthetic that fits

You have a lot of options to customize your character’s appearance, including weapons, nose size, and fighting sounds. Whether you decide on the design or give the player the choice, it’s important to ensure that the features align with the game’s world. The aesthetics of a character contribute to its overall essence and can play a crucial role in immersing the player deeper into the game’s narrative.

Whistling Woods International (WWI) is one of India’s leading design schools, with a School of Animation & Game Design that offers top-notch animation courses in Mumbai. We have a proven track record of helping students achieve their dreams in the field of animation.

WWI’s School of Animation & Game Design offers two animation courses:

BDes in Animation | 4 Years

The courses aim to educate and train students in creating content for the digital platform. Although there are various animation courses in India, ours prioritises students’ upskilling. It is a unique, multi-dimensional course that focuses on building a strong foundation in the art and technique of 2D and 3D animation, video game design, graphic novel design, and art and development.

The course will have 8 semesters, and you get to learn:

2D Animation
3D Animation
Stop-motion Animation
Comics
Game Design
Motion Graphics and
Previsualization

BDes in Game Design | 4 Years

Gaming is a rapidly growing industry. By 2022, it is expected to be worth $196 billion dollars. There is a high demand for skilled game designers who have received formal education in animation and game design.