Gw Temp

Mr. Y explains the next step in his process- creating your main cast of characters.

Heya, this is my third article in this series. What I want to talk to you about next is creating your main cast of characters. You can apply these instructions to making any character, really, but right now we're just focused on the hero, villain, party members, main villains and other NPCs, etc.

When it comes to character creation, I urge folks to not define everything right away. Get all the basic facts down, and come back to stuff like hair color and blood type later. The most important part of creating main characters is creating their personalities, followed by their background histories.

For now, I highly recommend you take care of all the vital stuff I describe below, and leave everything else unless it's important. This is because you need to give yourself time to stew it over, and think up ideas for how your character looks and such. Giving yourself more time to think is always a good idea. Keep in mind that, as said before, you need to do things that let you think easily! Go exercise, drive a car, or listen to some music; whatever works for you. Some things will work for less people (Like chatting all day in #gamemaker). I suggest you try to do activities that leave you alone and lead you to think about things, but if something else works, go with it. There's nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation, after all!

Anywho, let's get into the real meat of this read. When creating your characters, you will probably have a mental image of what they look like. Assuming you're like me, being no artist or spriter and not willing to learn (Or have someone else do it), you probably won't end up with a character looking like you first imagined. But that's okay! You'll either learn to like how your characters turned out, or find other sprites and face pictures (If used) for them. This is something I'm emphasizing now- don't put much thought into the looks of characters.

Typically, this is the information I fill out for each new character:

• Name: First, probably last too.


• Age: Another general thing, not a big deal.


• Weapon: This one can easily change, although I usually don't change it. I like to define the weapons early on, so that I can use them to "describe" the character's personality. For example, a man who uses a gun may be a coward, or a swordsman might be a reckless adventurer. You know, that sort of stuff. Be sure to study up on many different types of weapons if you don't have many ideas. If you want a list of cool weapon ideas, check out this article by Angroth.


• Hometown: This is a hard one to do at the beginning of the game, but I try it as best I can. Usually the main character's hometown is easy to name, while party members and less-important NPCs are harder. Also, the hometown isn't necessarily WHERE the character grew up, just where the character hangs out most of the time during or before the game. Think of it as the "Prime Location" for the character. And again, don't be afraid to put this one off.


• Personality: I don't use Personality all that often, because usually my characters' personalities are obvious from their Backgrounds, and I describe their personalities there. However, this is a very nice fact to get straightened out early on, as a personality tells you a lot about a character. Maybe someday I'll write something detailed about personalities, but it's mostly common sense. You'll typically want many diverse personalities both inside and outside the party, since too much of one thing is boring. However, making them too diverse makes your story and game clownish and silly with the dialogue. It's a bit of a juggle, but it isn't all that tough to figure out. I dunno, maybe I'll write about personalities sometime...
  
• Background: My favorite part of a character bio! This is what I really focus on in my character bios for main characters. If you ever use this same model for making less-important characters later in your game, you can place much less emphasis on Background and more on Personality. This is yet another expansion of the existing storyline that you have made. For beginner writers, it's easier to make obvious connections to the story thus far (Hero is the guy from the prophecy, villain is guy trying to stop prophecy, etc.). If you're experienced, you can expand the storyline with much bigger leaps of creativity. This means that your characters can be further distanced from the basic storyline (Hero is a prisoner of war taken by the villain's army, villain is the accomplice to an evil DRAGON king, etc.). As a general rule, the more important characters (Hero, main villain) are much more obviously tied to the storyline, while less-important characters (The fifth guy to join your party, heegle) are less tied. You are not at all tied to this model, however! I'm not sure whether it's better to do this, or to make your most important characters distant from the storyline, but I'm leaning towards the former. For an example, take Breath of Fire. Ryu's a member of the Dragon Clan, and he goes out to beat the crap out of the evil Dragons (Black Dragons, were they?), like it's told in the prophecies. Nina's part of the Bird Clan, and while she joins Ryu's party because It's The Right Thing To Do, her truly active part in the storyline ends after leaving Windia.

I think I can better demonstrate all of this with an example. So here is Derek, the main character of my fictional example game from the earlier articles in this series.

• Name: Derek Wachowski


• Age: 26


• Weapon: Small pistol


• Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri


• Personality: Hot-tempered when it comes to fairness and justice, but unwilling to enforce the rules himself, especially when it comes to confronting others. Not very strong, being thin and wiry, but can usually get others to do what he believes needs to be done. Anti-social and uncomfortable around women.


• Background: Grew up and lived in Kansas City all his life, including the Second American Civil War. Escaped war drafts by faking a terrible illness. He is a member of the City Council, and sometimes takes on large court cases in the local area. Brilliant lawyer, but he never tried to socialize with other people, and so is very awkward in casual non-work environments. Recently began to carry a pistol after a death threat was made to him by a child molestor that he sent to jail. A fairly moderate force, he believes in conservative economics and the death penalty, but is very pro-choice and works for secularization. His parents were evangelical Christians, and were so pushy on him that when he left for college he became a very strong athiest. Kansas City has maintained a very neutral status in the Civil War, and it was there that James Silverton began to gain humongous popularity. A childhood friend of James, Derek knows that James is very ambitious and greedy, but still supports him because he will end the war and reunite the States. Very early in the game, however, Derek sees James murder an aide who accidentially released a confidential document to the media, and since then abandons James and seeks out other anti-war forces.

And there you have it. Again, easier with an example. If you have any suggestions or examples of what you do, post 'em below! If I was confusing, tell me and I can elaborate. Thanks for reading!