Further Thinking about Progress

Further Thinking about Progress

This week, I have spent time gathering more examples of Character Attachment that my friends have experienced and the reasons and effects this had on their memory of that particular title. Some really interesting points can be drawn from these and by listing them here, Ill have a continual reference point moving forward:

Dimitri from COD: Black Ops, spent all of World at War playing as him, then he gets gassed by his mates in black ops, f*****g heartbreaking.

I always liked the start of Fallout 4 where he’s in the mirror and you get to completely personalise the character. Feel like the simple mirror thing makes it feel more personal and like you’re that character. Also the whole twist where his infant child is the enemy leader is mad too coz all you’re trying to do is find this kid and turns out he’s the institute leader. Mad plot twist. But character personalisation is a big one for me that gets me more attached to character

Relating to the Fallout 4 example above, another friend added this:

Yeah I f*****g rate that, spent more time making my character than actually playing the game

Like when I make a career mode on FIFA. When I make just general Mr Manager with standard looks i get bored after a season or two. But atm I made our old headmaster and it’s some old dude and I like playing with that one more. Also, I know it’s not characters specifically but I tend to enjoy career modes more when I start as the lower division and work my way up so s**t players actually end up pretty good. I sometimes get attached to them. Don’t wanna sell my 83 rated rated Rakeem Harper coz I bought him 4 seasons ago from West Brom at 67 rated. Rather than a United Career mode which i won Europa league 1 st season n champions league second. There’s not much else to do after that then so I get bored easier with them ones.

Witcher 3: Geralt - he’s a cool guy. Yennefer - complex love interest. Triss - complex love interest. Ciri - annoying but interesting. Banner saga: the story is good and makes the characters shine. Titanfall: BT-7274 - funny, loyal robot. He was admittedly a stereotype but the writing for him was so on point.

These examples bring around some really interesting topics about character attachment. The Dimitri character mentioned from Call of Duty is a very good example of how an NPC in a game can give the player a very raw emotional reaction, because of time spent with their story in previous titles. Fallout 4, which I have spoken about previously on this blog is an excellent example of how character personalisation can be important to characters and this is echoed even more substantially in the FIFA example. Although the gameplay is seldom affected by these small visual changes to a new character in a database of thousands of real life football players, the players experience is enhanced to the point of many more hours of gameplay, because they feel they have actually contributed to the world in which they are playing. The simple choice of how the character representing them looks allows the player to instantly relate more to the experiences this character (and by extension the player) may have.

This week, I have taken a step back from the development of the shooter I was creating, in order to give me time to process these new thought processes and think about the creative solutions that will allow me to answer some of these theories. After doing this, I have come to the decision that I will begin to pursue the idea I mentioned in my previous blog. Doing this will allow me to keep the progress on the game I have been working on (although it is likely I will simplify those developments slightly) whilst expanding on what genre my game is commiting to and providing a much steadier platform for the player to become attached to their character.

This will become a basis for the development of the UI my extended and improved idea will have. I will now go through the reasons for each element of this development before talking about how this will relate to my ideas and plans for the future. Taking the small green numbers as reference points:

1: Base Tab - This will be the tab button for the 'Base' UI. In this UI, the player will be able to see the runnings of each of their key structures, examples of which will be the lab, security centre and medical unit. Upon clicking this tab, the player will be presented with a new screen, in which they will be able to flick between seperate tabs along the left hand side, in a similar fashion to this UI.

2: Characters Tab - This will be the Tab button for the UI shown above, giving the player details about their 3 playable characters, such as their key stats and abilities, as well as their inventory and key stats. These are all placeholders for now and will likely change as I think about the application and design more.

3: Missions Tab - This will be the Tab button for the 'Missions' UI. In this UI, the player will be able to see all available objectives and the rewards for completing them. This is the one most likely to change and could be developed into a world view tab, showing the player the risk their compound and characters are under.

4: 3 Character Tabs - These tabs will allow the player to flick between their available characters, seeing their stats and inventories. By having this, the player has a quick and simple way of comparing the traits and inventories of their characters.

5: Character Image - This image will allow the player to instantly recognise which character they are currently viewing. This image will change dynamically based on the appearance of this character, constantly giving the player a view of the character they helped create.

6: Character Name - This will display the name (possibly names) of the character they are viewing. The player will choose this name, giving them an extra level of personalistion and hopefully kickstarting their initial attachment to the character. 

7: Characters Key Stats - This part of the UI will give the player everything they need to know about their characters key stats, such as Level, Progress towards next level, Health, Power and Stamina. This will be a key part of the UI to keep an eye on, as characters stats will impact their ability to carry out missions, with Health needing to be replenished after each outing, either with consumables or a trip to the Medical Unit.

8: Powers - This part of the UI will give the player a look at what abilities the character has been given. These could potentially become available to the character based on their traits, for example, characters with higher strength will be able to get combatitive abilities, whilst players with high intelligence and charisma will get tactical abilities. 

9: Traits - This part of the UI will show the player their characters traits. I have recently decided on this system, as it allows for more personal methods of character attachment. Characters will have 3 traits:

- Strength, which will affect their core stats (Health, Power, Stamina), as well as their damage output in Combat.

- Intelligence, which will affect their crafting of items and research of new abilities and equipment.

- Charisma, which will affect the characters bartering ability and also their survivability if taken hostage (Perhaps making captors monologue).

10: Inventory - This part of the UI will display the characters Inventory, which is something I aim to scale down. At the moment, the character has slots for 10 pieces of equipment. However, by reducing this number to 3, I will greatly simplify the equipment system whilst playing as the character, making it easier to follow. The players equipment will be transferred to this screen at the end of a mission, whilst the rest of their inventory will be deposited in the base's cache of items.

11: Biography - After looking at the examples my friends have given, as well as examples of character development in popular culture, I have realised that characters with backstories are more likely to become attachable to viewers and interactors. With that said, I think the assignment of a backstory generated based on a characters traits would offer some interesting depth to each character. As an example, a character with high strength will be given a military background. This offers the player the opportunity to see their character as a real person and the biography could even be updated as the player uses a character. A simple, yet effective way of ensuring the characters have an extra level of depth.

12: Relationships - This part of the UI will give the player a sense of the characters relationships, both within the team and outside. Having relationships develop between the character will give the player the sense that their characters are interacting in the base and becoming friends. It would also offer interesting game mechanics, such as the possibility of a rescue mission in the event the player surrenders whilst playing as a character. An extra level of attachment would be produced by having the option to use a characters friend in order to rescue them, possibly even giving bonuses. Not only that, but I would like there to be the possibility that characters would have randomly generated relationships outside of the squad. For example, the development of families. This will give the player a sense of needing to keep that character alive and perhaps doing so will secure positive results.

13: Stats - The last part of this UI will give the player a look at this characters key stats, such as how many kills they have, how long they have been an available character etc. This will give the player a look at how they have performed with the character and I feel this will be a perfect opportunity for the player to begin realising they want to continue using the character. This form of attachment will be quite on the nose, however it could offer the player the opportunity to feel accomplished with keeping their characters alive for X amount of time, successfully getting X amount of kills.

This UI is a work in progress and is likely to change, but by making it, I have begun to realise how my game could take shape and what measures I will explore in order to nourish a relationship between player and character. I will now move onto thinking about the player base and how it can be used in tandem with the developing characters.