Monday (original title day)

So over the weekend I've been doing some research on the connection between character and user. I think this is important to look at to see if the user requires a character editor to help make or break this connection. I was reading about an interesting game (the name of it escapes me for the moment) where the user controls a character and makes decisions for good or bad, but the more negative decisions the user makes the more rebelious the character becomes and harder to control they are. I thought this was really interesting as it adds another dimension to gameplay.

GTA was another interesting game to look into, it's one of those games most people would expect to have a character editing screen at the start but doesn't. I read about this slightly but still need more evidence to back this up, but part of the reason they don't have a character editing screen and why the main character doesn't have a great connection with the users is because of the violence in the game. If you had an emotional connection with the main character then you'd have an emotional reaction to the over-the-top violence in the game which can't be to good effect. Machine gunning down police officers as a russian mob member is a bit different than doing it as yourself I'd say. But a lot of that is based on opinion so should research that some more. The only GTA games I've played are the brilliant first ones, with the pixel characters and the storyline which noones bothers to follow. In the new GTA though they have a much stronger storyline so character development for this must have been a very detailed process.

I feel like crit week is catching up on me a bit and even though I feel like I have a question, I need to go about writing it down in an easily understandable manor. Want to get my scrapbook done and dusted aswell so I can begin on the fun part... concept art.

These "masked" chararacters really appeal to me now. There has been a few small appearences of them more recentely with next-gen games. I wish I could find somewhere where I could veiw the discussion the developers had when deciding not to have a full character, but a suit which the users can place themselves in. I beleive a suit can have a story attatched to it aswell, so its like a bridge between users and storyline which feels like a win win to me.

My final product is shaping up in my head as a character editing screen (as far as I am able to take that anyway) which a character I've designed (probably masked as my research is taking me) which gives the user limited options to make the character their own, but without any effect of the visuals which would effect story. Sounds confusing but for example, if the story relates to the main character being in a fire as a child which led to this gameplay then the character will have to have some burn marks on him/her whether the user likes it or not. One thing I am hoping to do is make a character the same, but one female version and one male version as I feel this would be a fun experiment to do. Usually aswell even the characters hidden by a suit you can tell from their appearence if they're female or male aswell.

The crysis suit here shows very modern character design strongly relating to anatomy. Even though the colours of the character point to him being quite dark and evil the stance is a very positive very human stance. I guess because it's a war game its veiwing war as dark and evil whichever side your on. Maybe all you'd want to edit on this character if your playing him is the sex?