Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach

by Katherine Isbister

Games are poised for a major evolution, driven by growth in technical sophistication and audience reach. Characters that create powerful social and emotional connections with players throughout the game-play itself (not just in cut scenes) will be essential to next-generation games. However, the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction are not widely understood within the game development community. Further complicating the situation are powerful gender and cultural issues that can influence perception of characters. Katherine Isbister has spent the last 10 years examining what makes interactions with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences. This work has revealed that the key to good design is leveraging player psychology: understanding what's memorable, exciting, and useful to a person about real-life social interactions, and applying those insights to character design. Game designers who create great characters often make use of these psychological principles without realizing it. Better Game Characters by Design gives game design professionals and other interactive media designers a framework for understanding how social roles and perceptions affect players' reactions to characters, helping produce stronger designs and better results.

Genres: Game Design, Nonfiction, Design, Psychology, Games, Art

364 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 2006

About the author

Katherine Isbister is a game and human computer interaction researcher and designer, currently a professor in computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Isbister received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, with a focus on the design of interactive characters. In 1999, she was selected as one of MIT Technology Review's Innovators under 35. In 2011, she received a Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. From 2014 to 2015, she held a Lenore Annenberg and Wallis Annenberg Fellow in Communication at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Reviews

[piranha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to the psychological, social, physical, and emotional aspects of good character design. Explains key concepts from psychology and social science, including cultural and gender specific roles and perceptions, and includes design exercises to explore ideas further. Especially suited for people who want to develop a firm grounding in starting to think about game design in a holistic sense. Included are some quite interesting interviews with game designers; I especially enjoyed the insights from Hasegawa and Tsurumi of Sony on differences between the American and Japanese markets when trying to develop the same franchise for both.

This offers a framework; it isn't immediately practical -- the author won't be holding your hand while you design your first main character.

Good organization, clear writing easily understandable for lay people, and extensive references for anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge after reading this book.

My main quibble are the illustrations, which seem to me -- ironically -- quite ugly, and IMO don't always make their point as well as they could; there is no credit anywhere to the illustrator, so I have no idea who drew them. Also, alas the book is too expensive new. Distributing it without the DVD would cut that cost; one could just offer the files as downloads from the publisher's or author's website.

[Chris Rittelmeyer]

Games are poised for a major evolution, driven by growth in technical sophistication and audience reach. Characters that create powerful social and emotional connections with players throughout the game-play itself (not just in cut scenes) will be essential to next-generation games. However, the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction are not widely understood within the game development community. Further complicating the situation are powerful gender and cultural issues that can influence perception of characters. Katherine Isbister has spent the last 10 years examining what makes interactions with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences. This work has revealed that the key to good design is leveraging player psychology: understanding what's memorable, exciting, and useful to a person about real-life social interactions, and applying those insights to character design. Game designers who create great characters often make use of these psychological principles without realizing it. Better Game Characters by Design gives game design professionals and other interactive media designers a framework for understanding how social roles and perceptions affect players' reactions to characters, helping produce stronger designs and better results.

[Andrea Bøe Abrahamsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a lot of writing books about crafting characters because I want to write and create great characters for my games, but I have struggled immensely planning how to execute on those ideas through game mechanics. This book has given me solutions to those problems and given me even better ideas on how to craft rich interactions between the characters.

Don't be discouraged by the age of the book either, it is full of tips still not being capitalized on to the fullest in modern games. The examples are a bit old, but these are still great games that are still inspiring current games, getting remakes, and series still receiving sequels.

The core content is a quick and easy read as well, one actionable tip coming right after another.
Highly recommended.

[Sona Nahapetyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is one of the best ways to show how psychology can be used in game design. It explores most of the important aspects with practical approach and samples.

[Rodrigo Porto · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro de 336 paginas é um verdadeiro guia de como se deve pensar quando estiver desenvolvendo personagens para seu jogo. Seu conteúdo não mergulha nas profundezas da psicologia, mas sim, boia sobre sua superfície tornando-se claro para os mais leigos do assunto, que com o apoio de varias ilustrações e vídeos conseguirão compreender o assunto tratado com uma facilidade imensa.
O livro apresenta vários conceitos psicológicos que podem ser trabalhados nos personagens de jogos de todos os gêneros e até outras formas de mídia como cinema e literatura, mostrando os principais arquétipos e estereótipos, relações sociais, as impressões que um individuo forma ao se relacionar com um desconhecido pela primeira vez e as expectativas que uma pessoa forma em relação a outra com base nestas percepções muitas vezes inconscientes e apresenta dicas e sugestões de como utilizar estes conceitos quando estiver desenvolvendo o seu personagem para torna-lo mais atraente, vivo e interessante para o jogador, fazendo com que ele se projete com facilidade nele.
Cada um desses conceitos são explorados em diferentes capítulos do livro e aqueles que desejarem se aprofundar em um tópico especifico contarão com uma vasta lista de livros sugeridos para tal no final de cada um. Isto faz do livro uma excelente leitura independente do seu nível de conhecimento na arte de criar personagens.
Não consigo pensar em uma melhor forma para você que esta começando e quer se especializar neste assunto, este livro certamente será um excelente ponto de partida para seus estudos e seu aprofundamento no assunto.