In the world of game development, particularly with RPGs, the creator has the ability to draw the player in with rich personalities: An interesting main character, a diverse set of side-kicks, and a wicked antagonist. In the story-driven genre of the RPG, character development may be the most important, yet most neglected aspect of game development. Although developers may think their characters are fresh and appealing, many don’t realize that their characters have become as homogeneous as the American suburbs. What has this pitfall meant for the game development community? For one, released games or games in development for that matter, fall off the rails in just a couple of weeks. Developers like their games to get attention, but rarely do you see commentary on how well-developed a character is. Rather, the attention is geared towards impressive graphics and/or innovative gameplay. I couldn’t possibly count the number of projects that I have scrapped after the advertisement/screenshot posting stage, let alone the entire community. Developers realize they have an empty shell of a game when the most attention they get is surrounding their screenshots.

Let me put it this way: YOU, are uninteresting, you are like every other game developer out there. Chances are if you’re reading this, every character in your game has your personality. Either get a personality or get a clue, or maybe two:

Clue #1: Be mindful of the dialogue. Does every character in your game use your self-proclaimed witty sarcasm? Does everyone in real life use your self-proclaimed witty sarcasm? No. The sooner you become mindful of how your personality can show through in every character, the better. Make a character that despises your witty sarcasm. Make one who thinks it’s funny, etc. Designing your characters so that they come to life is difficult, but not impossible. When writing a back and forth dialogue between characters, make sure they don’t overlap. Make sure Alex doesn’t say something that Cloud would, or worse, something that you would. Be mindful.

Clue#2: Don’t be afraid to go over the top. People enjoy experiencing things that don’t or can’t happen to them in everyday life. This can be manifested into the characters in your game. A psychologically intriguing character can be just as good as hand-drawn graphics. Don’t be reluctant to give your characters mild and/or sever psychological disorders. The DSM-IV TR can be a cookbook on creating characters for your game. Whatever you decide, make it authentic. Allow your characters to live within the parameters of your game, not your life. You’re designing an RPG, a role-playing game. By letting the characters in your game play their own role, you’re giving the player a chance to experience something more than your personality. Remember, we already decided your life is just several shades of beige.