hi guys in this episode of Design'y
Bbits I'm gonna do a short presentation
that I call characters that we care for
there's a case study on player empathy
now the goal here is for me to go over
some tips and tricks or suggestions for
how you can create great believable
characters that really pull on the
heartstrings of the players for your
video games so let's talk about empathy
empathy is the ability to understand and
share the feelings of another now this
is very important that you understand
this definition as we continue to go
through the rest of this course content
so in games today games are full of
emotional moments full of impact
opportunities and experiences that can
allow the players to feel and do we
really connect with the players and have
them feel empathy when we introduce them
to these characters or when we have bad
things happen to these characters or
good things happen to these characters
so these next tips are going to show you
how you can increase that for your
players so sadness alone isn't sad
enough just something bad happening
without context is not gonna make
players feel right away it's not gonna
make players relate they may say oh dang
that's messed up but they won't feel the
grief right they won't relate to the
hurt on a sense of on a personal level
you have to draw those points of
connection and so the biggest problem is
not every player feels the same way
different people have different
empathetic triggers so let me explain
the trick is you need to find multiple
ways to have the player to connect with
appreciate or relate with a single
character by making such a broad stroke
you have increased the opportunity to
connect with different people and so
here is how it's done right this is
death impact done right spoiler alert
this is eros from Final Fantasy 7 and
she's introduced to you as a bullied
female she's innocent and wholesome
she's a care taker and also she's the
best healer in Final Fantasy 7 and later
in the game she dies so how do you feel
as a player maybe you failed to protect
her there's a love interest who's lost
more importantly you lose her vote her
utility and also you lose all the
equipment and time invested into this
care
and so now let me explain why this is
death impact it done right you see you
spend a lot of time playing with this
character so you get opportunities to
develop a relationship with this
character but if the story side isn't
enough when she dies there's also the
fact that you're losing her from your
party you no longer have your best
healer you no longer have all the
equipment that you put into her you no
longer get any use out of all the time
that you invested leveling up this
character so that loss is gonna be
unavoidable so it's not just that
character being a sweet and innocent
person who's gone but it's also the
utility it's also the fact that that
character can no longer provide heals
for you and every battle that you fight
after her death you immediately think of
dang Eris is gone so now let's talk
about the badass done right every game
loves to have well I don't want to say
every game but lots of games love to
have a badass character who's gonna be
you know the hero the the machismo the
laugh in the face of death and spin on
his boots kind of guy or girl but let's
talk about how you can actually do it
right you see it's not about having a
hero who's just unbeatable or it's not
about them being overconfident or being
never afraid or unafraid because that's
cliche right like we already have Duke
Nukem and nobody wants to see repeat and
repeat and repeat of the never afraid
badass so let's talk about how you can
actually create this archetype but make
it even more impactful the player needs
to see the human element before seeing
the heroic element so let me repeat that
the player needs to see the human
element before they see the heroic
element they need to see the hero
acknowledge the fear and still prevail
they need to see the hero acknowledge
and understand their vulnerabilities or
their mortality and then still go for
the goal
that's what's badass not somebody who's
just never afraid who's never hurt who's
indomitable to everything around them
that's a very boring hero that's
Superman and unfortunately that's why
Superman had to have kryptonite because
without at least some sort of
vulnerability without something that
they have to overcome on a personal
level it's really hard to invest in a
character like that in route form and
want them to win because there's no
mystery they always win so now let's
talk about the
child than right a lot of movies a lot
of games like to write these child
heroes and here are the things that come
from the audience the audience expects
the child to be vulnerable they expect
the child to be afraid they expect the
child to run and hide and not act and
then all of a sudden in the movie
there's that look that the child gets or
the one thing that happens and then the
child all of a sudden ignores pain
ignores fear ignores whatever threats
our head and does some sort of
incredible heroic thing is if they go
through this transitional moment but
that's super cliche here's how you
actually do the child hero right the
child should be vulnerable the child
should be afraid the child should be
crying but the child should still act
heroic while maintaining those emotions
that's really how you deliver an
impactful experience especially if
you're writing a child character who's
supposed to be heroic it's if you give
the death for let's say the child's
mother or father dies or some sort of
very important figure you know the
sadness the grief that that should be
overcome or that the child should be
overcome by those emotions even if the
child is getting revenge and it
shouldn't be an anger it should be in
crying anger right the tears the sadness
the face should still look sad even
though the child has unlocked some sort
of dormant power that is over to that's
able to overcome you know whatever
threat that they were against and now
finally let's talk about my favorite way
to write villains
I don't like villains who are just evil
for evils sake like oh I just woke up
one day and I've just been evil my whole
life nobody likes cat nobody likes games
like that that's super like Mario
Brothers type stuff
with Bowser who's just been mean his
whole life people want villains that
have a story right so the villas
motivational needs need to be the truest
of all in my opinion it needs to be so
clear that you can see why somebody
would drive to such lows to achieve
these goals
it's the existence of the villain and
his goals alone that gives the reason
needed or that gives all the reason
needed to justify the existence of the
hero and even with the villain you still
can't lose the human element the villain
still needs to be understood even if
you're not agreeing with those actions
or why that villain is making those
things are those decisions you can't
just have a super evil evil power and
say he's evil that doesn't work that
falls flat on audiences these days what
people are really like it's seeing
somebody's fall from grace and seeing
somebody go to the dark side to restore
the balance in their own life those are
the great villains the people who have
means the people of resources the people
who have connections but they just have
a twisted perspective on what they're
going to do to achieve their goals you
see the best villain is a hero without
any other options alright guys so that
was a quick little presentation I put
together for designing bits that I hope
will help you write some really cool
relatable characters that will leave
impact on players who play through your
games if not rewind the video and watch
it again so thanks for watching this
segment of Design'y bBits I really had a
lot of fun putting this together and I
really hope you look forward to way more
of this kind of content I'm gonna keep
breaking down my favorite game design
mechanics from my favorite games and
sharing those design lessons with you my
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your way thanks again for watching larry
games obviously i'm larry and I'm out!
