Project Presentation 3

Today was my second progress presentation, from 3-5pm at the HMC Cinema. There's something about this room that makes me more nervous than any other, I'm sure I could hear my own voice shaking as I talked. There was a lot of development from the last presentation in November, but I felt there wasn't too much extra since the hand ins in January. Still, it's only been four weeks, and I had trouble with my wrist injury the first week or so of the semester, but I have done quite a bit of reading at that time. Anyway, onto the presentation. I should note, I cut down on what I said in each slide before presenting, but this covers the extent I wanted to show.

Slide 1
Hello and welcome to my progress presentation.

Slide 2
To recap my project: My research aim is - "To investigate effective design of duo companion characters in video games, and the relationship of form and function."

As you can see from my action plan, my methodology follows studying case studies and character design theories, and then experimenting with these in practice-based media tests, recording all findings in my blog. The main elements I consider most important for successful duos form my critical framework, which includes the Character Design, Narrative & Character Performance, and Player Interactivity. My portfolio and final piece will be my creative response to my research aim.

Slide 3
In my ongoing media tests I look at theories in practice, such as shape theory, silhouette theory, colour theory and so on. I've based these on existing duos from my case studies, and have formed some of my own conclusions. I believe shape theory loses its impact the more realistic an art style, and is also more effective in creature-based design. Strong alignment to a specific shape can influence the portrayal of personality, as seen in these Ratchet & Clank sketches.

Colour is used in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to contrast the characters from the environment and each other. I experimented with changing the complementary colours, and also desaturating them for a more natural feel. The last design is my preference in that the designs aren't over saturated like the original, but still have highlights of identifying colour.

In Prince of Persia I looked at how the meaning of colour effects the characters, where Elika's original design featured a lot of red, and the Prince was quite bland besides a splash of blue. This suggested he was the calmer of the two, and she was more active, which didn't fit their personalities and roles. The final designs portray the characters better.

Slide 4
Continuing on shape theory, I then designed my own creature silhouettes based on the circle, square and triangle. This was also the beginning of me turning my pipeline to a more digital process, which will hopefully improve my skills and production rate.

Slide 5
Here I've mapped out the main elements I'll be researching and designing for my final outcome. I'll be examining both human and creature design, creating a world culture through their fashion, and looking at the pairing archetype and hierarchy. I'll explore these relationships through the five species I've created. The duos have been designed based from reoccurring archetypes that are popular in pairs. I will then conduct a survey where an audience will mix and match the individual characters to fit these archetypes, and evaluate how my designs are interpreted.

Slide 6
These fashion sketches are based from the Pictorial Encyclopedia of Historical Costume, where I've covered periods from recognisable ancient antiquity like Egyptian and Roman times, as well as English, French and German styles from the 1100's to the 1800's. This was to evaluate how style was developed according to technology and trends of aesthetic taste, comparing how a style was adapted across continents. I intend to do further research into fantasy fashion before creating my own style.

Slide 7
Through my research I have adopted the idea of balancing originality with familiarity in creature design. As such I've looked to a number of animals to study to take influence from, those which are less commonly seen as with cats and wolves. These are: deer, kangaroos, bears, otters, and exotic birds.

Slide 8
Terryl Whitlatch has been a main inspiration with her process of breaking animals down to their skeletons and muscles before combining them with another animal. Based on her book, I began my own sketches of various animals to practice their anatomy and evaluate their potential for my creature designs.

Slide 9
Here I've looked at animal and creature-based design from various games, looking at how consistency is kept by use of colour schemes, levels of exaggeration in proportions, and recognisable features from the real world.

Slide 10
I've noticed in many cases there are varying levels of keeping true to the animal a character is based on, like how human they act, quadrupeds walking on all fours, or whether clothes are worn. Sometimes it's just one article of clothing, others it's a full set. I need to keep this in mind for my creatures as some forms might be difficult to dress well.

Slide 11
With my research in mind, I started designing my creatures, starting with initial designs and then developing them as silhouettes. The Giant species fits the hulking muscle man archetype, but instead of being a brute they're more friendly and shy, and in touch with nature. They take inspiration from bears and deer.

Slide 12
The Mini species is designed to be rather cute and cuddly, and contrasts the Giant species. They are playful and smart, and like adventuring and making discoveries. They take inspiration from otters and kangaroos.

Slide 13
The Humanoid species is the most intelligent and advanced creature, who are strict and formal with the other species. They are elegant and refined, and have a male dominance in their hierarchy. They are also designed after otters and kangaroos, and are distantly related to the Mini species.

Slide 14
The Pet species is a horse-like creature in that they are mainly used for fast travel, but are smart and speak the common tongue. They are fancy creatures, who like to keep clean and preen constantly. They love beauty and valuable things, and as such love shiny objects like gold and precious gems. Their greed and pride is offensive to the Humanoids, and their similar male hierarchy causes dispute between the species often. They are inspired by exotic birds.

Slide 15
These are the latest final designs for the four creature-based species. While their fashion style still has to be designed, I feel they're not quite refined enough and plan to do sketch developments to fully explore their features and anatomy. When designing the duos, I will adapt colours to complement that pair but stay to relevant hues.

Slide 16
This represents the scale of each creature in relation to each other. I then went on to match up the pairs as planned based on popular duo archetypes. These are, in my own terms: Leader-Follower, Friends, Enemies, Romance, Parent-Child, Sibling, PC-Pet, and Frenemies. While these are the optimal choices, there are other options available that might be picked. The only true wrong answers is when a family type is chosen for the Romance.

Slide 17
As part of further developing my designs, I want to use a more unique art style. I've researched various games to examine what's been done before, and to see how genre has effected each. I want to stay away from over realistic styles, and like the idea of using outlines or more illustrative visuals, as well as lightly exaggerated proportions. I then began studying artists for more concept-based styles.

Slide 18
This artist's use of basic geometric shapes is appealing in its clean cut simplicity and bright colours. I also like the layered effect that is featured.

Slide 19
This style is similar to the previous, but instead of flat shapes a gradient is used to shade objects. Again I like the clarity and definition in shapes.

Slide 20
Another similar style, but more of a blend of those before. The unique aspect here is the use of coloured line to define details, which makes the shapes pop a little bit more.

Slide 21
What I like about this artist's style is the use of geometric shapes to define features, as well as the sketchy, textured illustrative traits.

Slide 22
This style features a more painted appearance, but the use of defined brushes and exaggerated proportions make it more unique.

Slide 23
I love the use of colour this artist uses, as well as the more clean brush strokes and lack of line art in most images.

Slide 24
With my inspirations in mind, I then took an earlier silhouette of a creature to conduct practice tests for the varying art styles I enjoy. They feature the bold shapes, gradient shading, and sketchy lines on the top row, and then the various line art effects below. I still plan to experiment with the painted styles, and will examine the potential of each for my final designs.

Slide 25
To further improve my skills, I'm constantly studying animal and human anatomy. Here I've focused on the skeleton and muscle structure of the body and face. I'll be continuing with a process I've begun here which uses shapes to build upon as you draw.

Slide 26
From here I'll be working on the following besides updating my blog: human and animal anatomy; art and genre style; fashion style, individual character design and personalities.

Slide 26
Thank you for listening. Any questions?

---

Feedback
This time round, while the feedback wasn't negative, things needed clarifying and didn't feel quite as enthusiastic as before. I don't think it went as well as previous presentations in terms of understanding what it was I was doing - with my development and as a final piece. My project is focused on the process of character design, so lacks foresight into a nice flashy end piece which is important for the showcase and my portfolio. A digital painting feels a bit standard in terms of this, but I'm not looking at things like modeling, or painting in depth, and that's left me a bit worried as Ryan says to focus on the design aspects.

Lynn started with saying I've been busy, that it's good to see so much analysis consisting of different media and development work. She's a bit confused by my approach: the project is about companion characters but the way I've presented them makes it look as if they were designed independently and then put together. I then replied that I believed I hadn't shown my thinking clearly in that the archetype pairings are based on existing popular reoccurring archetypes, so my creatures have been made to fit them and their relationships. I've always kept in mind when designing one creature what the other of that pair was going to be like as well. In many cases, things like size, age or gender are important, but I've just laid the development work out to show one creature at a time as I thought this would be clearer.

I guess I could explain it by saying the pre-production work was designing the different species as a whole, and now I'm refining them to be characters with individual personalities that belong to a duo, and this is where the designing as a pairing works best. But I do see her point, that I need to start showing this and really concentrating on the duo as a whole. I said the designs are going to be refined and done together from now on, which she was happy with. She said it'll be interesting to see how I'll bring them more together with a kind of world context and accessorising.

Lynn then went on to ask what exactly is the final product. This is a stage that isn't as well thought out however, and different opinions have made me a bit cautious of it. The plan is by April to have finished and polished eight archetype pairings, and conduct a survey to validate my designs based on the theories I've researched. The ten characters will be presented individually, then the audience asked to mix and match, which will hopefully be interpreted to align with how I designed the duos. After this, I'd take the most popular designs and do final digital paintings like marketing pieces, as again, the project is more about the process.

Lynn said it's good I want to take audience's opinion into account, and that this type of research is good for the dissertation, but how will this effect the showcase and my portfolio in showing my employable skills? This is where the flashy art comes in. For a moment she was concerned I was going to do eight final pieces of the duo pairings and the workload involved, but I reaffirmed I was just going to do the most popular, one pair that was successful and validated by the survey. She still didn't seem sure and said to work with Ryan, talk about work load, and make sure my selection allows me to really work in detail to a highly polished standard. She also said to keep in mind what happens after the survey, how I would develop the duos after that, if I could work beyond that well enough. I said I would iterate according to feedback if a pair didn't work well enough, but by then it wouldn't be about the process.

Brian began with saying I have a clear framework, and that it works for me. He asked what it was I wanted from this project. my presentation had a focus on my research into art style, so he asked if I'm trying to create my own generic style, or maybe the ability to respond to different briefs. I replied that much of my research looked at the relationship between game genre and relevant art style, and how I think different archetypes effect the choice I make. He was glad to see how I responded to this research, but would like to see me being a bit bolder in its application, and really push the aesthetics. He said I was a bit cautious, that I maybe I could try different designs to get more variants, and that it would be good for my portfolio to develop different ways of responding. I did think that as this was just a media test, and that because the design wasn't fully developed in terms of fashion and accessories, that the extent of the impact of each art style wasn't too obvious.

Link to Honours Project Presentation 3.
Link to Honours Project Presentation 3 Script.

Action Points

• Refine duo pairs together, not individually. Present as such.
• Begin creating individual and cultural fashion style.
• Redesign/refine survey and final piece ideas.
• Practice human and animal anatomy to polish designs and believability.

Research Proposal & Supervisor Assignment

Today was the hand in for the Research Proposal. I finished my final polishing in the early hours of the morning, uploaded it to Blackboard, then went for much needed sleep before I had to make a physical submission by 4pm. Interestingly, what I've learned from this particular written submission is that I need to start making my sentences more compact even as I write them, as by my first finished draft I had 4662 words for a limit of 3000, plus or minus 300 - the final was 3112 without references and titles etc. Before I would have thought actually getting the word count would be hard, but I was wrong. Very wrong. Editing was worse. Trying to combine thoughts and use less words without loosing the impact of what I was saying was difficult at first, but comparing the two editions I can clearly see the final was better in terms of readability and concise quality, so in the end I'm pleased with it, but wish I could instinctively do that in the initial drafts next time.

Link to Research Proposal.

We were also assigned our Project Supervisors earlier this week and I'm with Ryan Locke, which I'm quite pleased with as he seemed to show genuine interest in my topic in my first presentation and talk with him. So, I organised an unofficial meeting with him before the holidays, and we met yesterday for about an hour on the 12th. I wanted to go over my plan of action and what I've done so far.

We started off looking at my Proposal as I wanted another opinion on a little content, as well as section layout and appearance. My research aim had started off as "To investigate the effective use of duo companion characters in games, and to research what effects their design.", but it hasn't changed since the start of the semester, and I felt the wording wasn't quite right or was too general. I described my project the best I could, saying it revolved around form and function, of how I can justify the use of duos to make them successful and fit for their purpose, and how a lack of this breaks the flow and immersion of the game. Ryan agreed with the wording, as design should be the priority, and "use" sounds too mechanical. He suggested it was back to front and should be more along the lines of "... effective design of duo companion characters and their use...". Otherwise, he said the rest looked fine, but to just perhaps introduce the idea of duos rather than general characters in the beginning a little earlier.

I briefly described my strategy - what games I picked for my case studies and why, the design theories and pipelines I've investigated, my practice-based research, how my critical framework is applied to these, and my idea for the mix and match final outcome. He said that it sounded interesting, and asked if the results would feed back into my designs, which they would given the right time frame. I said I wanted time left to do a nice final piece, possibly taking one of the most popular pair sets and modeling them, which I'm unsure about it as I've never modeled a character before, or at least a digital painting as I'm much more confident in it.

I feel the questionnaire concept tests the characters design, but also covers others aspects from my critical framework in theory. Ryan agreed it's all about the design and process, and I shouldn't worry about post-production stages too much. He said modeling is a good skill to show off, and as a learning objective is good in the sense that it's a further process in design from the transition from 2D to 3D, to getting that final pose and in-game look. He recommended ZBrush, as it's quick to build a mesh, and easy to iterate on renders, but 2D is also important. He asked about the importance of gameplay elements as it's a part of my framework, but I replied the project is mostly about design, but the theory of player interactivity is relevant while practical application is out with the scope of the project. For instance, a character's role might be reflected in their design etc.

Overall, Ryan said my research sounds solid, and was impressed with the amount of work I had done and the attention to detail in my planning and investigation, that I was thorough and going in the right direction. He said there's little to worry about, that my Proposal seems tight and it looks good aesthetically. I think this meeting went really well for a first proper talk about my project, and it seems I'm doing something right!

---

Feedback Update
We got our grades back on the 6th of January, just as I was rushing about to catch a train, so it was quite a hectic moment when I opened my email. But I got an A! An A. For a written submission. I don't think that's ever happened before, it only went as high as a B17. I'm incredibly pleased with that, disbelieving I may be for a while, and think it's boosted my confidence about this project. As usual, in the Rubric we got feedback from Robin Sloan to go with it, which is as follows:

"The introduction is a good place to lay out some of the research context for the reader by giving examples of notable character duos that proved to be particularly memorable. This wouldn't be an analysis, but would give the reader a sense of what kinds of characters interest you.

The literature review touches on a range of concepts that will eventually form your critical framework. These are all of relevance and will enable you to critique character duos effectively, provided that additional literature is brought in to support some of the less well developed sections. For example, the sections under Player Interactivity draw only from games as examples, but could look to the game design literature (as well as character design for games literature) in order to build a more substantial understanding of the associated theories that relate mechanics to character design. In the dissertation, it would be great to see the review extended to bulk out all of your identified sections. Freeman and Solarski are great sources earlier on, but Ibister, Tillman, and others are also useful, as are the game design theorists Schell, Zimmerman et al.

The overall research proposal is excellent but look to extend the review to include sources in support of all of the identified sections, as this is essential to the framework. Also note that a framework really ought to be in place prior to conducting the case studies, with the case studies more of a means of testing your framework, detecting weaknesses etc. You can then reflect on the framework, make adjustments if needed, and put this into action in your practice based research."

I agree on many points Robin makes. My introduction was still quite a general approach to character design and duos, and an example or two would have been better as it would show, not tell, what I'm talking about. The topics I was discussing later on in the literature review were underdeveloped and did lack evidence to support my points as I had done previously, mostly due to Player Interactivity being less important and not as thoroughly researched, but will seek to improve on for a deeper understanding. Authors like Tillman and Schell are already on my to do list, but I will look up the others. In a sense, my critical framework has been formed before the full case studies, as so far they're more of an overview, and have been developed to its current state because of my findings, so I think it's at a good stage. Overall, the feedback is quite positive with improvements I understand and agree are needed, so I feel quite confident in tackling the dissertation.

Project Presentation 2

We had our first progress presentation today at 9:30am, where we showed our projects development. The media tests mentioned in my presentation aren't completely finished, such as the silhouettes and archetype switch, as I want to do examples from more games, so I won't post a more detailed version until they're all finished. I have found I have a bad habit of not posting about my thoughts very well. As you'll see in the presentation, I've made some observations about duo archetypes which I haven't brought up strongly before. I need to work on my blogging skills.

Slide 1
Hello and welcome. I'm Katrina, and this is my first progress presentation for my honours project.

Slide 2
To recap my project: My initial research aim was - "To investigate the effective use of companion characters in games, and to research what influences their design."Based on this, the research I've compiled so far explores aspects of duo companions characters in games, such as the typical archetype pairings and their hierarchy, as well as this effect on expected genre and art style in relation to the target audience.

Slide 3
While investigating these topics in general, more questions have come to mind which I can focus on:

• Are duo characters restricted to a particular genre? Do they simply work well for some and not others, or is it just a trend?
• How do character archetypes effect art style and genre?
• Is there a difference in production process for single main characters against duos, or duos and teams? Can they be done the same way, or is there more to consider? The image here is a flow chart of my own pipeline process when creating characters, and I plan to compare it to industry standard, and to duo character pipelines in particular.
• What's more memorable visually, the character's face and body, or the fashion? Outside of the character's personality and player experience, how can they impact the audience equally?
• How can you ensure the player has a connection to both characters? How can you ensure the character's are compatible with each other? Are they still considered successful if one is a favourite?

Slide 4
With my research expanding, I was inspired by a class lecture to create a basis for an action plan and a critical framework for which I can judge existing work on and compare my own to. Combined with character design theory and case studies into selected suitable games, I would then conduct practice based media tests to evaluate the effectiveness of the relevant element I'm looking into.

My framework developed into four main aspects of duo character design which I think effectively appraise the success of that pair. There's the visual component of the character's design, the relationship they have with each other, the teamwork gameplay mechanics, and their compatibility with each other and the player. Using this framework I will begin to apply the criteria to the games I've selected for case studies.

Slide 5
What I keep coming back to in this project is the duo's archetype hierarchy. I've observed a pattern forming throughout my research: there tends to be human or humanoid characters in the more realistic art styles with the grittier genres, usually aimed at adults; and then there's creature based characters with more cartoony styles and lighter genres aimed at younger audiences. Is this a trend because it works, or can it be broken?

Another observation I've made concerning hierarchy is that when dealing with a male and female pairing, the male is almost always the lead playable character, and in that games cover art, the male is always in the forefront of the image. This typically uses the male as the brute force in gameplay, with the thinking left to the female.

Interestingly, some games break this pattern in different ways. In The Last of Us, for the majority of the game you play Joel, but the narrative is for the most part telling Ellie's story through Joel's reactions, and in cover art it's the female taking the foreground. In Ico, you play the male character who again does the fighting, but the character is smaller than his female counterpart, who stands out a little more with their glowing design. A bigger body usually means they'll take the parts with the heavy lifting, like when dealing with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

Slide 6
When it comes to creature character duos, the pattern tends to follow size based archetypes. There's the main playable character, and then there's the sidekick, who is almost always considerably smaller in stature. Gameplay has less teamwork mechanics and more just an NPC helping out. Again, a break in this trend is in Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, where while Spyro is bigger than Sparxs, his companion Cynder is of equal size.So what decides which character is the lead? Should this be purposely conveyed through design such as size? Or should there be a more equal footing? Why in an archetype pairing like brains and brawn, brawn is the playable one?

Slide 7
So how dependant is a character's design on their archetype? The balance of form and function is important here: they must be fit for their role. So how different would an existing character's design be if their archetype changed? Ratchet is the hero, the adventurer. He's agile and impulsive. So what if he were more naïve and innocent? Or a more heavy hitter? Or more sly and cunning? These in-progress designs try to explore these changes, looking how much the silhouettes and individual shapes are effected.

Slide 8
In my research, shape and silhouette are an important part of character design. The character's silhouette must read clearly on screen so they're always easy to find against the backdrop. When dealing with creature pairings, a number of them have the smaller character being carried in some way, like Clank fitting onto Ratchet's back, and this changes normal gameplay silhouette.

Shape theory tells us that defined elements of a character's body can hint at their type of personality: generally, circles are friendly, squares are reliable, and triangles are evil. Ratchet mostly has a balance of squares and circles, but he does have some triangles, although this doesn't make him come across as aggressive, but rather more dynamic and possibly impulsive. Clank has the majority of squares, with a round head that helps balance him from a bulky character to one more suited for his size.

Slide 9
I have found, however, that shape theory starts to loose its effectiveness the more realistic an art style is. Exaggerated proportions are less frequent, so well-defined shapes are harder to see, especially in humanoid characters. Both Monkey and Trip are mostly squares, but have hints of circles in different areas of their bodies. It is harder to guess at their personality from both their silhouette and shapes.

Slide 10
Using the theories I have researched, I've begun to create my own media tests. These basic figures explore how effective body language is before elements like fashion are added. This test was also to practice for drawing using my tablet and painting digitally, which is commonly industry standard, which I am unused to.

Slide 11
Unused to speed painting digitally, I decided to go traditional to get me started designing, which also helped not being able to erase mistakes. I used two washes of ink to cover the white blankness and get a general shape. I then took a watercolour pencil to sketch line and detail. A final shadow wash helped bring these figures to definition. I think doing this type of exercise really helped just loosen up and not think too much about what I'm doing. I did find though that creatures were much easier to create rather than humanoids.

Slide 12
From here, I plan to do silhouette and shape studies of all the duo characters I've chosen from a range of suitable games, and to evaluate how much of their personality and archetype is told through them. I also want to continue exploring changing an existing character's archetype and seeing the effect it has on their design. I've developed an idea for my final product, where I create a duo set and a base design for each. I would then apply different archetypes to each, and see how that effects the personality portrayed.

Slide 13
Thank you for listening. Any questions?

---

Feedback
Again, the presentation had a positive response. I wasn't half as nervous as I was last time, although the early start and bigger group made me a bit tired of waiting. Lynn began with saying the presentation was well structured and the project was much more manageable now. She said I had put together a solid plan to go forward, and that it was good to see me taking control of what I'm trying to achieve.

When I mentioned my critical framework included the teamwork mechanics, Lynn questioned how much mechanics then inform how we design characters, and is this because it's in an interactive form that we can't get around, because of immediate connotations? The example I had in my presentation was the bigger character doing all the heavy work.

I said I wanted to get a full idea of how duo companions work in games, not just visually, and as such mechanics are important. I define duos as two characters who work together and are both there for a purpose, not just by having two characters on screen. I understand I can't test mechanics as that isn't what I want to go into, but that they do effect the character's design.

Lynn agreed with this, saying it could just be a case of saying I'm aware of game mechanics and to keep that in mind, but it's outside the scope of my project. She continued saying that sometimes we need a character to achieve something, so they need to be designed to be able to achieve that. I don't need to go into depth with mechanics, but to convey form and function, address that the role of the character can be portrayed through associations of their design. I just need to make this clear and clarify it in my proposal; what's in the scope of the project and what I recognise is too big to go into.

She said overall, I'm making really good observations, and that she was interested in the goals I'm identifying. Again, she said it feels much more manageable, and that it's really nice to see the practical work I'm doing. When I commented I feel there's not much there, she said it's fine, and that I have a solid process for exploring, and that I'm identifying really interesting things.

Lynn was concerned I was attempting too many case studies, that I have a huge list. She said six games is okay, but that I need to find balance between digging down and really getting to know how duos are applied in fewer games, or use a lighter touch and skim over a bunch of games instead. She said I've done the skim, and to move forward I should decide to continue skimming or if it's worthwhile to dig, but not to dig down on all in my list as that's a crazy amount of work; six games is really healthy. She thinks I'm at a good point, and is really pleased with my progress.

Brian reiterated that I have a thorough approach, that I've looked at a wide range of characters, and is glad I'm not just looking at the visual aspects. He thinks interesting things might come from going deeper into the different types of archetypes and relationships between the characters, and would like to hear about the more subtle aspects involved.

He liked the idea of game compatibility with relationships, and commented that the idea of genre specific archetypes is interesting for him with the different kind of stories that could be told, and how given the experience nature of games, of the immersion of playing a character, could make it difficult to tell some stories. He went on to say that I've made close observations and deconstructed the different kinds of relationships, and that it's interesting I'm trying to take it beyond the stereotypical and why that deepens the performance. Lynn then mentioned Shadow of the Colossus, where the character has a companion in his horse, and that it's the only thing he has, so this has a different type of relationship that is dealt with differently mechanically as well.

I asked Brain after the presentation on feedback for my actual presentation skills, as I have a great amount of trouble speaking without a script. He said I have good structure, and to practice that in terms of telling a story with a set beginning, middle and end. I just need to move towards the point that I feel comfortable in my performance using cues, to show what I'm going to say and then say it. He said to think of it as stating a problem, set my major questions and aims, and then answer it through showing my work. Summarising is a good way to go, and that the audience can fill in the gaps if done right. I also asked if he had any recommendations about more duo or companion character based books, as most so far have been about general character design. He mentioned Screenplay: the foundations of screenwriting by Syd Field, and Story: substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting by Robert McKee, while not directly dealing with games, are more about designing characters from the inside out and not visual dependant.

Link to Honours Project Presentation 2.
Link to Honours Project Presentation 2 Script.


Action Points

• Finish all examples of current media tests from selected games and make a post of them.
• Get first draft of proposal finished for feedback by lecturers.
• Work on blogging skills. Get out of the habit of thinking things are only worthwhile if perfected and finished.
• Investigate into the books recommended by Brian.
• Look at Creative Character Design by Bryan Tillman.

Action Plan & Meeting with Ryan Locke

In this weeks group mentor seminar, Lynn and Brian showed us examples of past works critical frameworks as a cyclic development process. I thought doing my own initial cycle and framework would help me see the bigger picture and plan out my project easier as a whole. Now obviously, this is going to change constantly throughout the year, but seeing it more laid out like this will help convey what I intend to do. The framework will help me analyse others work, and then use that criteria to help inform my own designs. In a way, I've already started identifying themes of influence in companion character games, so I'm off to a good start.

I had a meeting today with Ryan, as he showed an interest in my idea on companion characters in games in the presentation last week. Our talk started off with reaffirming what it is I'm researching. I think from this I've come to realise that while I'm looking at companions in general, I'm mostly looking at duo characters, so this dynamic will be different from three characters or larger teams, and should start referring to it more like that. I think looking at other companions will help inform the research on the whole, and the differences between how they're designed and used is something I'm going to look at.

I talked about my growing interest in duo character hierarchy, the typical roles and archetypes expected, and how that influences the character's relationships and gameplay. I went on to how I've been reviewing games so far; defined by examining their character design, their story and interaction, and the co-op gameplay. Our talk helped develop this to the framework you see above, which has evolved to design, gameplay, relationship and compatibility.

I've also identified a strong distinction in games with duos in terms of target audience, as in many cases there's two humans in more realistic art styles and genres with a mature subject matter, and then there's either two creatures or one with a human, and these are often more cartoon-like in style and aimed at children. I mentioned I was going to do another exercise based on existing characters, and instead of changing their roles, I'll change their genre, and see the effect it has on the art style and target audience.

Ryan said I'm off to a good start in categorising the character types and why they're formed like that, and that my progress is really good. He said I was confident in talking about the subject, which actually helped boost my confidence. I still feel a little stagnant, but the practical work has had a positive impact on me.

I should note that I have said in the past that I'll be doing case studies, which I have studied, but not focused on too much at the minute as Robin will be giving a lecture in the coming weeks on how to write them, so I'll wait until then before fully working on them.

Project Presentation 1

Today I had my pitch presentation at 10am in the HMC Cinema, where I introduced my project idea and direction. Instead of just linking to the relevant documents, I've shown the content here as there are new points I've brought up, and showing them as part of the presentation gives them more context.

Slide 1
Hello and welcome. I'm Katrina Craig, and this is my honours project pitch presentation.

Slide 2
I started out my project by evaluating my interests and skills. I knew that the topic shouldn't be trivial or for personal agendas, but instead driven by academic research. I sorted out my thoughts by writing down my ideas in a mindmap, and wrote rough research aims to determine each idea's potential.

Slide 3

The main ideas I was interested in were:

• Visual consistency of game world culture between characters, props, and their environment.
• Character customisation and the importance of personalised visuals to gamers.
• Character classes and the evolution of archetypes.
• Having a constant NPC companion and their effect on gameplay.
• The differences between playable character design and NPC design.

These topics got me thinking about the hierarchy of characters in games, and how the focus is always on the main character; their design, and their story. So what if it wasn't? Or if the spotlight had to be shared? How important are NPCs?

Slide 4

This then developed into my initial research aim: "To investigate the effective use of companion characters in games, and to research what influences their design."

Slide 5

I believe this is a valuable topic to investigate due to the rising popularity of games aspiring to be like movies in terms of a more dedicated focus on narrative and character development. It is my belief that characters are what evoke the strongest emotional responses, and are a key factor in bringing a game to life and giving it personality.

I've observed that the use of companion characters have been received with mixed reviews in the past, yet are a currently popular. I want to know what are the impacts of using companions instead of just one main character, and how different the design process is, and why.

I will explore this topic first by examining how existing products have used companion characters successfully, and look at the process to inform my own methodologies to be reflected in my practice based research.

Slide 6

With a defined topic at hand, I asked myself what it was that I wanted to explore about companion characters in games. I identified these questions with common themes that could influence their existance, and these were: visual design, story and interaction, and gameplay.

The main issues that I want to research include: the hierarchy of roles between the companions and their archetypes; how having two or more characters effects the various levels of customisation; the overall believability of the characters and game, and the sense of them belonging to the same world; how both characters can be appealing to a wide audience and having the same level of connection to the player; and the effect on design due to gameplay mechanics.

Slide 7

Throughout my research I intend to explore these influences I believe have an impact on basic character design as well as companion based designs. With many of these elements, I wish to experiment with practical exercises to see their individual potential, and then again later on in a framework to see how they work together.

I'm currently experimenting with designing purely with digital media, as I almost always sketch on paper then scan and enhance, but digitally is what seems to be the industry standard. Using my tablet to practice silhouettes of simple human figures, I wanted to just go with the flow and stop planning and thinking about what the design is going to look like.

Slide 8

I am currently reading The Art of Game Characters by Leo Hartas, and although a little dated, I think many of the principles still apply. I think this quote is a good expression of my thoughts when dealing with character design in general: How can I create not just one original character to stand out from the rest, but two?

Slide 9

So what makes a good game character? These two quotes cover the aspects that both these artists expect when designing a new character. There must be something aesthetically pleasing about a character, like their looks or personality, but most importantly they must have something relatable about them so that players can connect to them. Following down this direction, I hope to create a framework that would help describe the essentials a character needs to be successful.

Slide 10

As part of my research into companions in games, I intend to take a deeper look at games that already use them as case studies. This will hopefully not only allow me to see their pipeline, but how it was recieved by gamers - what was liked, and what went wrong.

Made in 2008, Prince of Persia was one of the first games that came to mind when thinking of companions in games. Looking at the balance between design, story and gameplay, I would say gameplay is put first. As a Prince of Persia game, it was all about fitting in with the previous style of acrobatic game mechanics and environmental puzzles. While the design is also strong, the characters visually memorable, most interaction had to be triggered by the player and is obvisously not as important.

Slide 11

2010's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West leans more towards story and character development, yet has the nice touch of the teamwork mechanics melding into the gameplay more seamlessly. There are a number of moves that are repeatable, but a new one is staggered into the storyline so it doesn't feel too distracting from the immersion. I think this game has a healthy balance between design, story and gameplay.

Slide 12

In the case of The Last of Us, made in 2012, it's of my opinion that the tables have turned from Prince of Persia, and the game heavily focuses on story and building the relationship between the characters. There are teamwork mechanics, but to me they're a little more obvious, and with a smaller amount of them, they become a little more repetitive.

Looking at these examples overall, it shows to me that as previously mentioned, I believe narrative and character development is becoming more popular in games, and the mechanics used between the characters has slowed in progress. I think what one of the problems are is the time it takes to activate a teamwork mechanic in recent games, as they are more heavily cinematic.

Slide 13

I intend to explore this further, looking into other games that have used companions such as Ratchet & Clank, Jax & Daxter, Spyro and many more. Many others that come to mind are non-human characters that have younger target audiences and genres. This is an aspect that needs more research.

Slide 14

As for my final outcome, at the moment I look to using what I've learned to create original companions, possibly sets for different genres and target market, and choose a pair to take into 3D as I've never modelled a character before, and feel it would be a good push for my skills to showcase.

Slide 15

Thank you for listening. Any questions?

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Feedback

Overall, I think my presentation went really well. I started off a bit jittery; I presented towards the end of the group, and in the beginning after listening to other's projects I started to feel mine had no meaningful purpose. When it actually came to my time, I felt a little unsure, and I had never been so nervous since my first presentations back in second year. My hands were shaking, and my voice kept wavering, my mind kept going blank and I had to keep referring back to my notes. But in the end I got through it, and the feedback really helped boost my confidence.

Lynn started off with saying that it was a very interesting idea, and that it had come a long way from what I had shown her in the first week. I had mentioned in one of the earlier posts where I had got to when I had my meeting with Lynn. She said it was good that I was looking at existing games using companion characters, and mentioned Ico and its uniqueness, which I'll be investigating at a later date.

Brian said I was thourough in my contextual research, and that I had built up my knowledge of the territory. Ryan was excited by my project idea, and that there's so much I could do for it. He said it was good I was starting to recognise companion types and to continue to explore their different roles, what makes a good companion visually and narratively, and why they are together in the first place. He also mentioned the effect of art style and genre, and how that relates to target audience. He said the project is a good idea because co-op is big right now, and it's interesting to see who really is the main character, and who's story is really being told.

All lecturers mentioned that I was at a good place so I shouldn't be afraid of really starting some practical work, and that there was a danger of having a good theoretical grounding, but my practical wouldn't be balanced and fall behind. It was recommended to just start reacting and drawing existing characters, evaluate how their relationship works and then change it up. Brian said to start to anchor my theory with practical activities, and that I could use what's called post-production rationale, where I just produce work and then find it's purpose after rather than the other way around, which is what's got me stuck.

Link to Honours Project Presentation 1.

Link to Honours Project Presentation 1 Script.

Action Points

• Finish reading The Art of Game Characters and document relevant quotes.
• Do more in depth case study documentation for the games already reviewed, then look at more games using companion characters.
• Start practical work! Finish silhouette figures. Evaluate existing characters by copying and playing with their designs.