CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?

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Do you find it hard to develop the characters in your Rpg maker games?
Do your characters suffer from lack of spotlight, or do you have no problem at all showing
your "actors" have indidvidual personalities?
If your characters don't, then why not?
What do you do to insure that they express themselves and are fleshed out without
literally going out of their own nature, so you can understand them?
(Sorry, it's not a more engaging topic)
Well, when I was originally working on my game, it was a bit more of a parody at the start, so the characters were pretty much stereotypes and tropes. I was hoping to get into more serious territory as time went on, but ah well.

That said, it was a bit difficult trying to come up with character traits and flaws, especially when you weren't paying too much attention to it.
Oh...okay...

edit:
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Thank you so much for the comments people
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author=Boobledeeboo2
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wtf?
i am having problems with this too. What I do is just don't think about it too much. I mean, when you writing a story and introduce the characters all you doing is show someone reaction to the conflict to be. For example if somebody is stealing women's underwear and you want someone in the neighborhood to catch the bag guy you have to show why does he want to catch the bad guy, how and where. Why could be for a lot of reasons, maybe justice (he is a good guy and don't want to see people suffer, he's a pervert (he wants the panties for himself), likes to fight (self-explanatory), he's naive and want to play superhero etc...

My point is don't worry so much about characterization at first, just try to write the story (if you want to show a certain theme it is even better) and after everything is finished just show the reasons of why they want to resolve the conflict. Afterwards if you want to explain the Biography of the characters, fit into the main story.
I try to have the style Bandito mentioned when creating characters but it usually goes the other way around. I get an idea for a character lets say ( using the same example ) A pervert and insane collector, A guy who likes getting into fights and then I pick an area e.g In the middle of the desert. Basically I bring the characters together in the area of plot/scenario and develop a free form story from their:
> The pervert runs into the fighter and drops all the underwear off his doom-buggie trashing the fighters ride.

>They fight over who gets the magic panties and find themselves in a parallel universe where their the last guys in the planet with zombie super models.

>Then from here I go into game development, who ever keeps the magic panties the longest wins the highest score as zombie models seduce you into ash.

something like this. In most cases when it comes to games ( at least modern ones ) the plot has multiple outcomes, the characters are what bring the story to life not exactly the other way unless you're aiming at a super linear plot.

Its good to have fitting characters though, at the end of the day its what your most comfortable with
I make up shit as I think of it and document the details. I will then add in essential additions or weed out characters that will never have a use as an idea evolves.

I've never had trouble with this sort of thing so I won't pretend to understand the problems that face those who do. Still, a bit of help; Ask yourself these three questions when evaluating a character concept:

1) Are they essential for the story to proceed smoothy?
2) Do they aid in development of essential characters or the setting?
3) Will other people (honestly now) find this character interesting?

If you can't answer at least either 1 or 2 with a firm yes, I would suggest combining or changing roles so that your character becomes relevant, or relegating them to random NPC status. If you can't answer 3, then you have bigger issues at play and should reevaluate the character in its entirety.
100% of Alphonse's text after day 3 or 4 or so was written by Craze. =)

(time constraints)
oh,okay, that makes sense


edit: I'd also lke to add that I'm not having any problems with character development, I just wanna see how you guys do it and compare it to my ways, and maybe make my way better!
I find it hard to develop RPG characters due to having a hard time finishing what I start, meaning I haven't actually released a game yet. So, what I'm going to say will to a large part be based on writings I've made in other medias than RPGs. I still think it's relevant though.

I don't find it that hard to write the characters once I have their role in the plot established. I need to know how that character is important to the plot and how he/she will interact with the plot. Once I know that it's much easier to go more in-dept with personality and figure out how that character may develop. If I go thinking "a character like X would be fun" then it gets much harder.

For me, I find it easier to develop characters if I were to based them on someone that I personally know as well as experiences of interactions that I have had with him or her. You might actually realize that that person is pretty interesting and that you may appreciate him or her more.

edit: Plus, I find it fun to see what can I come up with when I put that person in certain situations and how they would react
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=xeilmach
For me, I find it easier to develop characters if I were to based them on someone that I personally know as well as experiences of interactions that I have had with him or her. You might actually realize that that person is pretty interesting and that you may appreciate him or her more.

edit: Plus, I find it fun to see what can I come up with when I put that person in certain situations and how they would react


I don't like the idea of literally basing your characters on your friends, I think this is bad design. It leads to all sorts of problems.

However, I do definitely think it's a good idea to make sure all your characters have qualities you like and that you would be willing to be friends with them or at least respect them. Make sure you like your characters! I don't just mean you think they're good characters, I mean make sure you actually like them on a personal level. If you as the writer don't like a character, you won't be able to write for them. The actions and dialogue you give the character will feel forced and unnatural. Their motives won't make sense to the player if they don't make sense to you! Whereas if you can understand why the character does what they do, and appreciate the fact that they do it, and look at their actions and say "this is good, this makes sense, I can see why they did this, the character made a good choice" then your writing will be far more believable.

If you want interesting villains, then this also actually applies to the villains. If you want your villains to be totally unsympathetic then it doesn't really matter so much for them.
But, what if you want an imbecile character?
Of course not to base it literally like an exact carbon copy, because sometime your friend just don't have enough it cut out to be a good RPG characters and you need to improvise on. But, it's a good foundation to work upon.

One thing to illustrate why LockeZ point out that that could be a potential bad idea is this:

The problem in using friends as bases is that you feel like you know everything about your friend so you unconsciously do less work to reveal them to the players who don't know them at all. I've seen couple of personal games here and there based on real life where the characters are quirky on their traits, dialogue, and appearances, but that's it. Creators just base things it off on the surface of their friends, and don't go beyond to develop them more.

e.g. "Bob is a Star Wars geek with a wise ass attitude so I'll make it that he'll make references to Star Wars that will piss antagonists off throughout the game!" Try elaborate on why he developed fondness for Star Wars or why his attitude is that way. Does his fondness dies down or grow even more? Does he change from a wise ass to someone who shuts his mouth and respect others by listening? How does all of that affect others to react to him and may impact his character and story?

Other than that, I agree on LockeZ's view on characterization as well. You must like your characters or else that character that you don't really like will give you a bad vibe and throw off other things that you develop. You may unconsciously think, "Ugh, I hate Bob's wise ass attitude really. I'm just going to make him join the party, give him the filler lines when I feel like he doesn't have enough to say." You may think only Bob may go underdeveloped, but it affects the player's view of the story's direction and pace. However, you could keep developing Bob further, and maybe even expand the plot more with some nice twists that arises from Bob's refined interactions.
I have an uncle named Bob(he died recently)
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Another reason to avoid basing characters in your friends is that they will realize they're based on them, and pressure you about how you treat the character. They will want more screen time, they will want to be more powerful, they won't want to be killed off. And even if they don't pressure you, you'll still feel the subconscious pressure of wanting to please your friends. It will interfere with how you write the story and possibly even with how you design the gameplay.

author=mrstinkyfeet
But, what if you want an imbecile character?


If you think people whose only single personality trait is that they are imbeciles are funny and enjoyable and you like watching and listening to them, then this fits in perfectly with what I said. If you don't, then... you don't really want one in your story. Figure out what exactly it is you do want in your story (I suspect what you really want is either just a plot device or just some form of comic relief) and figure out a way to make a character that provides that element but fits within the framework I described.
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