SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

Mistwalker guy? Sakaguchi or something like that? I think he left well before the Squenix thing.

No, you know who I'm mad they let go? Yazmat.

Yeah, names based on what a character's occupation is are a little too on-the-nose. I'm all for symbolic names (even though a lot of people don't like them), but the only time it's okay to go the overly obvious route is in comedies. Even symbolic names should be at one or two removes from what they're supposed to mean....naming a high ranking character associated with elemental earth something like General Henry Mills (General Mills -> Cereal -> Ceres) is one thing....naming him Duke Peter Gaea is not.

author=kentona link=topic=2125.msg35342#msg35342 date=1222899889

author=Shadowtext link=topic=2125.msg35336#msg35336 date=1222899211
Oh, and some forumgoers will probably want to stab me for it, but here goes anyway: a quick binge on TVTropes.org can be a huge creative boost, although it comes at the price of making it difficult not to think in (and talk in) Tropes.

This is not a boost - it's a complete time sink that will suck the life out of you.

It's like college that way. Only cooler because there's swearing and references to Star Wars.

Like college, though, you come out with a different perspective that can be a big help. It's a pretty huge time investment to begin with, though. Took me weeks when I first discovered it. Still regularly devours entire days of free time.

I'm not going to bother with story because the plot you choose doesn't really matter that much compared to the characters in it: a good plot is just there to give the characters a reason to grow. So instead I'll focus on characters.

Good characters can really only come from observing and to a certain extent understanding people in real life. You've got to get a handle on how different kinds of people think and behave, and the sorts of relationships they form. There's no real shortcut for this part, and even some of the best writers can't get it right, especially not all the time. All of your characters are going to be you to a certain extent, but you want to avoid a situation where they all behave, think, or talk the same way.

There are some tricks that can help get you started in fleshing out a character. They won't actually make them better characters, but they can help solidifying them in your own mind, which can lead to you getting a better feel for who they are.

The first step is to start with character archetypes. You find a stock character, like the Mad Scientist or the Gentleman Thief, for example, and use it as your starting point. You take the stock character and figure out why this particular character is important, and what makes him his own person rather than just being interchangeable with any other character of that type. Don't worry if it's a character type you see all the time, just be careful to make him your own: just about everyone on this board would fall under the Nerd archetype, but most of us are fairly distinct from one another. A good way to start differentiating is to let your character multiclass into other archetypes....sometimes this leads to a new archetype (like the Badass Bookworm). Mix in traits from people you know.

Giving your characters little mannerisms, or certain words or phrases that they like to use (not to the point of catch phrases if you can help it, unless that's part of the character's nature) can help in giving you an idea of who they are. The sorts of clothes they like to wear, the sorts of entertainment they enjoy, these sorts of things can help you out. This isn't enough to flesh out a character for the audience, but it can get your mind working.

Even though I've suggested little touches like the ones above, I'd advise you to avoid exhaustive lists and huge backstories unless they're actually significant to the plot--they tend to make you think in terms of what the character is rather than who they are. A handful of morsels of this sort of information can go a long way, and only the most major of characters really need a full backstory....and even then a lot of people take it too far. What's important is who the character is now, and who the character is becoming, not whot he character was.

One more thing: if you have to give a character a tragic past of some point, don't make it over the top, stupid tragic (for example: your female characters were not raped. Just don't do it. It can be used effectively, but it almost never is. More often than not it just trivializes a pretty gruesome act), and don't let the character spend the entire game whining and angsting about it. A little bit of angst can really make the audience feel for the character, but after a certain point it just gets obnoxious and makes you want to Brightslap the little bitch. And the amount varies from player to player....my angst tolerance is very low, as opposed to someone like Sei who thinks it's the bee's knees.

Oh, and some forumgoers will probably want to stab me for it, but here goes anyway: a quick binge on TVTropes.org can be a huge creative boost, although it comes at the price of making it difficult not to think in (and talk in) Tropes.

author=Nightblade link=topic=2081.msg34913#msg34913 date=1222734444
I don't trust reviews anymore, honestly; game critics these days... I don't know, maybe it's because of how big gaming has gotten; but I haven't been able to trust a review in a good long time.

I'll still give this game a try; at the very least it'll be good for a laugh; as it looks like some crappy fan game.

The important point is that the scores game critics give games are more or less useless. If you actually read the reviews, they tend to be a lot more useful....but then again, it really depends on how well that critic's tastes match yours. since no matter how objective they try to come off as, your mileage with any game is going to vary.