Researching Ether One and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (disorders and cognitive conditions in games)

 So beginning to look at how some of the previously mentioned video games can craft meaningful resonance with an audience with a value placed on something other than entertainment I have tried to pair them up with some sort of commonality in this case it is two studios that take some known cognitive condition and used the research upon such sensitive subject matter to further develop their game and all components it is made of.

Starting with Ether One by White Paper Games, which as their website states is a "small independent studio based in Manchester with a goal to deliver compelling narratives that leave you with lingering thoughts long after you've left our worlds." So immediately we can see the values and motive of the studio align with both this idea of a game being more than just a game (emotive not just entertaining) and the sort of direction I find myself wanting to develop games in with my research.  This idea of the narrative of a game having lasting effects on the audience also would create a pathway for any sensitive subject matter to not only be even more sensitive for ethical reasons but allow the player to mull over these ideas like a silent debate or conversation between the creators and consumers. 

Their debut game Ether One is a perfect example of seeing this company goal come to fruition, choosing to delve into the subject of dementia particularly the type of dementia that can damage an individual's memory which would ordinarily cause significant emotional attatchemnt to certain objects.  The individual can look at something/someone and recognize it/them but there is no emotional feeling leaving them with uncertainty.

This knowledge may have led to the design choice of the player collecting items throughout levels to bring back to the hub area whilst solving puzzles (puzzles being in the game perhaps being another representative game function for some of the feelings one may have suffering from dementia or caring for a sufferer). Having players perform this action replicates what can occur with dementia, discussions on forums dedicated to informing individuals about the condition and its subsequent possible symptoms detail how sufferers may move objects around trying to alter their location to resemble what they perceive and believe to be their actual home or other unique location whilst Michael Thomsen comments on his article about the game for The New Yorker how the hoarding nature of collecting these items in the game reminded him of how he would hoard all sorts of objects to fill his grandmothers room at a nursing home to help her feel at home, not knowing which items would help more due to not fully understanding another individuals own unique interactions with objects and what significant emotional value they may have placed on them or if this value even remained due to the dementia.

Understanding the subjectivity and scaled variety of player exposure to the condition allowed the team to overcome this potential problem when crafting the game based on this theme.  Pete Bottomley, the co-founder of White Paper Games, has discussed the positive of working with a small team who all had some experience with "dealing with dementia patients" and how they could evaluate the work in progress quickly by assessing the credibility of its details as opposed to a larger more decompartmentalized company with less overall interactions. However, dementia has several forms with identifiable symptoms, though some crossover is apparent, the length of time the individual has had the condition also changes the severity of the symptoms, therefore, no obvious game mechanic could cover the entire disorder's details whilst simultaneously leaving each player with "lingering thoughts" as Dr. James Galving simplifies with a common expression being "If you've seen one Alzheimers patient you've seen one Alzheimers patient".  Being directive with a mission at the start of the game where the player takes control of an individual tasked with recovering another character's memories sets all players on the same task, even if it brings up a variety of different connections from players based on their own experiences with dementia, the separation of player from protagonist allows for this variety. This is also praised by Thomsen who has described the difficulty in video games as a medium to convey subject matters in general compared to film and text before going on to detail how "Playing fast and loose with the laws of physics for Super Mario is forgivable, but systematizing dementia and Alzheimer's runs the risk of alienating audiences by oversimplifying for the sake of drama, or by overstating how much is known about the diseases." This choice also allowed for a narrative three-act structure with the original mission being the exposition of what theme the game was dealing with (Act 1) before an 'inciting incident' in this case being when players realize they are not inside another person's mind but in fact trying to cure their own and confronting this dilemma (Act 2), before finally forming a conclusion to the narrative with a satisfying conclusion that resolves all plots (Act 3). This twist of going from having the player helping a dementia patient to putting them in the shoes of an individual suffering from the disorder completes the studio brand goals by allowing players to craft their own empathy for the theme of dementia through compelling narrative as well as informing players of the condition with a nuanced manner that doesn't alienate players no matter how much previous exposure they may have had to it prior to playing the game.

Even the graphic style used for production imagery evokes a sense of things fading emulating that of an individual's memories when they have dementia.

This deliberate separation and then conjoining of a player and sufferer of a condition is something not present within Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (H:SS) and perhaps results in less empathetic responses to the condition within the game from players since the player is constantly aware of playing as someone else with a condition and we continue through the story to discover how it occurred (though some may have other reasons for continuing such as an enjoyment of the game design or graphics etc).  This difference in narrative structure and gameplay design may have occurred due to the aforementioned departmentalization of a larger studio producing H:SS compared to the 6 person team at White Paper Games, with less communication or agrees upon goals for the purpose of the game and how to effectively achieve them.  Though H:SS does combat the sensitive subject matter of psychosis, it is with a narrative derived from just one cause (Senua's father abused her and the traumatic event of him killing her own mother) ignoring any other possibilities, exactly what Thomsen described could happen with systematizing and oversimplifying a condition for the sake of drama.  

Even though both games achieved high critical acclaim from reviewers such as Metacritic (Ether one scored an average of 78.5/100, H:SS scored an average of 83/100) it could be inferred that these scores are for separate reasons and not directly correlated to the success of implementing a sensitive subject matter into a game to convey an emotive response from the audience. Looking at what praise they receive in the reviews gives more detailed reasoning to the scores with both being applauded for their choice of subject matters though the H:SS review quickly moves to discuss the voice acting performance and relation to Norse Mythology themes present within the game avoiding any further discussion of the subject matter highlighting how the subject matter of H:SS is not the primary takeaway, and so possibly will not have as much resonance with an individual playing the game compared with Ether One.

Understanding the goal or core principle that I may want within a game is key for the production of the game especially if I want to maintain "lingering thoughts with a player" and can help in the decision process of narrative structure and choices, gameplay, and mechanics to both further enhance and enrich the experience of players in terms of the sensitive subject matters. 

Taking 7 steps back

 After discussing my own plans for a 2D metroidvania game with the motive of having a substantial change or affect on the players own life and choices made I've been advised to "take 7 steps back".

Let's break this advise down as it is well accepted and understood constructive criticism that I wholeheartedly agree with, as well as some points that I had already started to observe along the creative development process so was beneficial to hear from professionals the same queries that I was already asking of myself.

Initially this game started as a simple 2D platformer that took place in a human body, a design choice based on my own preferences of this genre and the fact that I hadn't seen one done before that was informative of what happened within the body or utilised the different areas and functions of the organs of the body as game levels.  This was enhanced by looking at the character creation tool at the beginning of RPG's as an immersive element and challenging the format of 2D platforms with not having a similar procedure, instead relying on narrative storytelling and character development to immerse the player into the world.  This relationship between a character creation tool and the setting of the game being in a human body led to the conclusion that if players inputted certain criteria in the character creation it could have impactful changes to the gameplay through addition and subtraction of certain levels and change in dynamics and appearance of certain levels for example if the player had a choice to make when it came to inputting how many units of alcohol they consumed a week and this choice led to alterations within the liver section of the game this could have an impactful change on how much alcohol the player consciously chose to consume in the real world.  Likewise if they could input the character as having diabetes this could alter the pancreas level of the game with real life players with diabetes finding the game to be representative and those who don't finding it informative instead, both arguably positive interactions with the game and possibly having a substantial affect on the player.  This also encouraged the idea of choices within the game having substantial consequences, based on realistic biological circumstances that can occur, which was a key production element I wanted the game to have an example being choosing to travel to the brain level of the game for a particular power up/ability/interaction which would lead to a breech of the blood brain barrier - something that in the real world would evidently allow for bacterial meningitis to form, so then a return to the brain level in-game would lead to an interaction with bacterial meningitis as either a boss, NPC or other significant element within the game allowing the player to understand the consequences of their action as well as being informative of actual biology, perhaps questioning their own greed and desire for the original power up/ability/interaction and its relation to the results (was the juice worth the squeeze).  The issue with all of this, even though they fit a niche subject and allow for the development of non existing gameplay and development is that by combatting so many ideas and themes at once they all get diluted to fit within one format and thus don't get the time and space within the game to truly be impactful and resonate with the audience successfully. Multiple good separate ideas and instances of "what if" would also create excess stress when trying to tie them all together cohesively into a seamless idea for a game especially considering keeping the themes and ideas and instances the same stylistically and aesthetically - this challenge had started to generate when looking at the different types of red and white blood cells as one type of antagonistic enemy with "good" intentions and goals and how they could all be visually developed with differing actions whilst still retaining similarity due to how they were related in real life and how they performed their functions in the human body. To overcome this I had started to converge them to the idea of different factions of a medieval/fantasy army with B cells being archers due to how they were simplified in function to firing off antibodies and as the white blood cells rose in importance within the body through their function they would equally rise in the hierarchy of a knight style force with red blood cells being similar to pawns etc, then how would bacterial and viral antagonists be represented? Why would so many deadly diseases be present in one such body as well as the player protagonists vaccine character? Now there are no issues if my main goal with the game was an interesting platformer set in the body with none of the character creation alterations included and it was just based on developing a players understanding of choice and consequences, they wouldn't have to necessarily play as a vaccine and the characterisation of blood cells and bacteria could be fun cartoon style aesthetics for a younger audience game, however this desire to have a more impactful takeaway from the game that most of my research is looking into as well as my own personal style of creating things with deeper meaning and showcasing the ability to push the boundaries of the media format I use for my illustrations requires a more mature audience and as such there needs to be some form of reassessing what the goals of the game are - alongside the previous posts knowledge of understanding the goals of my game and how they align with or oppose certain characters will help develop it from the ground up.  

The different types of blood cells, each could be holding a different class with this archetype of enemy.

A visual of the different medieval classes blood cells could be based on if this interpretation was used. 

A modern equivalent to the above visuals as an alternative.

Alongside this advice, several examples were talked about by both myself and the lecturers when it came to video games as a platform for 'spreading a message' such as the game "Ether One" by White Paper Games aiming to spread awareness and understanding of one of the attributes of dementia - object displacement, researching the game can lead to an understanding of how this attribute could be incorporated into the game mechanics in a respectful but realistic manner whilst still being entertaining and how the developers utilise the knowledge gained from an in-depth look into a singular theme to be represented through multiple facets of the game from musical score, aesthetic choices, puzzles, narrative elements and overall atmosphere from some of these combined.  

The list of games to look at (ignore how they are visually presented as being an illustrator more than a game designer means initial game development will be the main struggle so if the same outcome of the games thematics are reached with simple shapes then obviously the success is in the understanding of the theme by the developers hence why "Thomas was alone" is here with just simple square shapes as characters can be argued to be much more successful than other games with perfectly developed and animated characters.)

Thomas was alone - by Mike Bithell 

Ether One - by White Paper Games

Unravel - by Coldwood interactive

The Talos Principle 1 - by Croteam

It Takes Two - by Hazelight Studios

Papers, Please - 3909 LLC

My continued direction on the game design MA course will be in three pathways, firstly with the research of these games by disassembling how they were manufactured and developed with a distinct goal in mind, including how the accomplishment of success has been determined by peers and critics towards this goal rather than just subjective reviews based on commercial success.  Secondly looking at the game development process due to my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to using any games development software (tutorials on Unity have already melted my brain) and looking at the process from a conceptual thinker and illustrators mindset to determine whether a particular game engine or physical board game would be a more successful format for the end result. Finally continued character and setting concept art, being open to a change in both characters and setting throughout the development on this course is key but also its imperative that as an illustrator on this course that I keep utilising the skills already gained on my undergraduate degree and maintain a style that's representative of what I can offer in the game design industry as well as formulate questions and responses along the way as previously mentioned in the last two posts with visual design processes of a game or other media able to take place alongside the theological process.

Creating My Protagonist (personality/identity)

 So as previously mentioned when it comes to character design especially with the players character or protagonist I personally like to keep the visual design and the personality traits of them as separate forms of design particularly in the initial stages, during the later stages bringing the two together can be essential in evolving the design i.e personality traits being represented in the visuals to over-exaggerate the ideas of the trait often to comic affect in games for younger audiences such as Street Fighter characters whose fighting style and personality can be linked back to their cultural origin and backstory with these elements then demonstrated in costume design or ignored completely for extra Easter egg costumes.

Blanka from street fighter V - A savage Brazilian man whose persona had been developed from being isolated and left to survive in the Amazonian wilderness but despite his original fearsome appearance, which has been produced from understanding his backstory, he really is a nice and compassionate person underneath and this further understanding was represented in an unlockable costume in later games.  The artists can get away with gimmicks like this, where the design doesn't fit the aesthetic of the game, because of their own understanding of the interaction between personality traits and visual design. In this case its interesting to see how utilising the knowledge of subversion of expectations mentioned in the previous post can produce these visual designs at opposing ends of the spectrum (Fearsome looking beast with a gentle and kind man behind the looks and a cute looking doll with incredibly powerful electric powers and fighting style)

It's also imperative to understand the relationship between personality and visual design and the choices made for characters when it comes to creating an antagonist or further enveloping a series and introducing more character to expand the game world.  Looking at the harmony and dissonance of shapes for visual design in the previous post we can see how the character Sonic as the protagonist is coloured blue in the original game with his antagonist being Dr Robotnik who is coloured predominantly red as an opposing colour, however in the third expansion of the game the character of Knuckles is added who is also coloured red. The original idea of wanting to create a rival for sonic and then later expanding this "intimidator" into a character who was tricked by Dr Robotnik into opposing sonic before eventually learning of the two opposing characters motives and siding with Sonic can all be seen as traits that led to the colour choice (protagonists are blue and antagonists are red) however this visual design choice then leads back into personality traits in later iterations of the game and other visual media (comics/animated cartoons etc) with Knuckles losing his composure and getting into fights with other characters as well as having an ambivalent relationship with Sonic often displaying envious traits when comparing lifestyles with Sonic.  This understanding of the semiotics around the colour red has helped to develop this personality (anger, rash, antagonistic) with the original colour being used due to what relationship the character would initially have with the protagonist. 

Unnatural colours used on animal characters to visualise opposing nature of their motives.

 It is often the case in games with a good narrative that develops both the protagonist and antagonist as opposites that their visual design will be represented with opposing themes especially if a younger audience is the target of the games release so the idea of good vs bad is more easily accessible to the audience rather than just through deeper meanings within personality choices and ideology of good vs bad not being so black and white when certain contexts are involved.  Simple early examples of these visual designs showing good vs bad often had a human as the good guy and a beast/monster as the bad guy (we recognise ourselves as human and from a young age are shown monsters to be bad) i.e Mario vs Bowser, Link vs Ganon or even have the antagonist able to transform into a monster. like in  Castlevania games with the human protagonist against the vampire Dracula who turns into a bat like creature.

However when it comes to a more mature audience where deeper understanding of characters can take place between the game and player tactics like the subversion of expectations or separation of visual design being linked to personality can be used as the audience being older means more experiences and a wider knowledge of societies conventions when it comes to using semiotics with the design of characters.  One example of this is to keep appearances between protagonist and antagonist similar but their characteristics to be against each other to show how the paths the characters have taken have caused them to oppose one another, or that there is no distinctive right or wrong in what the characters are doing (they both believe they are right) but what they are doing is contradictory to each others goals. Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII wears the uniform from his time as a member of SOLDIER as does his nemesis Sephiroth and as we are delivered the backstory as a narrative tool within the development of the game we understand how the two worked together and Cloud even once considered themselves as friends before Sephiroth discovering his own origin caused him to have an existential crisis and destroy the town Nibelheim and stab Tifa causing Cloud to combat against Sephiroth.  Of course this is later once again later in the game as Cloud is a used as an unreliable narrator to enable more secrets and character development to be unearthed throughout the game.  This is where understanding the purpose of your protagonist or character within the game leads to the development of their personality and whether it's linked to their visual design.

So what purpose does a protagonist provide?

A protagonist stereotypically drives the story forward and their goals are often a reflection of the overall games story goals, they are often seen as the good guy though the word "protagonist" is simply from an Ancient Greek word meaning "One who plays the first part" therefor we can infer that the antagonist is someone who has goals that oppose the overall games story goals but who doesn't necessarily have to be the bad guy (if your protagonist is a thief and the antagonist is the organisation up keeping the law), all other characters can either help, hinder or oppose the protagonist whether that be through exposition, action or other means and knowing what purpose you are creating for helps in this development.

Questions to think about when developing the protagonist/characters personality/identity, though most of these are not applicable to a game that wants the player to determine the identity of the character in a more immersive style game like an RPG

Are they good, bad or neutral at the start of the game?

Think about how this can be represented in their actions, can they change throughout the game, can a twist occur where our viewpoint on them is altered.

Are they native or foreign to the land the game takes place in?

If native are there customs/mannerisms/habits that occur because of this, how can thy take advantage of knowing this land with action and dialogue, are they stuck here or do not wish to leave.

If foreign why are they here, how are they fitting in if at all, how foreign are they in terms of their knowledge of this land before arriving, how long have they been here

Do they have flaws/strengths?

How do they overcome flaws/utilise strengths, is this part of their journey or an obstacle/gimmick within the storytelling

Do they have a backstory?

Do they need one, do they remember theirs, if they have one how much impact does it have on them now, is it worth telling the backstory immediately or revealing in pieces to enhance the story.

There are many questions that can be asked like this if you desire to craft a really believable character and the type of game your producing can be elevated by it (games for a younger audience won't require it as well as certain types of games that either contain no characters or historical/real life characters).  Disassembling known characters can help in understanding how identity of a character within a game can impact their visuals and the story as well as looking at how common tropes and methodologies within other media have been researched and developed to form informative ways to produce characters, one memorable format that comes to mind is the "Hero's journey".  In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the mono myth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. It is often debated in many fields from research into mythology to psychological discussions and can be seen used by modern scriptwriters for tv serials with the writer Dan Harmon discussing it frequently when breaking down episodes of both "Community" and "Rick and Morty' even addressing it as a meta commentary during the season 4 episode titled "Never Ricking Morty", Harmon allows his understanding of Joseph Campbells original theory to simplify down the heroes journey to its core principles giving it more utility and adaptability for multiple story driven medias. 

An increasingly simplified overview of the journey a protagonist/character/antagonst can go through.

Similarly to the sort of questions an author or scriptwriter may ask when developing a narrative we can ask the same questions of ours though being a different media we can make choices they cannot such as to whether we have a silent protagonist, or if we allow the player to take on the role of the protagonist so they make the choices during gameplay that reflect the personality and characteristics of who they want to play as. A silent protagonist can have the purpose of increasing mystery surrounding who we are playing as when paired with first person gameplay leading to the ability to reveal a surprise or plot twist akin to the story of Bioshock where we believe we are the victim of a plane crash and have stumbled on to the city of Rapture when actually we were born within Rapture and developed into an obedient assassin to be used to cause the plane crash and return to Rapture and assassinate our biological father.  This mystery can also occur in other visual formats such as 2D platform adventures with it directing the narrative for us to discover our own origin like in HollowKnight , however more often than not the use of a silent protagonist is used with the intent to increase immersion within the game like the Elder Scrolls games where we have more freedom in creating a protagonist and can imagine our own voice for them.

Once an the initial stages of the characters personality/identity have been developed either alongside or before visual design then we can allow this understanding of them and their purpose to further develop the overall design through tweaks and evaluations.

Creating My Protagonist (Visual Design)

One area I have been asked to research during the concept and character creation of this game is the different ways in which illustrators/concept artists/visual communicators create their own characters and if any of their processes bear similarities to my own and if there is anything to be gained in the analysis of this approach - do certain processes work better for certain creative elements of a game than others?  My own approach to concept art has me start to ask questions that determine what process I am most likely to take, if it is a character/location/prop based on realism I will require more field research and observations of the real world e.g a character in a WWII game would require research and references from that era, if based on fiction then a more pragmatic approach is used asking questions of the design to help form visual answers.  For example if creating a character asking questions of what environment they live in can lead to discussing how they move through this environment, how many legs/arms they require maybe wings are necessary etc.

A series of sketchbook pages from Ari Gibson during the creative process of Hollow Knight

When it comes to concept art and character design in terms of a known and understood methodology or practice I feel Julia Rässa summed it up perfectly in her Bachelor's Thesis titled "Concept Art Creation Methodologies" (linked at bottom of this post)

"Upon reviewing literature it was found that there are numerous ways one can perfect their art and design skills but there was little to no theoretical consensus on what the foundation of a concept artist's workflow and what their key steps in the process are."

It is much more beneficial to look at the work methods of contemporary concept artists to cross-analyse and disassemble their core disciplinary components, though the transparency of professional concept artists and art departments when discussing this is scarce.

In terms of concept art that predominantly looks at realistic worlds (though with some creative licensing) watching the "Inside Pixar" series offers a behind the scenes look at how the companies different creative departments work, the episodes that offer the best insight for character are:

EP 12 - Foundations: Creating a Character

EP 17 - Unpacked: Everybody Loves a Villain

EP 18 - Unpacked: The Squint Test

But perhaps the most insightful was the second episode that was spent with Character Art Director Deanna Marsigliese as she described different ways and means she produced characters.  She discusses how she implements mood-boards as her starting element of the process as well as observing the world outside for any happy accidents - one such occasion was when she worked on "Luca" and was able to go back to her familial roots in Italy for exposure to the environment and what it could bring to her designs with the films setting being based on the Italian riviera. This practice of visiting places for a realistic reference is often utilised by Disney and Pixar with the creative team travelling to Scotland during the creation of "Brave" but also employed by multiple creative industries. Graphic designer Jennie Potts travelled to the distillery location whilst working on a scotch rebranding whilst for Reportage Illustrator Olivier Kugler its a necessity to travel whilst producing observational drawings on subjects for editorials and published materials such as his book about the refugee crisis, gaining valuable first hand experience and reference points for his work.

Character concept art from "Luca"

Another useful source for visual information when it comes to concept art and character design is the YouTube channel "Proko" created by Stan Prokopenko who, whilst creating instructional art tutorials, hosts multiple other artists on his channel who offer insight into their own methodology and practice when it comes to the design process.  Scott Flanders is a digital concept artist with multiple appearances on the channel with a vastly different approach to the aforementioned Marsigliese.  Flanders uses the term "Designing from Abstraction" as he describes his process of placing down interesting shapes and evaluating them in real time, allowing his existing knowledge of anatomy (particularly reptilian and paleontological) to determine how certain shapes should co-exist or interact with one another.  There may be some similarity between Flanders real time evaluation of shapes and the evaluation and questions Marsigliese asks of her own mood boards.

Using his designing from abstraction method Scott Flanders turns the shapes on the left to those on the right.

I find more fantasy artists utilise this approach when creating characters as the art doesn't have to make 'sense' per se, Wizards of the Coast Senior Concept Artist Hidehisa Miyagawa when producing a new dungeons and dragons creature, freelance fantasy artist Christopher Lovell or even Games Workshop sculptors - the visual elements drive the creation process forward with existing knowledge of shape and form helping with the real time evaluation as opposed to the previous approach of gathering as much information and references before the sketching begins.  The idea of two distinctly differing approaches seem to be similar to the findings Rässa found in her thesis with the idea of realism vs fantasy as the key variable that may alter an artists approach with a secondary one being the company developing a project (AAA studio vs Kickstarter indie game).  However her separation is between artists who ask questions of the world/enviroment the character is present in before consequently starting the ideation process and others who immediately reference gather and research.  I wonder if there I see more overlap between Rässa's two processes because some larger studios may have teams in the development process who fit one role of gathering reference so another team can ask questions and then bring all ideas together, or because both of these styles are something I have seen used together by creatives across all four major illustration disciplines (publishing/editorial/packaging/advertising) during my Bachelor degree.

The practice of visiting places that hold reference to themes or settings of the creative body of work is something I can relate to especially for the more realism based elements of the product, and seeing the use of a mood-board bears similarity to the serendipitous moments I would have when collating visual imagery from inside the human body, biology textbooks or photographing physical organs.  It's the visual connections you make when seeing all this imagery down in front of you that can spark the creative process, no fear of making the wrong marks on the paper when sketching with this process as its just collecting information from others.  This was especially helpful when designing a character that was a vaccine - basically a liquid, looking at cells and other biological imagery allowed me the freedom to use a nucleus as an eye whilst seeing images of explorers on alien worlds made the connection between the visor of an astronaut bearing a similarity to a huge cyclopean creature.

As you can see through the development of the character above I initially looked at different face variations, discussing how they were becoming too complex and simplicity was more valuable to the design to allow for more immersion for the player as well as softer shapes being used with a blue colour to contrast what I believed to be a common colour of red, pink and orange for internal pictures of the body. The choice of a more simplistic or abstract nature came from looking at Scott McClouds "Understanding Comics".

Whilst looking at the informative article at Gamasutra (now known as GameDeveloper.com) titled "The Aesthetics of Game Art and Game Design" allowed for a greater understanding of harmony and dissonance when it came to the design of the protagonist in contrast to their proposed environment. 

Later in the process looking at how the character moved and posed, though sketched in a 3D format it was still informative for a 2D game to get a 'feel' of the character, how agile they were, whether there was a need for a tail (not just for mobility but a directional and speed indicator) and finally reducing the size of the body in comparison to the head to create a more innocent and youthful appearance since the start of the game is technically the birth of the character and was a successful practice not only employed by Pixar but also other indie games such as HollowKnight, Super Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac and Spelunky. Retaining the belly button was also a choice, with no distinguishable facial features the character holds very few details for us to associate with, leaving the belly button in is a recognisable visual element that hopefully makes the players recognise a more human presence in the protagonist.

This is just the initial start to the visual design process of the protagonist with more questions needing to be asked and answered till a fulfilling and successful one is produced.  Some of these questions will be found in the research of personality during this creation process in the next post.

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/146949/Julia_Rassa_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Creating My Protagonist (intro)

 One of the first things I wanted to accomplish when looking at producing this game was a successful protagonist or player character, especially since you spend the entire game with this character.  But what is a successful character?

Is a memorable character successful?

An easily recognisable character?

A relatable character?

A believable character?

Or none of the above?

For me the success of a character is determined by the goals you're hoping to achieve from creating them, and is split between visual design (how they look) and personality (how they act).  Separating these two elements can be more understood when creators are trying to purposely subvert their audiences expectations - think something looking really cute but being incredibly dangerous, or a character who appears to be very powerful but is actually easy to defeat or not even an enemy.

The cute but extremely powerful Kirby and Pikachu

Nearly all giants in Dark Souls 1 are boss encounters or difficult enemies then along comes Hawkeye Gough who, though as fearsome as he appears, actually assists us.

These examples clearly show how visual design and personality of a character are not intrinsically linked but are both elements to be looked at when creating a character to allow for more depth.

In the next couple of posts I will be looking at these elements separately as well as how other professionals deal with them whilst further developing my own protagonist into a style that can be applicable to the game as a whole.

Researching The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Rime

 Both The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (I will from here refer to as Zelda: MM) and Rime both share the similarity of dealing with loss within the game both overtly and covertly in their methods and have differing rates of success in their outcome and are well worth examining in how they brought across such a sensitive subject matter to the audience even though I don't believe my game will touch this subject matter it will no doubt bear the same sensitivity and may use similar techniques to keep he audience engaged so that a real world response and positive change can occur.

Starting with Rime, we play as a young boy who after awakening on a beach journeys through an unknown place. We travel a linear path solving various puzzles to progress through constantly following a friendly fox-like character and later a mysterious stranger who, through the use of cut scenes between each level, we begin to piece together is our father who was also on the boat that crashed during a storm leading to us reaching this land at the beginning.  Each level has its own unique design and antagonistic elements though the general puzzle and platform elements flow neatly through each landscape only slowly progressively increasing in difficulty so as to not create too much of a challenge. 

The end of each level has the player character scale up the next staircase of a tower with us chasing to reach this stranger we came across at the midway point of the first area, this alluring stranger coupled with the cutscenes leads us to believe we lost our father during the storm and chasing him now is how we can successfully regroup. It is only when we complete this game that we learn that it was the boy who was lost at sea during the storm and the father survived with the whole game being the father experiencing his sons journey through limbo and completing the game is both the fathers acceptance of his loss and the sons spirit being able to rest. This isn't exactly how the game resounded with critics who whilst praising the games visual art gorgeous or beautiful found the puzzles shallow with Marty Silva of IGN saying that "On the surface, Rime is a gorgeous, melancholy adventure of a lone wanderer in the similar fashion as memorable games like Ico, Journey, or The Witness. But just under that layer of beautiful art, mysterious locations and wonderful music is a game with very few new ideas. Instead, almost all of its puzzles are shallow and ultimately uninteresting versions of things we've seen and done in other, better games." though he still scored the game 6.5 out of 10, not a poor score at all.  I feel most critics of the game don't comment at all on the message of the game or how its theme is presented within purely looking at it as a product and taking from that whether it achieves success at being a puzzle solving adventure.  Interestingly the game was later nominated as best puzzler of 2017 by IGN contradicting the earlier review by them.  A stronger discussion of the themes and particularly the ending of the game can be found amongst fans and gamers alike on discussion forums where plenty of commenters relay how sad but ultimately memorable an experience the game left them with once finished.  

In comparison is Zelda: MM which on the surface holds a lot of similarity to the franchises predecessors with the main character Link exploring a land and interacting with a slew of characters helping them with their own issues and gaining tools/upgrades to progress through the adventure a stop whatever impending doom is about to occur. The theme of loss whilst present in certain NPC's is not as overt with Link himself as it is in the ending of Rime.  We see the Deku of Woodfall with their princess missing and how they react with anger, also Lulu a Zoro who has had all her eggs stolen and how depressed she has become.  What is a more covert look at dealing with loss that most likely missed by a younger audience is how each of the areas are representative of the 5 stages of grief within the Kubler-Ross model.

Denial - Citizens of Clock Town denying the impending fall of the moon above them.

Anger - Deku of Woodfall so blinded with rage they accuse the monkey thats trying to help them of being the one to cause the loss of the princess.

Bargaining - Darmani leader of the Gorons is aware of his death but fears leaving his people behind and bargains for his life back.

Depression - Lulu the Zoro has sunk into depression when her eggs are stolen with those close to her concerned with how she has isolated herself and even lost her voice.

Acceptance - This is what Link finds at the end of the game when using light arrows to defeat the darkness of Ikana Valley.

It is perhaps only as an older individual who has experienced loss or is aware of the 5 stages of grief that this narrative within the game becomes apparent, though still contested by players with differing opinions of the meaning of the game through the subjective nature of a creative format. 

Clocktown with moon descending.

Captured monkey at the Deku's wrath.

Darmani's self-awareness of his death

Lulu's apparent depression

The Ikana Valley with its graveyard like appearance.

Unlike Rime, Zelda: MM received critical acclaim holding a score of 95/100 for metacritic and 9.9 out of 10 for IGN but again critics tend not to approach this theme of loss when evaluating the game but more so looking at the product as a game and how it plays with its use of puzzles and objectives for completion.  In its favour Zelda: MM is a longer game with more depth through side quests and a long established franchise from a bigger studio whilst Rime was only the second game produced by Tequila Works with no previous tie-ins to help bolster its audience. Therefore to look at how successful these games were at helping its audience come to terms with loss and change their lives is a lot more complicated and does not require use of grades and sales figures with those apparently being solely based on gameplay features.

When it comes to the theme off loss it is a lot more apparent that audiences understood this theme in Rime whilst Zelda: MM has much more dispute among players with some believing it is more aligned with the idea of Love represented in Greek mythology/beliefs represented through Philia, Eros, Agape and Storage.  Each of these types of love being presented in a different area of the game and the purpose of the player character is to fix these broken relationships.  Perhaps the more overt idea of loss through the storytelling of Rime with its use of cutscenes to establish an incident and characters as well as the ending with the Father showing him coming to terms with the loss of his son allows for less subjectivity and a more agreed upon theme, I believe the sensation you feel at the end when you do switch from son to father has a cathartic feel that causes an emotional response resonating with most players due to a concluding narrative, you no longer play as this character you've travelled with throughout the whole game.  There is no confusion as to what has happened and having experienced the sons adventure you also feel a sense of completion of his journey and can come to terms with this ending much like the father coming to terms with his loss.  Though initially unaware of what the games conclusion may be this beautiful art and simple but "shallow" puzzle format is what can immerse the audience into the gameplay.  With Zelda: MM having the player character deal with NPC's who may represent the stages of grief there is no connection with losing someone/something which is why there may be some dispute about the theme - with the theme being such a sensitive one it is understandable for such covert approach to be used and the studio can always rely on the success of the franchise to produce sales and high acclaim if the rest of the game play is of a high standard but I can't help but feel if there was one part of the development team who wants this secondary objective of the game to be helping its audience members they may feel dissatisfied with this uncertain outcome among the fan base.

Looking back at the two games in terms of delivering a message some key take aways for me without dealing with loss but still some sort of theme that can change the audiences lives are;

- Beautiful art style to draw players in to the world.

- Tying into this is a soundtrack that also draws audiences in.

- Ensuring the theme can be agreed upon by all players whether through an overt message or some other means.

- Choosing a theme that is easily experienced by all, no niche subject matter.

- A cathartic feeling to be accomplished by players through their own involvement with the game.

- Detailed research of the theme or change you're wanting to implement, how has it been implemented before, how can this be represented in video game format.

- How can a message be misconstrued within gameplay and how to avoid this (perhaps too many side quests unaligned with the main theme)