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.
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