Week 4 Overview

This week, I completed Part 2 of NPCs and Visual Information, which can be downloaded here, and also researched the characterisation of the playable races in the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000, which can be downloaded here.

Week 3 Overview

This week I analysed the Art of Game Characters by Leo Hartas, which provided insight into the creation of NPCs, specifically their visual appearance and how that affects how the player feels about the character. It can be read here.

Using research from this book, I wrote an article exploring the methods developers use to characterise their NPCs visually, with examples from a wild range of games. It can be read here.

Week 2 Overview

During Week 2 I wrote a study of the Half Life character the Gman, which gave me a good base to work from in regards to character appearance and how that affects a player's perception of an NPC. The complete Character Study can be read here.

Week 1 Overview

During Week 1 I researched popular video game antagonist NPCs, and how their characterisation aids player immersion and makes the game experience memorable. I paid careful note to which antagonists stuck out on player's minds. This research will allow me to pinpoint the traits which make antagonists, and by extent other NPCs, believeable characters. A write-up of my thoughts is available on my personal blog.