2. TODAY
1. Character: what makes a good one?
2. Some discussion/examples
3. And now– WoW.
4. Group time
5. Homework

3. For today
I had you do a couple of readings on plotting and
character. I know some, but not all of you, will need
to work carefully with these concepts as you work
on your games.
I wanted to start today by talking about what
makes a good character, with another exciting ten
trait list from Dr. Phill!
Each trait will have an example, but they aren’t all
game characters. We can draw character
inspiration from everywhere.

4. Pro tip 1: The
audience can see
itself in the
character.

6. Pro tip 2: but the
character is pretty
much a BAMF.

8. Pro tip 3: characters
surprise and empower
us.

10. Pro tip 4: characters
immerse us by sucking
us into their world.
They make us care.

13. Pro tip 5: Sometimes…
a good character just
LOOKS cool.

16. Pro tip 6: bad guys
are friggin’ jerks.

20. Pro tip 6: Or
sometimes, bad guys
are A LOT like the
good guys (either in
look, in motivation,
in style…)

24. Pro tip 7: a great
character is versatile
and can be customized
to fit your needs.

27. Pro tip 8: a good
character can raise
moral questions.

32. Pro tip 9: a great
character captures our
fancy. He or she has
that “it” factor.

35. Pro tip 10: the very
best characters
shatter genre
boundaries and become
fixtures in our
cultural memory.

37. So…
Hopefully you see how those all sort of mesh
together. Let’s now look at a list of characters
and talk about how they utilize these– and
other– traits we read about and discussed.
To the website! Click that link from Empire
magazine that is up with the PPT. We obviously
can’t talk about all 50, but let’s take a swing.

38. World of
Warcraft
For this week, I want you to play
World of Warcraft, in a party,
with your teammates.
You can get a week free– let’s
alt-tab over and look.

39. For Thursday…
I want you to spend next class working on your
analog/paper prototypes. I will come around
and talk with your groups as you work.
No reading for next time.