To become unforgettable, your
characters should appear to care about and think about the player. Of course, they should also have their own lives and activities. But if they are too indifferent or distant or passive, your players will never become fully immersed. They might start to think they’re actually watching a movie or a cartoon — instead of participating in the gift that only a videogame can offer.
Here’s how to easily demonstrate a character’s personal attitude.
1. The character should comment on the player’s actions, providing an emotional response.
2. The character should remember information about the player, and use it in their interactions.
Examples:
– If Olivia doesn’t know the player’s name, she asks the player to introduce herself. The player responds with “Ann”. Or if Ann refuses to introduce herself, Olivia can call her “stranger” instead.
– Olivia asks the player to deliver a stack of resources to the castle keep. The player fails and is forced to return to Olivia. Olivia doesn’t simply give the player another stack of resources to restart the quest, but also says something like “Stay strong, Ann. You will succeed this time.”
– The player defeats the game boss, and then receives congratulations from Olivia, who is impressed but continues to behave discreetly.
Example: Using Twine to get the player’s name:
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Passage ‘Tile 1’:(set: $helloPhrase to (a: "Hello", "Hi there", "Salut")) (set: $hello = $helloPhrase's random) (live:1000)[Olivia: $hello.] (live:3000)[Olivia: My name is Olivia, and I am the guardian of this sacred place.] (live:7000) [ (set: $nameRequests to (a: "How should I call you?", "What's your name, stranger?", "How may I address you?")) (set: $nameRequest = $nameRequests's random) (set: $name to (prompt: $nameRequest, "", "Refuse", "Answer")) (goto: "Tile 2") ]
Passage ‘Tile 2‘:(if: $name's length is 0) [ (set: $name to "stranger") Olivia: You have the right to distrust me, $name. For now… ] \ (else:)[Olivia: I am glad to meet you, $name.]
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In this short article, we described three simple but efficient ways to make your characters seem more alive. There are many more ways, of course, and there are different approaches to achieving the behaviors described when using game engines such as Twine. We will describe some of those techniques in the next series of articles.