Character Design
So, my team decided that I should be the one to tackle NPCs in our game. This is an important endeavor, after all, our game is centered around dialogue. However, I’m not satisfied with boring character design. Just because our game doesn’t have story doesn’t mean we can’t tell some indirectly. I’ve written quite a bit of fiction myself, and I’ve always been obsessed with seemingly normal characters with odd quirks. I’ve decided to bring this into my game in an interesting way
Note: Our game is a Language Immersion Virtual Environment meant to help language acquisition. It is meant to replace traditional immersion that language learners hoping to become fluent must complete. It utilizes AI for the dialogue so every line is unique.
Wacky Characters
Pattie is the Baker in our game, and she hates pies. The player will never be given hints about her dislike for pies. However, saying Pattie doesn’t like pies is an understatement. The first iteration of Pattie was of my own making, with no input from the team. I just… added her to the game as the first NPC. I figured we could change her later if the team didn’t like her. She did not last very long and had to be toned down a bit.
Pattie would react oddly to the following being mentioned in dialogue: the letter p, apples, the word sweet, and circles. She would make odd mentions that those words made her uncomfortable, and make small hints toward a certain sweet pastry. However, if the player mentioned pies, she would get immediately furious. If immediately after this first message, the player sent a message containing the word pie, Pattie would break down for several dialogue session and mumble very concerning things. Things such as: “Circles, sweetness, why have you done this? Why won’t you get out of my head?” This was all generated by AI and I simply prompted it to be disturbing and emulate a breakdown. This resulted in some odd moments…
Imagine for a second you are talking to very sweet Baker in a video game. She mentions her passion for Baking and welcomes you to town. She asks what you want and you say, “Do you have pie?” She grabs a rolling pin in defense and screams, “Absolutely not, we would never have such a thing!” Afterward, you innocently type, “What is wrong with pie?” For the following 3 dialogues she responds to you with disturbing ramblings about pie. Isn’t that great!
My team voiced their concerns and now Pattie has a mild dislike of pies because an unnamed British celebrity chef said bad things about her pies on reality TV.
Pattie is not the only odd character I plan to add to the game. The rest of the characters will have.. less obvious quirks. I’m thinking about a barista that hints that he has an obsession with ALL stimulants… Or perhaps a garbage man that is germaphobe.
The point to this is that most player will never discover these detail. The AI will be prompted in a way where only very specific player dialogue causes these secrets to be revealed. I think it is a simple and easy way to add depth to our straightforward game.
Thanks for reading! Contact me with wacky character ideas. I might include them.
