At Austin GDC on Monday, Tom Abernathy, a writer at Microsoft Game Studios, explored how good characterization leads to better narratives in games.

In particular, he delved into the wants and needs of a character and how the conflict between a character's wants and needs organically generates a story. Drawing comparisons from acting techniques, Abernathy showed how these directly translate into better characters and in turn, better gameplay mechanics. Numerous examples were given from classical literature, film and games.

Much like actors, writers need to understand character wants and needs. What a character needs is not the same as what the character wants, he said. For example, in Portal, GLADOS needs to test the portal gun, but at the same time, wants to be liked.  When character needs and wants conflict, this leads to drama. In Bioshock, Jack doesn't want to kill Ryan, but he needs to kill Ryan because he's been programmed to follow orders. This conflict is the essence of character-driven narrative.

Knowing character wants and needs leads to a better understanding of what would be obstacles to this particular character. How a character would go about tackling these obstacles would be considered "tactics" in acting. Throwing obstacles in the character's path and knowing the character's tactics is very similar to gameplay. In fact, Abernathy sees a direct relationship between good characterization and good gameplay.

Abernathy also explored the thought processes behind creating a player character. Some initial questions would be:

• 1st-person view or 3rd-person? 1st-person may bring closer identification to the player character, but it limits the player. For example, the acrobatic animations in Prince of Persia are only viewable in 3rd-person.
• Game genre? 
• Blank slate or distinct personality or a mixture of the two? Does the player define the character or does the player play a character with a distinct personality?

All of this gives insights into how the character will act and look as well as the character's name. For instance, in Saboteur, the main character Sean Devlinn, an ordinary working-class guy. He's not James Bond. So, he brawls. He uses broken bottles as weapons. This should give ideas to the designer on what might be suitable gameplay actions or levels.

Through this, writing and design are in agreement. Abernathy stressed that this is how writers can contribute to the development process. A fully fleshed character will impact decisions in design and art. Character inspires mechanics and level design.  This all leads to better gameplay, argued Abernathy.

Pic courtesy MobyGames