Alpha

I'm not entirely sure how to show off my game here, as part of it is experiencing the story for the first time and making decisions based on what you feel in the moment.

Final Game Design Document

My Final GDD is here and ready to be watched/read/whatever the Hell.

I want to work more on the designs of the Mantis Alien and the Fish Alien. The backgrounds will be a big part, showing Earth, the different streets of Earth, grasslands, before changing to space and showing similar things on the other planets.

And for the image and image description I don't know here:

A character from Doki Doki Literature Club

One of my inspirations for the game.

Not everything is what it seems

Game Design Document

Goosebumps

By R.L. Stine

My GDD is about a Choose Your Own Adventure Story revolving around travelling to Space and meeting interesting lifeforms.

I haven't quite decided on a name yet, but I'm considering something along the lines of...

The Journey

It's The Final (Countdown) Draft

Developing your character is

much like creating a sculpture from stone.

It's already all there. You just have to get to it.

Character Development is one of the most important things within any form of fiction or storytelling. Without it, your character would stay the same throughout the entire medium, never growing as a person or learning. Your audience should grow along with your character, whether it be a book, a movie, or a game. Development is something we all go through and fictional characters are no different.

This Literature Review will cover why Character Development is such a necessity within media.

Imagine your favourite movie. Why did you like it so much? Was it the story? The action? Or was it the characters that made it come alive.

William B Russel III and Stewart Waters(2010) talk about how many different aspects of the creators views and opinions go into creating a character. Morals, values, beliefs. All these things and more are often taken into consideration when creating a character you want to take part in your choice of media. Every game you've ever played and every movie you've ever watched has had parts of the creator be featured within the characters you are seeing. Granted most people would call this projecting but the point is still there. Character Development comes from your views and how you want them to change.

The history of Character Development within fiction and stories has been around since before Biblical times. Plato's Story Of The Cave featured character development, with the character realising there was an outside world and that it was simply shadows being cast from the Sun. Henry Jenkins(2005) states that you need to make meaningful comparisons to real life growth and development in order to truly reach your audience.

However one thing Jenkins states within his piece is that, not all games tells stories and have development. Some are just simply that, games. Games to enjoy. Games to play. Development of a character is crucial within a piece of media, but if your media has no character, then you need not worry. Tetris (Pajitnov, 1989) has no characters, and it is the most widely known and played game as of now and more than likely forevermore.

With Judy Robinson and Judith Good(2005) they say that with the children that took part in the workshop of creating a game, the most popular part of said workshop as discussed with the participants in an interview was 'creating the characters'. Character Creation is always the most important part of any form of medium. Especially if you look at an RPG or something like DnD. The creation of a character will inevitably lead to the development of it, regardless of whether or not it was intentional. At the start your character could be a complete jerk and plan to rob or maim everyone you meet. But, as you go through the game and meet other characters, you will start to develop along with your character, and come to make choices you would not have in the beginning.

Lankoski, Petri & Björk, Staffan. (2007) say that computer games research literature use very little information when it comes to character and design. In fact, so little is noted of character development that the entire paper is based on how to properly create a character driven game design method. In order to create a game you need to create the characters within it, even if that character is yourself and every action is of your own choosing. It states there are three important aspects of character design, those being the physiology, psychology and sociology. Physiology would be the most immediately noticeable change within the development of a character, changing their shape to show how they have aged or gotten stronger, giving them scars based on injuries you have acquired, and so on.
The development of a characters psychology would depend entirely on their experiences since the game starts as the character might be required to make a questionable decision against their actual morals, which can shift and change due to that decision. The sociology of a characters development is the least like to change unless they gain more enemies and lose their family. Which, given the usual backstory of most characters is surprisingly likely.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the development of a character is absolutely necessary and can be found in quite literally any form of media that tells a story or simply shows a character going through a journey. The development a character takes is completely up to its creator, though sometimes you might find your character developing in ways you yourself never even intended. And sometimes, those are the best developments of all.

Citation

1. Reel Character Education: A Cinematic Approach to Character Development
   By William B. Russell III, Ph.D., Stewart Waters.(2010)
   Reel Character Education
2. Story Creation In Virtual Game Worlds
   By Judy Robinson and Judith Good (2005)
   https://sites.google.com/site/judyrobertson1/ACMArticleRobertsonGood.pdf
3. Game Design As Narrative Architecture
   Henry Jenkins(2005)http://blogs.bgsu.edu/honors1120/files/2013/08/Jenkins_Narrative_Architecture.pdf
4. Character-Driven Game Design: Characters, Conflicts and Gameplay
   Lankoski, Petri & Björk, Staffan. (2007).
   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236680480_Character-Driven_Game_Design_Characters_Conflicts_and_Gameplay

Laying out the Layout

Intro:

This literature review covers the different approaches and research gone into the importance of character development within games and media.

Body:

1. Kathleen McCaffrey (2008) Creating an Advisory Program Using Hollywood Film Clips to Promote Character Development, Middle School Journal, 40:2, 21-25, DOI:
   This piece tells of all the important traits within Characters, and how to change them as well as why you should change them as the movie goes on.
   
   
2. Reel Character Education: A Cinematic Approach to Character Development
   By William B. Russell III, Ph.D., Stewart Waters.(2010)
   
   
   Morals, values, beliefs and attitudes are all a part of the film industry. It is common for the viewers to ask 'what is the moral of this story?' and it's your job to make the moral a good one. Characters and their personalities are something a viewer will latch onto, project and discuss with others. It's also your job to make sure that the growth the character goes through is felt and shared by the viewer.
   
3. Story Creation In Virtual Game Worlds
   By Judy Robinson and Judith Good (2005)
   
   
   Children spend a lot of time playing video games, teaching them logic, teamwork, and giving them motivation. A lot of games that are researched with children playing them are solely software designed and developed games. Stories and development play a much more important part for children's minds growing up.
   
   
4. The Character of Difference: Procedurality, Rhetoric, and Roleplaying Games
   By Gerald Voorhees
   
   Regardless of what game you make and how well developed your world and characters are, there will be a forum picking apart what you have made piece by piece and finding flaws.
   
5. Character-Driven Game Design: Characters, Conflicts and Gameplay
   Lankoski, Petri & Björk, Staffan. (2007).
   Video Games use characters. Every video game has a character or two. Even Tetris (Pajitnov, 1989) has characters, as people have given the different shaped blocks characteristics and personalities.
   It is quite literally possible to give squares characteristics and developments as evidenced by Thomas Was Alone(Bithell Games, 2012).

Thomas Was Alone

Bithell Games

Driven_Game_Design_Characters_Conflicts_and_Gameplay

Game Design As Narrative Architecture
Henry Jenkins

There was almost a blood feud between those who wanted to see games focus on the mechanics of game play, and those who wanted the story to become the focus. There is demand for both story and good gameplay, which causes conflict. Divergence from a story's path will make a less satisfying story, as would restricting the players freedom.

Conclusion:

The articles above show how important character development is within media, and how you can make it so that the characters you create are just as well developed as those within your favourite movie or book.

Links: 

Kathleen McCaffrey (2008) Creating an Advisory Program Using Hollywood Film Clips to Promote Character Development, Middle School Journal, 40:2, 21-25, DOI: 10.1080/00940771.2008.11461668

Reel Character Education: A Cinematic Approach to Character Development
By William B. Russell III, Ph.D., Stewart Waters.(2010)

Reel Character Development

Story Creation In Virtual Game Worlds
By Judy Robinson and Judith Good (2005)

Story Creation

The Character of Difference: Procedurality, Rhetoric, and Roleplaying Games
By Gerald Voorhees
Difference

Character-Driven Game Design: Characters, Conflicts and Gameplay
Lankoski, Petri & Björk, Staffan. (2007).

Character-Driven

Driven_Game_Design_Characters_Conflicts_and_Gameplay

Game Design As Narrative Architecture

Henry Jenkins

CCG

Annotated Bibliography 2: The Return

1. Reel Character Education: A Cinematic Approach to Character Development
   By William B. Russell III, Ph.D., Stewart Waters.(2010)
   
   Morals, values, beliefs and attitudes are all a part of the film industry. It is common for the viewers to ask 'what is the moral of this story?' and it's your job to make the moral a good one. Characters and their personalities are something a viewer will latch onto, project and discuss with others. It's also your job to make sure that the growth the character goes through is felt and shared by the viewer.
   
   https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kP4nDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=character+development+in+film&ots=u1GKTFm8mp&sig=JQ7SU_YMqB4UlPupJH6myQeZYW4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=character%20development%20in%20film&f=false
   
   
2. Story Creation In Virtual Game Worlds
   By Judy Robinson and Judith Good (2005)
   
   
   Children spend a lot of time playing video games, teaching them logic, teamwork, and giving them motivation. A lot of games that are researched with children playing them are solely software designed and developed games. Stories and development play a much more important part for children's minds growing up.
   
   https://sites.google.com/site/judyrobertson1/ACMArticleRobertsonGood.pdf
3. The Character of Difference: Procedurality, Rhetoric, and Roleplaying Games
   By Gerald Voorhees
   
   Regardless of what game you make and how well developed your world and characters are, there will be a forum picking apart what you have made piece by piece and finding flaws.
   
   http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/Voorhees
4. Character-Driven Game Design: Characters, Conflicts and Gameplay
   Lankoski, Petri & Björk, Staffan. (2007).
   
   Video Games use characters. Every video game has a character or two. Even Tetris (Pajitnov, 1989) has characters, as people have given the different shaped blocks characteristics and personalities.
   
   It is quite literally possible to give squares characteristics and developments as evidenced by Thomas Was Alone(Bithell Games, 2012).
   

   

   Thomas Was Alone
   Bithell Games

   
   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236680480_Character-Driven_Game_Design_Characters_Conflicts_and_Gameplay
5. Game Design As Narrative Architecture
   Henry Jenkins
   
   There was almost a blood feud between those who wanted to see games focus on the mechanics of game play, and those who wanted the story to become the focus. There is demand for both story and good gameplay, which causes conflict. Divergence from a story's path will make a less satisfying story, as would restricting the players freedom.
   
   http://blogs.bgsu.edu/honors1120/files/2013/08/Jenkins_Narrative_Architecture.pdf

Annotated Bibliography

I made the mistake of picking 'Character Development' within Video Games and there are little to none Bibliographies. However, there are a few on Character Development within film and literature.




Kathleen McCaffrey (2008) Creating an Advisory Program Using Hollywood Film Clips to Promote Character Development, Middle School Journal, 40:2, 21-25, DOI: 10.1080/00940771.2008.11461668




This piece tells of all the important traits within Characters, and how to change them as well as why you should change them as the movie goes on.






Reel Character Education: A Cinematic Approach to Character Development

By William B. Russell III, Ph.D., Stewart Waters

This piece has a lesson plan on how to teach students to notice character traits and how they develop.

It focuses more on the teaching aspect on how to educate students, rather than define the actual importance of character development within film and literature.

Alright that's about all I could find for these honestly I picked a damn hard one. However, I will give my own personal examples of character development within Film and Literature.

In another blog post cause I don't think I'm meant to do that here.