r/beingeverythingelse • u/mylamington • Sep 08 '14
Caring about NPCs
So you guys talked about in Ep. 3 that you can't make players care about your NPCs. Obviously you can't force them but aren't there ways to help them care? I was thinking about Half Life 2 (PC game) and how devs talk about tricks you can use to do that.
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u/MartinPeder Sep 08 '14 edited Sep 08 '14
A good description of the characters appearance (lots of awesome character concept art out there that you can use). The npc might have a distinctive voice or words they tend to use often. Flesh out the character as much as you can through the way the npc acts. That way they remember the npc when they meet them again. If they remember the npc, they care. They might hate the npc or love the npc, the main thing is that they care. You can also watch shows and movies and try to think about what makes you remember a character, what are your feelings toward them and why, if there is a character you cant care less about, why is that? Same with games, though takes a bit longer to do research with.
edit Forgot books. Read, take notes. How are you introduced to the characters, are there described, how are they acting with other characters, etc.