I’ve been working on and writing on an interesting story and world for a client the last couple of months, I have a wide range of creative freedom on this which is always nice. But with any new story and world there is something that is always required to really paint the scenes and events that take place. Without characters the writing becomes little more than a travel brochure. Creating characters for any story is a process of several levels; it’s not just a matter of giving a name or coming up with a witty description of some voluptuous creature. Major and minor roles need thought, preparation and above all some kind of passion investing.

You don’t have to like all your characters but I find you do have to have some kind of emotional response to them. Some of the best writing I’ve ever done was for a character I absolutely loathed. He was sadistic, evil, and generally a complete jack ass and I thrilled at writing for someone completely unlike myself. Exploration of personality is one of the more fascinating aspects of character creation.

These ties in to writing but also video game development, your characters that carry the narrative should be thought out, not card board cut outs that present little more than vehicles for imparting information. This is something of course that fails more often than not in many games. Even the most well constructed game can have some of the most boring and dull characters ever thought of. I suspect this is due to the general ambivalence that seems to go with story development in games. I could continue to rant on this for a long, long, long time but I won’t, at least for today.

If your characters aren’t interesting to you, if you just don’t have any emotional investment in them, then how can you expect other people to? I have had troubles many times in the past where a particular character just wasn’t doing it for me, and I’ve halted in writing of the overall project just to fix that kind of problem. Dead end, boring characters irritate the hell out of me and if I can’t find that spark it can kill the flow. Yes of course I could continue on with another scene, but always in the back of my mind I’ll have that part I’m skipping nagging at me. Character development is one part planning and one part spontaneous genesis. I could be trucking along writing with gusto and suddenly when it’s time to introduce someone new I could inject a character I planned for, or the muses will suddenly jump on me with both feet and give life to a new incarnation of unexpected import.

This current project is no exception, I was given some basic character data to play with, but in the course of writing I created a whole new vector of story arc, characters I’ve absolutely fell in love with and the dimensions of the story have grown exponentially with their conception. The balance of power in any story comes from plot, environment, and characters. You can have a fantastic plot and terrible characters, or vice versa. It’s finding that balance, and when you’re stuck look to your characters to tell you where you should be going.

Like many of my scribing brethren, our characters are drawn from people we know, or in many cases are pieces of ourselves, drawn from those aspects of our personality that are a parts of the pattern, emotions and thoughts we might not explore in day to day life can come out in our characters and we feel more emotional attachment to them than we anticipated.

The bottom line of course is that every good story has equally good and captivating characters, find those pieces of yourself that you might want to hide and explore them, look to the world around and find interesting personalities that might inspire you to further create your cast. With rich characters the story will build beyond your expectations, never skimp, even if you have to break off the pieces of your soul and roll them out on the cookie sheet. You might just blow your own mind with what you can bake up with the right ingredients!

There this thing that I see many times over the years. Certainly within the gaming community, all kinds of people have great ideas about the next “Great Game Idea”. Of course the realities that go into making a game aren’t involved in their thought process about what it takes or how to go about making that “Great Game”. Of course the information is out there for those whom are willing to research into it, and of course all time and again people in the industry has written and commented or had talks and exhibitions on what it does take. But there often seems to be some component missing from this information, it gets referenced certainly but not really discussed.

Yes making games takes time, money, resources, people, etc, etc. But it also takes a large amount of dedication. Yes it takes Passion too of course, but the more often I hear that word “Passion” the more it takes on a buzz word kind of feel.

Dedication, perseverance, fortitude, persistence and determination, all aspects of a similar state of mind, but still words that describe the means that drive one to work their ass off to get where they want to go. With all creative types,  be it a game designer, an actor, a writer, a fashion designer, anything else creative, it can be difficult breaking into those industries, or getting your first product out, proving yourself, proving your concepts, and getting that notice that you “Made it”.

You can have all the creativity in the world, you can have all the practical knowledge you need, you could be an artist-programmer-writer-musician-producer-ninja with all the skills imaginable but if you’re not willing to put the time in and get things done, you won’t make it off the ground.

If you have a great idea then pursue it, learn how to do things, find like minded people to form a team, but even with teams you run into this same issue. We’ve all seen it over and over again, people come together and plan out something epic, but it falls apart because someone gives up. It takes time and people are impatient and often in this “On demand” world of ours, people expect immediate results.

In a perfect world that could happen, sure.

In reality you have to work your ass off to get somewhere, you have to do things you otherwise would avoid to gain skills; you have to invest hours working on building your game, your CV, your portfolio, your creds. From concept to development to production and beyond it all takes work. Not in the metaphorical sense, but in the get down and dirty and kick ass and take names.

There’s no reason at the core that you can’t bring your “Great Game” idea to life, if you’re willing to poor you time and essence into making it happen. Hell, you can make a really good pitch for your idea but then you have to deliver on it. We’re not talking about some abstract thing, we’re talking about standing up and taking action.

I’m guilty of forgetting this sometimes and I let myself go slack as I work on different projects or take side gigs to expand my horizons. Like anyone I get lazy sometimes when I’m faced with work or projects I might otherwise avoid like the plague, but I kick myself and remember the goal, remember where I’m aiming for. So not only am i writing this for you my dear readers, but also for myself, a good self ass-kicking and reminder to practice what I’m preaching is good for the soul, so is admitting my own missteps on the great path of life.

Reminders are great for this; I’m not talking about some tacky poster on the wall, but just that one memento of past achievement or that one game or book that inspired you. We all need out talismans that keeps us focused, but even then you need to remember that no one’s going to get you want you want if you don’t have the drive and determination to carry through and deliver your own destiny.

You want to do something, you want to create and make something, then my best advice to you is to shut up and do it.