How do you create a character?

Game developement

Short description

This article explains the development of a character design and addresses bad practices as well as good practices.

Preliminary considerations for the design process

Personality
The personality of a character plays a very important role and should be recognizable at first glance. The right use of colors, shapes and poses is essential here. For example, warm colors and round shapes can be very inviting and familiar, while cold colors and edges have the opposite effect.

It is also advisable to stereotype a little in order to convey the personality of the character.

Less is more
Simple designs are effective.

Simple shapes and fewer but striking details are easier to remember and more effective at sticking in the mind of the viewer.

A good guideline is three features that make a character recognizable.

Using “Super Mario” as an example, these features would be his beard, the red cap and the dungarees.

Of course, you can also include fewer or more features. However, there should be at least one and a maximum of five. The character should not be overloaded.

As long as a child can draw the character recognizably, it is an effective, simple design.

Silhouette
The silhouette of the character is an equally important aspect. It should be clear and distinctive so that the character is recognizable just by its silhouette.

Bad Practices

  • overloaded character
  • meaningless pose
  • poor color palette
  • piercing
  • unrecognizable silhouette
Bad practices example
Beispiel für Bad Practices
Bad practices example, silhouette

Best Practices

  • expressive pose
  • Colors play together
  • Silhouette more recognizable
  • three traits: hair, shoulder plate, large sword
Best practices example
Best practices example
[Translate to English:] Best Practices Beispiel, Silhouette

Example using the 3 D's

1. discover
This step is the preparation process. During this step, inspiration and references are sought. The rough idea of the character is created in this process. A helpful method is to brainstorm or write down simple key points about the character and personality.

Notes on Character
Simple bullet points help to develop the characteristics of the character

Are you ready to bring your game vision to life? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you successfully bring your ideas to life with our game development services!

Let's Go!

Wide inspiration can be found on Google. The collected images enable the creation of a reference board.

Character reference board, squirrel character
A reference board for a squirrel character

2. design
In the design phase, work should be free and informal. A wide variety of ideas, including unusual ones, should be developed and tried out.

In this step, the image of the character slowly emerges. For example, you can start with rough thumbnail sketches to decide on a silhouette.

Design phase, collection of ideas, sketches
In the design phase, different ideas are tried out

From here on, we go into more and more detail. Gradually, ideas for poses, face and style are developed, leading to the overall product.

  • Elements/styles are put together
  • Ideas for the design are collected
  • The best elements are fused together to create a design
Best elements of the designs
The best elements of the drafts from the design phase are brought together in the final design

Once the design for the character has been decided, all that needs to be chosen is a color scheme. To do this, the sketch can be duplicated and experimented with different palettes.

Color scheme selection
After the final design is determined, the color palette is chosen

3. deliver/develop
In the last step, the final character is developed from the concepts and sketches that have already been created.

final character
The concepts from the previous steps are combined into a final design

Sprites and Spritesheets of the example

A spritesheet combines several individual images, for example from an animation, into one large file. This creates organizational advantages as the files do not have to be saved individually. It also saves memory and ensures better performance.

Spritesheet
Example of the structure of a sprite sheet

In addition to character sprite sheets, there are also tilesets. These are sprite sheets which consist of various level components.

Sprite sheet, placement of sprites
Sprite placement is important for the animation to look good

When it comes to sprite sheets, placing a sprite is extremely important.

Especially with animations, the character should always be placed at the same distance from the edge of the box. If this is not the case, the animation could end up looking bad or wrong as the character's position jumps back and forth.

When it comes to sprite sheets, placing a sprite is extremely important.

Especially with animations, the character should always be placed at the same distance from the edge of the box. If this is not the case, the animation could end up looking bad or wrong as the character's position jumps back and forth.

Sprite sheet with colored background
A colored background makes it easier to spot errors

A brightly colored background is recommended when working on spritesheets. This makes it easier to find errors in the sprites. This includes transparent areas within the character or places where the lines have been painted over.

A background with high contrast achieves the same goal.

Sprite on a colored background
Example of errors that would be difficult to detect on a transparent background

In this example, the errors are very obvious. They would not be visible on a white background and would be very difficult to see on a transparent background.

Finally, the spritesheet simply needs to be saved as a transparent PNG and inserted into any game engine.

Questions & Wishes

We hope you like our article and would like to invite you to share your thoughts and questions on the topic with us. If you have any questions, comments or feedback on the content of this article, please don't hesitate to let us know in the comments section. We're always happy to hear from our readers and engage in meaningful discussions about game development.
Just ask us anything you want to know and we'll do our best to provide the answers you're looking for. Thank you for your support and we look forward to hearing from you!

Comment form

Write comment

* These fields are required

Comments

Comments

No Comments

More exciting articles

Don't leave your idea in your head, bring it to life and share it with the world. Start your own game development project today!

LET'S GO!