I posted this at the pav but thought it might help some people here.

I know for me one of the bigest problems I have in game making is comming up with believeable characters. I can tell you from experince good characters aren't made in a matter of minutes. They take many hours of planning. The reason for this is most characters change over a course of the game. I use several factors when I make my characters.

Name - Try to make it distinctive

Age: - This can dictate how a character will react to situations

Eyes - Just to get a feel for the charcter, not used on model

Hair: - Long, short, brow, ponytail

Species - Human, Elf, Ddragon

Class - This determines what abilites the character has

Characteristic - What is the characters personality

Flaws - Bad part of personallity

Party - Are they in the party

Quirks - What is the weird aspect of the character's personality

Relation to story: What part does the character play

I use this chart when I'm writting the story as a reference. This helps me make sure that the character's actions are true to their personality. Now it also alerts me, if I want to have them do something against their personality. It lets me know that I will have to explain their motives to the player.

The second part of this is geared to RPG Maker 2. I've heard people say that it is hard to make a serious game do to the character models. I don't think this is true. I do agree that the models don't make it easy to have a mean looking character, but it is do able. You just need to play around with the models.

For me I look at the model's special moves and pick one I like. I try to make sure that it is some how related to the character's personality. For example, Strodham is a leader of a group of bandits. So I picked the model that points as its special move. From there I play around with the models face. I wanted Strodham to look angry and menacing. To do this I swtich his face to angry and give him a scar.



The final thing I do is play around with the color combinations. To me this is the hardest part. Below is a list of some of the colors I have come up with. But exploration is the best.

ORANGE hue: 7 satur: 94 bright:100

DR. BROWN hue: 6 satur: 60 bright:40

PINE GREEN hue: 33 satur: 70 bright:60

BLACK/BROWN hue: 10 satur: 100 bright:20

SKIN 1 hue: 12 satur: 50 bright:85

LIME GREEN hue: 23 satur: 50 bright:100

HOT PINK hue: 83 satur: 50 bright:100

DR BLUE hue: 60 satur:100 bright:50

NEON BLUE hue: 60 satur: 100 bright:100

SKIN 2 hue: 12 satur: 50 bright:88

LT GREEN hue: 33 satur: 70 bright:80

NEON GREEN hue: 33 satur: 70 bright:90

SKIN 3 hue: 12 satur: 80 bright:78

LT BROWN hue: 7 satur: 94 bright:100

DR BROWN 2 hue: 13 satur: 71 bright:20

SKY BLUE hue: 67 satur: 40 bright:81

PINK hue: 0 satur: 50 bright:100

MUSTARD YELLOW hue: 17 satur: 100 bright:80

SKIN 4 hue: 12 satur: 80 bright:85

DR GREEN hue: 33 satur: 50 bright:40

RED hue: 0 satur: 86 bright:60

What about back history. Do you create something like that for each character?

It isn't required but it's fun to do...

Unless your game's story needs it.

the longer the game or more complex the plot, the more throughout they must be. in a game with the length and complexity as mine means that my characters must be fully fleshed, their weaknesses and habits all tweaked, and their back stories must be believable. building believable characters is extremely difficult without planing, you have to keep them focused to their model throughout the entire game which is hard if you forget what you did in the past. if they act out of character anywhere then you can destroy the feel of the character.

once youve made a character board like ix has described then i strongly suggest you pop some of those hints in the game through event dialogue, npc, and other means. turn your hard work into something the player will enjoy discovering. without good solid characters, then your story wont be much to play through either. one thing to note is that you should try to stay away from cliche characters. let square use the emo heros, and if you must build a played to death role then spice it up and add something that isnt the norm.

I do make a back story for my characters. I generally put that in the section I title relation to the story. Sorry for not making this clear.

Generally it takes me a couple of weeks to get the characters to my liking. Sometimes I end up redoing characters 2 or 3 times beforel I get them right.