NPCs can grow and change—but hopefully not easily.
This chapter
discusses techniques that, when applied, give an NPC a Character Arc.
Quite often in a film, one or more characters have something wrong with them. More specifically, they start the film with what I call a fear, limitation, block, or wound (FLBW). For example, they:
Are a coward.
Are irresponsible.
Lack ethics.
Are self-destructive.
Feel guilty over something they've done.
Have low self-esteem.
There are a vast array of possible FLBWs.
Let's say the character's FLBW is that he has no idea who he really is as a person. He might have felt this way all his life, or maybe some devastating experience happened to him last week that left him in this condition. For our purposes, it doesn't matter. What matters is that, by the end of the story, he will have grown though this FLBW, and he'll have a good sense of his uniqueness.
This is exactly what happens to Luke Skywalker. In the beginning of Star Wars—Episode IV, Luke doesn't know who he is. By the end, he knows he's a Jedi Knight—or at least that he's meant to be one. A little later in this chapter, we'll look at how this character growth is brought about.
A Character Arc is the rocky path of growth a character undergoes, usually unwillingly or with difficulty, during which the character wrestles with and eventually overcomes some or all of a serious emotional FLBW.
The character is unwilling to grow because it's tough to grow though a FLBW. Usually, the character has created a life in which his or her FLBW doesn't get in the way.
For instance, if the character lacks ethics, his life is fixed up at the beginning of the story, in a way so that he can get away with his unethical behavior without consequences. Perhaps he has an entire system of cover-ups and excuses to explain where he is and what he's doing when he's really off doing something unethical.
Another example would be a shy person who has gotten himself or herself employed in a job or even a field where interacting with others isn't required.
And then something happens to the character. He or she falls into a new circumstance or an adventure or simply a change in events, and now that FLBW gets in the way all the time. The character is forced to grow, like it or not.
As I mentioned, going from “not knowing who you are” to “knowing who you are” is the Character Arc that Luke Skywalker undergoes in Episode IV.[1]
Luke is forced to grow due to the new experiences he undergoes, such as:
One of the key factors that makes a film or other story emotionally gripping is watching one or more of the characters struggle through their fear, limitation, block, or wound.
It's not easy for Luke to become who he is. It's not easy for Princess Leia to learn how to love. It's not easy for Han Solo to learn how to go from being an outlaw loner with just a sole friend in the world (Chewbacca) to being an ethical team player. It's not easy for Obi-Wan to “get back in the game.” (When we meet him, he's living by himself in a cave, doing nothing to fight the Empire.) It's not easy for C-3PO to learn courage.
note
You might say that C-3PO never completely learns courage. It's true that he complains, but due to various external and internal pressures, he usually ends up doing the brave thing anyway. However, he seems to always be perpetually “mid-way” in his Character Arc: first complaining, then doing the brave thing, but never totally becoming the unflappable hero. Although I can't read George Lucas' mind, I suspect Lucas didn't want to lose the comedic benefits that came from C-3PO's continual anxiety. I think most people would agree that it was a good choice. Also, Luke, Leia, and Han were all heroes of different kinds; C-3PO's worry-wart style of heroism rounded out the mix.
Giving a character we care about an FLBW, and then watching him or her grow through a difficult and stressful Character Arc, is one of the key ways of making a story emotionally gripping.
If your game has major, recurring NPCs, then, ideally, at least one of them should have a Character Arc. It's fine if others do as well. If you don't do this, you might be bypassing a major opportunity to help create an emotionally gripping game.
Again, this is a general guideline, not a rule. There are always exceptions.
The ins and outs of Character Arcs could fill a book by themselves, but here are a few pointers.
Try to give a character just one Character Arc. There are ways to give a character more than one, but they're tricky. They'd also require more dialogue than most games have room for.
A character's growth should be rocky. It's okay if the character resists growing—for instance, if the character is put in a situation where he or she should grow, but doesn't, instead clinging on to his or her old ways. Sometimes a character needs to be “hit over the head” a few times before they start growing.
In Star Wars—Episode IV, for example, Han has lots of exposure to the ethical group of Luke, Obi-Wan, and Leia before he finally starts changing and becoming concerned for purposes other than his own personal financial problems.
Although it's always difficult and uncomfortable for the character to grow, some of the events that force a character to grow can be happy ones.
In Episode IV, for example, when Luke first learns to use his light saber and hit a little flying target while wearing his blastshield, it's a happy moment, but still one that pushes him along the path of his growth.
Usually, like Luke in Episode IV or Neo in The Matrix, a character is forced to face his or her FLBW many times throughout a story. In some of these situations, the character may not grow at all and may even get defensive. (Luke is this way in the beginning, when he protests to Obi-Wan that he's too insignificant to do anything about the Empire.) When growth does occur, it's often in increments. Usually, by the end of the story, the character reaches the end point of his or her Character Arc.
For example, let's say you have a female character who lacks ethics. She's caught doing something unethical. She doesn't need to grow at that moment. Instead of repenting, she might justify her actions.
Characters can go through some very dark periods (emotionally) before they emerge on the other end of their Character Arc.
For example, in the film Good Will Hunting, Will (played by Matt Damon) is a young man who is afraid to let anyone become close to him. This fear stems back to terrible physical abuse as a child by his foster father that made him, on an unconscious level, equate intimacy with pain. So terrified is he of closeness that he even pushes away the woman who loves him and his therapist who only wants to help him. Rather than grow, he retreats into a very bleak situation. By the end, however, he makes his way through his FLBW and learns to allow people to be close to him.
The game Max Payne is another example. In it, Max feels responsible for his wife's murder. This guilt propels him into bleaker and bleaker situations and states of mind. One level is even played inside one of his haunting nightmares—twice. By the end, though, he does avenge his wife's death.
The designers and writer decided not to have him feel fully restored from his feeling of guilt, however, believing that a rosy ending of that nature would violate the noir feeling. There's some real bleakness to Max's circumstances at the end, and a certain amount of bleakness within Max himself.
To make the emotions at the end even more layered, this darkness is mixed in with a feeling of resolution from Max killing his wife's murderer. All these choices show a daring move by the designers and writer, and, I think, a sophistication by the players who embraced the game so widely.
Some characters hide their FLBW behind a Mask (see Chapters 2.1, “NPC Interesting Techniques,” and 2.2, “NPC Deepening Techniques”). If you've given a character a Mask, once they grow through their FLBW, they no longer need their Mask and it will disappear.
Let's reconsider our woman who lacks ethics. She puts up a Mask, or false front, that she's a respectable citizen. She goes out of her way to impress everyone of the civic contributions she's made. When she finally obtains ethics in the end, she can drop her constant promoting of what a wonderful civic contributor she is.
It's usually poor writing to have the character overtly state how he or she has grown at the end of the story. You wouldn't want Luke to say, “I didn't know who I was, but now I do.” Instead, by the end, we should infer from a character's actions and dialogue that they've “made it” to the end of their Character Arc and overcome their FLBW.
Not every character we're “pulling for” necessarily needs to reach the end of their Character Arc. If they fail, they become a tragic character, doomed to live forever ruled by their fear, limitation, block, or wound. Characters who fail tragically in their Character Arc can bring a “down” feeling to the end of a story, so think carefully before doing this with one of the characters you want the player to like.
For example, the character begins as a coward and still chickens out in the big battle at the end, although we thought he was gradually becoming more courageous. That would be a tragic character.
Remember that the preceding points are guidelines, not rules. There are always exceptions.
In Hollywood, by the end of the film, if the lead character has a FLBW, he usually grows all the way or a major part of the way through it by the end. There are rare films, such as Taxi Driver, where the lead character gets worse.
Character Arcs undergone by characters we care about can add significant emotion to a film experience, and they can perform a similar function in a game.
In a game it is challenging to have an NPC go through a Character Arc when that NPC has relatively little “screen time,” compared to the characters in a film or television show. Nonetheless it's absolutely possible in many games in which there are recurring NPCs. How would I know? I'm adding NPC Character Arcs in most of the games I'm currently helping design and write.
[1] It's also the Character Arc that Neo undergoes in The Matrix (he learns he's “The One”). Arnold Schwarzenegger undergoes the same Arc in Total Recall. In fact, because the memories of Schwarzenegger's character have been altered, he goes on a literal quest to find out who he is.