Incongruous Avatars and Hilarious Sidekicks: Design Patterns for Comical Game Characters

Claire Dormann

University of Ottawa School of Information Studies

55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5 Canada 613-562-5800 x4842

cdormann@uottawa.ca

Mish Boutet

University of Ottawa School of Information Studies

55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5 Canada 613-562-5800

mish.boutet@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Integrating humour in games or designing humorous games can be challenging but rewarding. Contributing to practical knowledge of these contexts, we examine the role and value of humour in game character design. We begin with a brief review of main theories of humour. Next, we outline our methodology, describing steps taken to develop game design patterns on humour. From our investigation, we present a classification of comic characters and discuss a sampling of patterns for characters, highlighting design considerations particular to these. Then we enrich our collection by situating our character patterns within the comic worlds the characters inhabit. Our intent is to create tools that game designers can use for laughter-inducing entertainment, to generate new, amusing gameplay experiences.

Keywords

humour, comic, game design patterns, character design

INTRODUCTION

A common tendency is to think of humour only as fun. Indeed, fun has value and is an end in itself. People engage in the exchange of jokes and humorous exploits to provoke laughter and share pleasurable experiences. However, in addition to providing entertainment, integrating humour into videogames can serve social, emotional, and cognitive functions, providing players with benefits beyond laughter. This integration can be challenging, but the payoffs to well-implemented humour can be tremendous.

A major source of humour can come from gamesrsquo; characters. These characters can be humorous in appearance, speech, action, interactions, or gameplay mechanics.

Proceedings of DiGRA 2013 Conference: DeFragging Game Studies.

copy; 2013 Authors amp; Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.

For example, you have the risible visual design of the frog-like Globox in 2D platformer Rayman Origins (Ubisoft 2011).You have the dry wit of Nathan Drake in action- adventure Uncharted 3 (Naughty Dog 2011). Or, you have the wobbly mechanics of an octopus disguised as a human in adventure Octodad (DePaul Game Experience 2010). Humour can also arise from charactersrsquo; juxtapositions in unlikely environments or situations. Humour, and comic characters in particular, can increase a gamersquo;s appeal and leave its mark on players. How much are our fond memories of LucasArtsrsquo; adventures buoyed by their pantheon of compellingly comic characters and their interactions in the worlds around them?

To gain a better understanding of humour in game and game character design, we begin with a brief review of humour theories. From a survey of comical characters and analysis of gameplay examples, we present a classification of comic characters and a sampling of our game design patterns. Then, we discuss how to expand and enrich our collection of character patterns by situating them within the comic worlds they inhabit. In this paper, we highlight the potential of humour for character design and discuss factors affecting its design. We hope to provide better tools for designers to implement humour in games and create new comical games.

BACKGROUND ON HUMOUR AND THE COMIC

Humour is an essential component of communication and integral to popular culture. Among other things, it is used to communicate, consolidate, and negotiate differences of political, cultural, or social status. Its pairing with game design is a match well-made, for many designers, notwithstanding the desire to make “good games”, also use games to communicate, negotiate, or transgress these very differences.

Humour is experienced by all, yet is difficult to capture and define. Humour has been described as a process, initiated by humorous stimuli and terminating with responses indicative of pleasure and joy, such as mirth, the most enduring property of humour (Gruner 1996). Following Martin (2007), humour is conceptualized and used in this paper as an overarching concept that includes different kinds of comic devices, such as wit, ridicule, or slapstick.

Three main classical theories of humour are superiority, relief, and incongruity theory (Meyer 2000). These three are neither incompatible nor exclusive, but highlight different aspects of humour. Superiority theory relates to social and power relations, while relief theory mainly addresses emotion, and incongruity theory connects to the cognitive side of humour (Raskin 1985).

Gruner (2011) views humour as playful aggression, with a winner and loser. Superiority humour is often connected to malice. People laugh because they feel superior to others. Think Schadenfreude and the nasty pleasure of balking at those who feature in reality television series. This kind of humour mocks people, making them appear ridiculous and refers to genres such as satire, sarcasm, and self-deprecation. In games, this kind of humour comes into play in first-person shooters and other competitive multiplayer games as a result of avatar death (Dormann and Biddle 2009). It is why we laugh at the overconfident Dan Hibiki from fighting game Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom 2010) or, in part, at the goofy Globox in Rayman Origins.

According to relief theory, humour results from releasing nervous energy. People

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不协调的化身和滑稽的伙伴：为滑稽的游戏角色设计模式

摘要：

将幽默融入游戏或设计幽默游戏是富有挑战性的，但也是有价值的。通过对这些情境的实践认识，我们考察了幽默在游戏角色设计中的作用和价值。我们首先简要回顾了幽默的主要理论。接下来，我们概述了我们的方法，描述了开发幽默游戏设计模式所采取的步骤。从我们的调查来看，我们提出了漫画字符的分类，并讨论了一个样本的字符模式，突出了设计的考虑因素，特别是这些。然后，我们通过将我们的角色模式放置在角色所在的漫画世界中来丰富我们的收藏。我们的目的是创造工具，游戏设计者可以使用的笑声娱乐，创造性的，有趣的游戏体验。关键词：幽默，漫画，游戏设计模式，人物设计。

介绍

一种普遍的倾向是认为幽默只是有趣。 事实上，乐趣具有价值，并且本身就是目的。 人们通过交换笑话和幽默的攻击来激发笑声并分享愉快的经历。 然而，除了提供娱乐之外，将幽默融入电子游戏还可以提供社交，情感和认知功能，为玩家提供超越笑声的好处。 这种整合可能具有挑战性，但实施良好幽默的收益可能是巨大的。

幽默的主要来源可以来自游戏角色。 这些角色在外表，演讲，动作，互动或游戏机制方面都可以是幽默的。

例如，你在2D平台游戏Rayman Origins（Ubisoft 2011）中拥有蛙式Globox的可见视觉设计。你可以在动作冒险Uncharted 3（Naughty Dog 2011）中使用Nathan Drake的机智。 或者，你有一个章鱼的摇摆机制伪装成冒险的人类Octodad（DePaul Game Experience 2010）。 幽默也可能源于角色在不太可能的环境或情境中的并置。 幽默，特别是漫画人物，可以增加游戏的吸引力，并在玩家身上留下印记。 我们对LucasArts冒险的美好回忆多少是因为他们的幽灵般的漫画角色以及他们在周围世界的互动而受到鼓舞？

为了更好地理解游戏和游戏角色设计中的幽默，我们首先简要回顾一下幽默理论。 通过对滑稽角色的调查和游戏性例子的分析，我们提出了漫画人物的分类和我们的游戏设计模式的样本。 然后，我们讨论如何通过将它们置于他们所居住的漫画世界中来扩展和丰富我们的角色模式集合。 在本文中，我们强调了幽默在角色设计中的潜力，并讨论了影响其设计的因素。 我们希望为设计师提供更好的工具，以便在游戏中实现幽默并创造新的滑稽游戏。

幽默和漫画的背景

幽默是沟通的重要组成部分，也是流行文化的组成部分。 除此之外，它还用于沟通，巩固和协商政治，文化或社会地位的差异。 它与游戏设计的配对是一个精心制作的匹配，对于许多设计师来说，尽管想要制作“好游戏”，但也使用游戏来沟通，协商或违反这些差异。

幽默是所有人都经历过的，但很难捕捉和定义。 幽默被描述为一个过程，由幽默的刺激引发，终止于表示快乐和快乐的反应，如欢乐，幽默的最持久的属性（Gruner 1996）。 继Martin（2007）之后，幽默被概念化并在本文中被用作包含不同类型的漫画设备的总体概念，例如机智，嘲笑或打闹。

幽默的三个主要经典理论是优越性，救济和不协调理论（Meyer 2000）。 这三者既不相容也不排斥，但突出了幽默的不同方面。 优势理论涉及社会和权力关系，而救济理论主要涉及情感，而不协调理论则连接到幽默的认知方面（Raskin 1985）。

Gruner（2011）认为幽默是一种有趣的侵略，有赢家和输家。 优越的幽默往往与恶意有关。 人们笑，因为他们感觉优于他人。 想想Schadenfreude和那些在真人电视连续剧中出现的人的讨厌的快乐。 这种幽默嘲笑人们，使他们显得荒谬，并指出讽刺，讽刺和自我贬低等类型。 在游戏中，由于化身死亡，这种幽默在第一人称射击游戏和其他竞争性多人游戏中发挥作用（Dormann和Biddle 2009）。 这就是为什么我们在战斗游戏Super Street Fighter IV（Capcom 2010）或者部分在Rayman Origins的愚蠢Globox中嘲笑过分自信的Dan Hibiki。

根据救济理论，幽默是释放神经能量的结果。 人们体验幽默，然后大笑以减轻压力。 这里经常强调幽默的愉悦方面及其解放效应。 救济幽默可能以不同的方式表现出来，从黑暗，绞刑幽默，到性或“顽皮”的幽默。 休闲蜥蜴（1987年的Sierra On-Line）中的休闲套装Larry及其续集以Larry Laffer的不幸事件为特色，他们的幽默在这一理论中根深蒂固。 救济理论尤其是游戏中最着名的幽默方面，特别是与漫画人物相关联。 漫画浮雕角色通过幽默来淡化情绪或扩散紧张。

最后，根据不协调理论，人们嘲笑意外或惊讶（Berger 1993）。 幽默涉及想象力和从不寻常的角度看待事物。 这种幽默形式通常具有不同的参考框架，多重含义，模糊性和关联性。 它包括口头幽默的形式，如笑话和双关语，以及视觉幽默，如视线噱头。 一些游戏角色名称包含双关语，其中许多例子可以在塔防游戏植物大战僵尸（PopCap Games 2009）中找到，例如一次分别发射一个，两个或三个豌豆的peashooter，repeater和threepeater植物 ，以抵挡僵尸。 经典的Lucas Arts冒险与他们令人愉快的，如果非常困难的难题，掌握了不协调。

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