Tips for revealing a character in the game
The character needs to provide a story arc, grounding it all in the larger context of your game. If he begins with a (starting point) realization of something, he will go through an (arc) struggle with his feelings or past worldview as the game progresses, and by the end of the game (the final point) he will have formed as a person, having firmly internalized what he realized in the beginning.
1 The backstories bring your character to life
Think about your characters, where they come from, what their motivations are, and how that affects their role in your game. This can determine their design and how they act in your world, and provides fertile ground for even more engaging content. These backstories are not always revealed to players, but elements will be. For example, there may be a two- or three-sentence description revealing who they are and what weapons they use in the game, which players can read to give them a minimum of what they need to understand. But beyond that, players can also review two or three short paragraphs that describe their story, how they got into the game world, and why they have weapons. The short notes allow the characters to fit more naturally into the context of the game and its story.
A good way to start is to think about what the characters represent and what they represent to the player. If you want players to become attached to their characters and feel a sense of loss when they lose them, they should be presented as “real” people with their desires and the events that shaped them. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Whether you explain much about your characters in your game to the player or not, creating backstories for your main characters will help define their actions and make them more “real” in your game world.
2 A character’s backstory doesn’t have to be limited to the main story
Players’ immersion in your game doesn’t just depend on the action or main story. Use your game’s setting as a starting point for creating a rich world. For example, the player can learn more about the game and the stories in the world from a variety of elements, from wanted posters to book entries. Make your world richer and deeper and offer fans more ways to experience the story of your game by incorporating story elements into game objects and other points of contact with your game.
Characters in the game should evoke the feeling that they exist outside of it as well. It’s as if they were there before the story of the game, and as if they will continue to exist after the game ends.
3 Undermine Expectations.
A character can evolve over the course of an event with four different levels of development. To add a level of mystery and aspiration for progression, the usual character description may not be used from the beginning. Instead, as the player progresses through each stage, art and animation can be key to expressing the character’s motivation and storyline as the character evolves from a fairly simple character at the beginning to a very strong, confident character.