Troy, N.Y. — Looking beyond gorgeous graphics and sophisticated storylines, experts in the game industry are placing greater emphasis on developing games that involve players at the emotional level. A new book written by Katherine Isbister, associate professor of language, literature, and communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, explains how concepts from psychology and social science can be applied to character design to create powerful social and emotional connections with players.

Better Game Characters by Design (Morgan Kauffman, June 2006) reveals that the key to good character design is leveraging player psychology. Designers who understand what’s memorable, exciting, and useful to a person about real-life social interactions, and can then integrate that knowledge into their designs, can create more realistic characters that players can identify with on an emotional level, according to Isbister.

“It’s not uncommon for moviegoers to cry or cheer in response to the experiences of an individual they’re watching on screen. Why shouldn’t we develop game characters that are so life-like they can elicit these emotions from players?” says Isbister. “As we move from plot-driven action to more character-based stories, the ability to connect with players throughout the game-play – not just in cut scenes – will become essential.”

In the research-based book, Isbister explains how to carefully consider and appropriately assign a character’s traits – its voice, face, body, interactions with players and non-characters – to achieve the most realistic results. She also discusses how player factors such as gender and culture can influence character perception.

According to Isbister, game designers who create great characters often unknowingly make use of these principles but have trouble verbalizing the reasoning behind their design choices to colleagues. Her book provides game design professionals and other interactive media designers with a framework for understanding how social roles and perceptions function in a variety of contexts, and for discussing the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction.

Better Game Characters by Design, which is accompanied by a DVD featuring clips from popular games as examples of concepts and best practices, includes extensive illustrations, game references, and interviews with game designers.

The book is appearing on store shelves at a time when industry experts are increasingly engaging in discussions about the potential for games to move players emotionally, and the need to explore the limits of game design.

“With the greater realism and processing power of the next-generation game platforms comes an opportunity for game designers to take characters to the next level in terms of realness,” says Isbister. “Accounting for player psychology during the creation process can help designers avoid the potential pitfall of creating eerie characters that look extremely beautiful and life-like, but move and interact like zombies.”

Isbister has spent 10 years examining what makes interactions with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences. Her research focus is social, psychological, and affective approaches to human computer interface (HCI), with special attention to games, mobile devices, and other leisure and social technologies. She has presented games-related work in both industry and academic venues, including the annual Game Developers Conference and the International Computer-Human Interface Conference.

In 1999, she was selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s “100 Young Innovators” most likely to shape the future of technology.