Great character design involves a sort of spontaneous combustion.
Fueled by plenty of human observation,
sparked by a little mischief
and shaped by the purpose of this character within the game.
Most games involve a couple of characters.
Some have none.
Some need hundreds.
Lemonade Stand Off is our competitive market development game for the Acton Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence,
Players compete to sell lemonade by detecting common interests of many individuals and then positioning themselves to sell to them.
This game require 72 unique characters with distinct lemonade preferences.
Part Martian helps Boeing's aerospace engineers learn to turn plans into planes. A series of Martian customers demand parts for their flying vehicles.
For example, Thorne, a lovestruck giant, is tricking out his ride by adding cute details that, it turns out, have little appeal to his nerdy girlfriend.
Klooge and Tweakit are models for STEM learning that personify two approaches to engineering. A perfect mismatch, the two Constructors have complementary skills. Klooge -full of impatient passion- hammers out a working prototype in no time. It works for a while, anyway. Tweakit is far more precise and her solutions are elegant and future-proof. If she ever finishes designing them. Together, they solve many tricky problems.
Claire Blair is an avatar character in a game designed to reduce the instance of teen pregnancy by helping young girls internalize the locus of control. Claire was developed with the help of Miss Mulatto, the young female rap star. In I'ma Do Me, a game of cartoon animals, the assertive rapper helps girls take charge of the situations in which they find themselves.
