Designing a plausible character for post apocalyptic video games

Abstract

The demand for character design and concept art in the film and video game industry is rapidly increas-ing. Advancements in technology constantly create a need for innovative approaches to character de-sign. Characters hold significant importance in video games, and their compelling designs are crucial when defining a video game's visual identity. The lack of academic research done in character design within the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction served as a purpose to research this specific topic. In addi-tion, the author’s fascination with the post-apocalyptic genre and character design.

The primary goal is to discover the factors that contribute to the plausibility of a character design within post-apocalyptic video games using the development of a product as the method for research. In the first section, the literature is reviewed to collect information about the genre and basics of visual theory using previous research, literature, and articles. The literature gives information about the definition of the genre, world-building, and color theory. These concepts are used to analyze three different video games that belong to the genre. To analyze the games the author used the opinions of industry profes-sionals, art books from the games, and literature about costume design.

The latter part of the research involved a practical section where the given concepts and analyses were put into practice. The purpose of this is to understand the concepts more deeply by creating a character concept for a post-apocalyptic game and using the knowledge from the research. It also reveals the im-portance of how big of a role the story plays in designing a believable character and how a genre can often result in creating stereotypes and not thinking outside of the box artistically.