Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering™

Chapter 2.12. Emotioneering Techniques Category #12: NPC Toward Player Relationship Deepening Techniques

NPCs may not be alive, but that doesn't mean they can't have complex feelings toward you.

This chapter discusses

ways to make it feel as if major NPCs have emotionally complex relationships with the player.

In this chapter, we're not talking about how you, the player, feel toward the NPC characters in the game, but how they feel toward you.

Layers of Feeling

Remember how Princess Leia had mixed emotions toward Han Solo?

• She thought he was selfish and arrogant.

• She was attracted to his headstrong manner and his resourcefulness.

• She begrudgingly admired his heroic deeds.

• She was repulsed by his desire to help himself, instead of those who were oppressed ...