The Illinois of Art, Chicago	Scriptwriting for Games
	Instructor: Lindsay Grace

 

 

List of Iconic Game Characters for Storytelling

Crash: Crash Bandicoot
A 'goofy yet heroic' protagonist, Crash is the relaxed, well-intentioned bandicoot of the famous Crash Bandicoot series.

Conker: Conker’s Quest at el.
Conker is a drinking, bawdy, and greedy, squirrel. Conker appears as PC and NPC in several games including Donkey Kong island and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

Snake: Metal Gear Solid
Snake has had two distinct periods of character development. The early character, introduced on personal computers and later NES, was a mixture of action here cliché’s employed by contemporary action films. The later character, although not much evolved from the formal of action hers, is introduced with substantial back-story and some emotional depth.

Link: Zelda Series
Link is the classic lone adventurer. As such, links character is more often revealed through his interaction with quest-giving NPCs. Link’s personality is less defined than his skill sets, physical abilities and extensive collection of weapons and spells.

Dante: Devil May Cry
Dante, the protagonist private investigator and vampire hunter of the Devil May Cry series. Dante is often cocky and somewhat colorful. A twin named Vergil who’s best exposed in Devil May Cry III balances his character.

Rayne: BloodRayne
Rayne is a half-vampire hunter of the supernatural. In the original BloodRayne game, Rayne is sent to hunt supernatural forces and nazi’s by her World War II era Brimstone society. In Blood Rayne II, Rayne seeks to destroy the offspring her-half siblings who have figured out way to protect Vampire’s from the sun.

Chun-Li: Street Fighter 2
“Chun-Li is one of the earliest female video game protagonists to achieve widespread popularity. Prior to Street Fighter II being released in 1991, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration; as such, there were very few heroines in action-based video games. After the success of Street Fighter II and Chun-Li's popularity, female protagonists became increasingly common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least one or two of them will almost always be female; and a number of games released since that have placed a female character in the lead role.” – Wikipedia

 

Provided by Lindsay Grace for students of the Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago. These documents may be used by others when properly credited. Please email lgrace at aii edu for more information.