Better Game Characters provides professional game developers and aspiring designers with a helpful and concise overview of concepts from psychology with direct relevance to game character design. Topics include facial expressions, body language, first impressions, social roles, and more. The book offers targeted design suggestions, mapped to the development process, and techniques for building character evaluation into the development cycle, as well as a DVD with video clips from games that illustrate points in the book.

Better Game Characters includes interviews with industry experts on great character design, including Marc Laidlaw ( of Half Life fame) and Tim Schafer. The book also includes interviews with researchers pushing the boundaries of social character design, and suggestions for incorporating their work into next-generation games.

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