Playable characters, NPCs, and enemies
Now that we have briefly discussed how to approach character design, let’s see what the main types of characters in a video game are:
- Playable characters: These are the characters the player directly controls. In some games, there is just one (the main protagonist), while in some other games, there are multiple protagonists. In other games, there might not be protagonists at all. In a strategy game such as Starcraft, for example, the player controls units.
Some of those units might be unique heroes or commanders; some might be vehicles – tanks or even spaceships. The rules to create a protagonist such as Joel in The Last of Us or a Battlecruiser unit in Starcraft might be very different, but what is important here is that both are directly controlled by the player.