Initial Research into Characters

Picking up from last year i have looked into one of the most well renowned horror games of all time, Silent Hill 2 , known for its immersive settings and horrifying creatures.

Part of what makes the creatures so horrifying is that they all relate to the main character. The premise of the game is that the town is torturing the main character for ending his terminally ill wifes life, and all of the creatures reinforce this point. The nurses are there to show sexual frustration with his wifes permanent illness or the "lying figure" a human entombed in what appears to be a straight jacket of skin, writhing in agony, the inner turmoil and guilt of the main character.

This shows the importance of incorporating story into creature design, and is a good example of story telling through character design.

In this short video documentary at 26:40 a character designer and cgi director Takayoshi Sato talks about if you want to "shake the heart" of the viewer you need to identify the players inner motives and exploit them. He says that not a day goes by when people dont think about sex and death, so he combines the two motifs in his designs to create terrifying visuals.