Game characters are probably under-valued due to the glut of character-based platformers in the 16-bit era. Remember Rocky Rodent? There's a reason you don't. Now we have fully-realized 3-D worlds and of course, characters need to populate them. The Art of Game Characters tries to make sense of it all, explaining the basic process, interviewing those who have created them, and showcasing both rendered and hand-drawn art to show off the process.
It does all of this in less than 200 pages, covering the various character design philosophies. Author Leo Hartas does a fantastic job with words, accompanying each picture with surprisingly well-written, descriptive text. It could have carried you with the art, but the text is more informative than you would expect. Co-authors occasionally pick up to explain things more in-depth, and do so without alienating the audience, who may not have any experience actually crafting characters like this.
The interviews with certain developers provide most of the disappointment. There are times when this all seems far too promotional, particularly the book's final segment on Advent Rising. It leaves a bad taste when you finally close this paperback, especially since some of the games featured are not yet released. There are also no discussions with the true masters of character design, like Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario) and Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man).
In fact, there's a complete lack of 2-D classic character art anywhere. This can hardly be considered a complete work without a picture of a 2-D Mario. The various artist's quick renderings and sketches are the only things not in 3-D. There's no attempt to explain how design evolved to this point, other than a few brief sentences. That would have given the book a better rounded feel, regardless of how the game industry has embraced 3-D.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
A coffee-table book for Gen-X?
2 - Matt Paprocki
And hardly the only one Pat. You can toss in both editions of High Score, Supercade, and a Theory of Fun Game Design too. =;)