Accessories

3d Avatars – the Importance of Virtual Avatars in Casual Games

Many online games feature virtual avatars , a simple yet effective way to make the player feel immersed in their environment. This is evident by the countless makeover games, virtual worlds and MMO’s available on the Internet today. This is a design feature many independent game developers can learn from and make an integral part of their game.

Large companies such as Nintendo have embraced virtual avatars with the creation of the Nintendo Wii’s Miis. Others are taking notice of the importance of having a 3d virtual representation of them selves with Sony creating the Home service and Microsoft is rumored to soon replace their static 2d Xbox Live profiles with fully 3d animated avatars as well. Other companies such as IMVU have focused entirely on just having virtual avatars with thousand of choices for changing your appearance. It stands to reason if many large companies with millions of dollars budgeted for advertising and research are leaning towards trend, your small game development company should too.

What is exactly the appeal of having virtual avatars? This is an abstract topic as it varies from one user to another. For some it is pure escapism, for others it is unlimited freedom to experiment with styles, looks, and colors they would otherwise never try in the real world. Virtual avatars appeal to our ego at a fundamental level and for some people it becomes an extension of themselves as a person. There tends to be a varying degree of seriousness taken as some people strive to make their avatar look “cool” or “sexy” while others intentionally make their avatar look outlandish and as silly as possible.

When planning to develop a game title, regardless of if it is a action game or puzzle game I think it is important to leverage the fact that gaming audiences have an eager appetite for having a customizable avatar. For example if you were developing a small racing game, you should take a two pronged approach this. Firstly, you should let the person create their virtual identity with a name tag and simple customization choices, hair color, clothing color etc. If you had the time to invest, it would be beneficial to create more accessories and variations. Secondly, you would give the player the option to customize the car as in depth as you did the avatar character. With this extra bit of development work you have just increased the chances of having your player feel like they have something invested in your game which is almost the opposite of what many casual game developers do. Casual games do not have to mean limited user investment.

Key elements of making any virtual avatar game succeed would include large variety of choices for clothes, hairstyle, accessories and colors. Also it is extremely important for the player to have their avatar be seen by other people via either in game if multi-player is supported or via a user profile page. Introduction of rare avatar items is a extremely important element as well. Many MMORPG’s cater to this exclusively as the quest to gain items is dependent on playing the game more and more. GAIA Online for example displays its users avatars on their message forums, and gives them the option to change their appearance with various clothing items but also displays public wish lists in the hopes that strangers buy items for them.

Regardless of the game theme or style of play there is room for addition of player avatars in any game if planned properly. Having a game with customizable virtual avatars greatly increases the chances of your games popularity, user investment and overall enjoyability.

About the Author

Derek Young co-owns Switchin.net – a games portal which receives 1.7 million unique visitors a month. With over 5 years of professional game development experience he can always point you towards some good 3d games

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