BA4: Game Design Document #18

Naming Our Lead Girl!

The time has come to reveal the name of the main female protagonist in our game, her name is…Lianna (pronnounced - lee – anna -). I have been working on a very quick and rough draft of a character bio for here which is as follows…

Lianna

 

Lianna is the Latin name for "youth", she is 20 years old when the game takes place. Lianna is a university photography student who's major passion in life is to build a photography career for herself in honour of her late Granddad. She is confident but has flurries of shyness under different situations. Ultimately she is friendly with surprisingly good social skills considering her history. She is often respected by most for her passionate attitude especially towards photography. She's not a "popular kid" at university, not one of the "cool guys" but she has a small selection of close friends who are on the same course who all adore her and respect her decisions to put studying first, they understand why it means so much to her and never judge her for passing on major social events when she studies. Lianna doesn't get angry easily but she can get flustered when talking about her personal life and this can often lead to sour relations depending on how the other person talks to her. Ultimately she keeps her private life to herself and is quite shut off when it comes to family related conversations. They often make her feel uncomfortable and un easy and she is always the one to change the subject if she can.

Lianna had a rubbish life growing up as a child. Normality was barely held together whilst she went through school lonely and lost. Her parents were never there for her in any aspect of her life. They were complete wasters. 

Lianna had picked up certain fears and phobias as she has grown up, some come from the rubbish family life she had endured and others come simply from rational fears most people obtain through their lives. 

Throughout the game Lianna faces many different phobias which are all a part of her repressed memories, however, she does have phobias which are known to her such as a fear of the dark/being in dark places (lygophobia), fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia) and finally a fear of insanity (dementophobia), not a common phobia  nor one that is witnessed in everyday life but it's inside Lianna. 

Although Lianna had a terrible childhood, her Granddad did his best to keep her on an good life path. It was he who taught her how to use the camera and it is because of him Lianna had the strength to live alone and attend university. Many of her childhood traumas became repressed memories as she grew up and after she moved in with her Granddad at the tender age of 16 her memories were becoming more and more distant as her life seemed to be moving in the right direction. As sad as the Death of her Granddad was, it forced Lianna to stay sane and make a life for herself as opposed to breaking down completely (or did it?).

Lianna moved away to university almost straight away and had no trouble making friends, she settled in straight away. Despite settling into university life, Lianna was still fairly shy although she spoke her mind, just like  her Granddad. She wasn't really a party girl but that wasn't her scene anyway, she preferred to study hard and enjoy quiet social events with close friends. Not a choice which made her unpopular, she was confident enough to speak the truth and people respected her for that. 

 

I then moved onto doing some basic research into  doing a rough profile for a character to see if there were any areas I had left un answered. I came across this website which gave me a selection of questions to apply to Lianna to give a better understanding of her personality and character. Here are my first draft answers. I plan to discuss these with Olive as she is doing the character art for Lianna so we can change these if need be! 

Basic Statistics
Name: Lianna (possible last name?)

Age: 20 when the game takes place

Nationality: British.

Hometown: It wouldn't be a real place mentioned in the game so this isn't needed.

Current Residence: University accommodation

Occupation: Student

Income: Student Finance

Talents/Skills: Photography and more photography

Salary: N/A

Birth order: Second child

Siblings (describe relationship): 1 Baby brother she never met, he was miscarried.

Spouse (describe relationship): No partner...ever.

Children (describe relationship): No children, she's too young.

Grandparents (describe relationship): Mothers side have been estranged since she was VERY young. Her Fathers Mother died. She basically grew up with her Granddad who passed away before she went to university.

Grandchildren (describe relationship): None.

Significant Others (describe relationship): Father like relationship with her Granddad.

Relationship skills: Broken but able to make friends and sustain a social life.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5 foot 4

Weight: size 12

 

Race: Caucasian

Eye Colour: Green

Hair Colour: Strawberry brown

Glasses or contact lenses? Neither.

Skin colour: Pale white

Shape of Face: Oval shape, round upper head, pointed jaw line, high cheek bones.

Distinguishing features: Gorgeous big emerald green eyes.

How does he/she dress? She dresses down, but not sloppy. Often in vintage dresses and soft fabrics. Gentle appearance.

Mannerisms: Currently N/A

Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) No bad habits such as smoking or drinking. Clumsy when scared.

Health: In good health, no apparent conditions (pre hell museum)

Hobbies: Photography.

Favourite Sayings: Currently N/A

Speech patterns: Currently N/A

Disabilities: None before the hell museum.

Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Understated - pretty but not trying to be.

Greatest flaw: Her repressed memories and lack of emotion towards trying to confront and deal with her past instead of pushing it out of her mind.

Best quality: The love and passion learnt from her Granddad.

Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Educational Background: Pre school and high school.

Intelligence Level: Moderate/average, common sense.

Any Mental Illnesses? Well...

Learning Experiences: Currently N/A

Character's short-term goals in life: Succeed at university/escape the hell museum. 

 

Character's long-term goals in life: Become a professional photographer/not become mentally ill and unstable due to her history.

How does Character see himself/herself? She sees herself as quiet but confident.

How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others? Friendly with sour elements when family is brought up. Perhaps fairly shut off with personal life issues with friends cause bad relations?

How self-confident is the character? Moderately, getting better whilst she is at university.

Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? A combination of both, she is empowered by her drive to get a good career as a photographer but hindered by her past and ruled by emotions stirring deep within her.

What would most embarrass this character? A social event where friends were talking about family life and she felt the need to leave. Being forced to talk about her family life causes her to be angry - not embarrassed.

Emotional Characteristics

Strengths/Weaknesses: She has the ability to push through very tough situations but has a weakness to repressed memories.

Introvert or Extrovert? Extrovert.

How does the character deal with anger? She is angered when university people discuss family with her and ultimately deals with it  by shutting them out and ignoring it.

With sadness? Often represses emotions.

With conflict? Indifferent,

With change? She forces herself to cope well with change.

With loss? Not very well, again, represses memories, fills the voids with new things to keep her mind away.

What does the character want out of life? She wants to find peace with herself and forgive her past/repressed memories. She wants a life, one she was never given when she was little.

What would the character like to change in his/her life? Her childhood, but she represses this anyway.

What motivates this character? Her Granddad.

What frightens this character? Her repressed memory, the dark, confined spaces and mental illness.

What makes this character happy? Thoughts of her Granddad and photography.

Is the character judgemental of others? Absolutely not. 

Is the character generous or stingy? More generous than anything.

Is the character generally polite or rude? Polite but anyone can be rude if they need to be.

Spiritual Characteristics

Does the character believe in God? No. Not after her rubbish childhood.

What are the character's spiritual beliefs? Currently N/A.

Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? Currently N/A.

If so, what role does it play? Currently N/A.

How the Character is Involved in the Story

Character's role in the novel (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.): Lead character, "hero", you play as her in the hell museum.

Scene where character first appears: Opening scene establishing her student status and photography passion.

Relationships with other characters: Mainly awful.

1. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the novel). Her name is Lianna and she is fighting the psychotic episode in her head which is in the form of this hell ish museum, she will change throughout the story as she becomes more insane and ill.

2. Character's Name: -- (Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the novel). The Mother, Baby Brother and Father monsters, a reflection of everything Lianna repressed about them from the minute she was born.

How character is different at the end of the novel from when the novel began: At the beginning she is totally sane, but as the game progresses Lianna will become more and more ill suffering symptoms of a psychotic episode/mental breakdown in her mind which will change her as a person.