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Make them care: A toolbox for fostering emotional connections with in-game characters
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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en
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94
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Abstract
This thesis explores how emotional connections between players and in-game characters can be meaningfully fostered in video games. It combines insights from the literature review and analysis of game precedents with the development of Care Crow, a non-violent roguelike deckbuilding game, where players support emotionally vulnerable bird NPCs. Although built on a card-based structure similar to Slay the Spire (2019), the game replaces traditional combat with care-based mechanics, aiming to foster empathy, attachment, and investment in in-game character well-being, in a genre typically focused on mechanical systems rather than story.
The project draws on psychological theories of empathy, care, and emotional motivation, alongside analysis of existing games that reveal different strengths and gaps in how player and in-game character attachment is handled, e.g., This War of Mine (2014), Unravel (2016), Kind Words (2019). It identifies practical design techniques and compiles them into an eight-part toolbox for supporting emotional investment in in-game characters, including Micronarratives and Emergent Story Moments, Environmental Storytelling, Distinct and Responsive Characters, Attachment Through Growth and Meaningful Interactions, Difficult Choices and Moral Ambiguity, Ethical Engagement and Emotional Scaffolding, Mood and Affective Design, and Agency and Player Moral Autonomy.
By treating emotional connection as a design goal rather than a by-product of narrative design, this work offers strategies for making even minimalist or systems-driven games feel more alive and memorable, creating experiences players return to not only for compelling mechanics, but because they care.
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Kultima, AnnakaisaThesis advisor
Kemppainen, JaakkoRautalahti, Heidi