- Apr 30, 2017
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- 19,949
If I cared, I would like to know about his skin color and appearance before deciding on hair color.
- Oct 1, 2018
- 25,108
- 19,065
I want to place myself in the protagonist's place as much as possible, so if you do have to see them (personally I prefer them being
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). I want them close to my appearance, as unreasonable as that is in pre rendered games.
I don't care about general appearance so much as age. Hate playing as a 13 year old looking MC.
The MC's appearance should mirror who he is, but other than that I don't care. For instance, it would be odd if the blonde mom, and blonde daughters had a black haired brother. Possible, sure, but not normal.
More importantly however, I'd say that it might matter to characterization. Usually, you don't want a blonde main character if you're telling a dark fantasy. A character like Angel, from the Buffy Universe, would probably have not worked as well as a blonde, because he's supposed to be dark and brooding. That said, this isn't a catch all rule, and there may be a reason even in a dark fantasy to make him light haired, for instance if he's Dracula's son and is meant to embody his opposite, as Alucard does in the Castlevania series.
There was a "how to draw manga" book I owned back in middle school that listed the different meanings common in anime for what hair colors meant, and they're somewhat consistent here in the west as well. For instance, white or silver hair on young characters usually means they've got a lot of magical power or something of the sort.
And yet still, the character could be meant to be a bit of a self insert, in which case, maybe you're more comfortable with him looking like you. If that's the case, go for that.
As for myself, I don't care so long as the character fits into the story, and I am entertained by it. I have to agree with Domiek though, I'm tired of MCs who are really young. I get that some people are trying to fulfill that dream of being a lucky kid, but I've found I relate much better to the adult male characters. View of Family and Sisterly Lust come to mind as games who have done this right. As did Apartment 69.
More importantly however, I'd say that it might matter to characterization. Usually, you don't want a blonde main character if you're telling a dark fantasy. A character like Angel, from the Buffy Universe, would probably have not worked as well as a blonde, because he's supposed to be dark and brooding. That said, this isn't a catch all rule, and there may be a reason even in a dark fantasy to make him light haired, for instance if he's Dracula's son and is meant to embody his opposite, as Alucard does in the Castlevania series.
There was a "how to draw manga" book I owned back in middle school that listed the different meanings common in anime for what hair colors meant, and they're somewhat consistent here in the west as well. For instance, white or silver hair on young characters usually means they've got a lot of magical power or something of the sort.
And yet still, the character could be meant to be a bit of a self insert, in which case, maybe you're more comfortable with him looking like you. If that's the case, go for that.
As for myself, I don't care so long as the character fits into the story, and I am entertained by it. I have to agree with Domiek though, I'm tired of MCs who are really young. I get that some people are trying to fulfill that dream of being a lucky kid, but I've found I relate much better to the adult male characters. View of Family and Sisterly Lust come to mind as games who have done this right. As did Apartment 69.
- Jan 4, 2018
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- 752
This bit I will disagree with, the overwhelming majority of the planet's inhabitants have darker natural hair tones and most blondes are dye jobs (and a very large percentage of those are on females). Otherwise I agree with your post, it makes the most sense to let the situation and character dictate what hair color makes the most sense.
I was giving benefit of the doubt, I guess I should have included eye color and whatnot as well to make it clear that I meant natural. As I said, It is still possible, but usually since dark hair is dominant it would be the other way around. In my family we were all born blonde, but there isn't much dark hair in our DNA. If there were, it would be more likely that we'd all be some variation of brown.
- Apr 27, 2017
- 1,010
- 1,152
I'm going to stick my neck out here and say go against type with hair colour, use expectations against the player. For example, Judy in Depraved Awakening is an innocent(to begin with) blonde(mostly) with a light tan and Melissa in Acting Lessons is a fairly alt black haired, pale girl, we immediately know just from looks what they are or what the writer is going for at least. Now consider Hollis also from DA, he looks and presents like an antagonist but can, depending on the players choices, go against type and is a better character because of this.
I personally prefer families to look vaguely related, similar hair colours are good as an easy way to establish this, dye jobs are also fine, in fact this can be used as a character point if you wanted, perhaps she doesn't want to be treated as a dumb blonde, or maybe she's dyed her hair red to stand out.
As for guys i'd say keep it simple, don't overthink it, go with what works with the skin tone, don't use hair lighter than the skin tone by a large margin unless you're prepared to use tan-lines on your models or accept they have dyed their hair, yes i am talking about men here.
Basically don't get caught in stereotypes unless they are useful to your story, Redheads aren't always fiery, Blondes aren't always dumb and black hair on a white girl doesn't mean she has to be an Alt/Emo/Goth type.
I personally prefer families to look vaguely related, similar hair colours are good as an easy way to establish this, dye jobs are also fine, in fact this can be used as a character point if you wanted, perhaps she doesn't want to be treated as a dumb blonde, or maybe she's dyed her hair red to stand out.
As for guys i'd say keep it simple, don't overthink it, go with what works with the skin tone, don't use hair lighter than the skin tone by a large margin unless you're prepared to use tan-lines on your models or accept they have dyed their hair, yes i am talking about men here.
Basically don't get caught in stereotypes unless they are useful to your story, Redheads aren't always fiery, Blondes aren't always dumb and black hair on a white girl doesn't mean she has to be an Alt/Emo/Goth type.