Synthetic character generation strategies: character design through the application of novel conceptual combination strategies

Abstract

Novel conceptual characters appear in games, movies, and other virtual media related to myths, legends, and future worlds. Newly created characters have expanded functionality combining parts of other creatures, artefacts, science, and technology; and using cross-ontological synthesising methods either consciously or unconsciously. The aim of this study is to propose systematic synthesising strategies that can be used to create novel conceptual characters through both the analysis of virtual characters that have appeared in games and movies and the application of concept combination strategies used in cognitive psychology and cognitive science. A study was conducted with 36 participants and experts from the game graphics design industry who were asked to evaluate novel conceptual characters based on synthetic strategies. An analysis of the results verified the adequacy of proposed synthetic character generation strategies for the creation of novel conceptual characters.