Character bust at the right or the left?

[Kato-A]

In a game, do you think it makes more sense for the character's bust to be on the right or the left? Taking the example that there is only one character.

 

[TESTOSTERONE]

I like the right, as long as it doesn’t interfere with character position.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Left, but I honest to God cannot tell you why.

 

[Avery]

I dunno, if you use busts above the text message anyways, you can show both people in a dialogue at the same time (maybe the not talking one a little darker or so), so I would probably use left for player character and right for NPC and therefore utilize both?

 

[BubblegumPatty]

My brain arbitrary says Right feels the most "right".
But I agree with Avery, having both characters busts on screen during a conversation looks the best overall. Looks natural that way.

 

[TheoAllen]

A VN monologue scene? I would say, center!
But if it is not VN (i.e., you have a map sprite), I would say whatever that is not blocking the character sprite.

 

[Danatoth]

I would say left if it's in English. We read left to right, top to bottom in English, so our eyes start right near where the bust would be. This means when the bust changes expressions, we're already looking nearby to see the expression to change how the dialogue sounds in our head. Having it on the right side means more eye movement and less comfortability.

 

[Kato-A]

I would say left if it's in English. We read left to right, top to bottom in English, so our eyes start right near where the bust would be. This means when the bust changes expressions, we're already looking nearby to see the expression to change how the dialogue sounds in our head. Having it on the right side means more eye movement and less comfortability.

Good answer, we have come to the same conclusion. My logical part tells me that putting it on the left would be ideal since as you say, it will be easier to read the character's expressions, but my artistic part tells me that putting it on the right would create more balance in the scene, or at least is what I feel.

 

[TheoAllen]

As someone who read subtitles, it doesn't matter where. Pictures jump around every corner and I can still keep up with it.

 

[TheAM-Dol]

In my game the main character is almost always on the right (the few exceptions will start the player character on the right, but pan them to the center) while the left is reserved for NPCs.
To be honest, there wasn't a lot of thought around why this is. It mostly became the rule simply due to consistency since a lot of the early cut scenes I had implemented tended to have the edge of the map on the right side, I placed the bust there so that way it obscures less of the scene.
However, I've come to like it more. There are a limited number of drawn expressions and the player will see those same expressions many times from the main character throughout the game. The NPCs on the other hand are seen less often, so I guess in a "left to right" sense, I'm giving priority to NPCs.