How many characters in your opinion is enough

[lunarrosecrow]

So I'm making a game it doesn't have combat and if there is combat it is used mostly as a gag to make the player laugh so there isn't any need for party members outside of special events. It's centered around a few characters taking part in a sort of gameshow type of setting is the main character and the rest of the cast, my question is since the game has a small number of NPCs how much is too much I can't decide between 12x12, 14x14 or 16x16 being both male and female representation in the game.

 

[TheoAllen]

I don't seem to understand the question. What do you mean by, 12x12, 14x14? I thought the question is about the PC quantity? And why even gender matters?

 

[lunarrosecrow]

I don't seem to understand the question. What do you mean by, 12x12, 14x14? I thought the question is about the PC quantity? And why even gender matters?

Oh I'm sorry does seem confusing when put that way, no what I mean is characters in-game not counting the main character. I want equal representation on both sides so when I say 12x12 or 14x14 I mean 12 Females and 12 Males or 15 Females and 15 Males if that makes sense

 

[Hyouryuu-Na]

Your game sounds pretty story oriented since it doesn't have much combat. Don't start with the number of people. Imagine the place in your mind and think of the story. Good npcs are a result of the story because they give life to the game world. You can't just randomly drop a number of npcs into your map without any reason. If your game takes place in a small area, have each npc serve a purpose otherwise it seems odd. In larger maps, there are unnecessary npcs that are just there to populate the town but in your case that's not how it should be. Does equal distribution of male and female have anything to do with your story? Like, they're equally distributed for the game show? If that's not the case then don't distribute them equally. It will raise questions like wht does gender matter anyways? Why does the number of each gender matter? So... just leave it to the plot and as your game progresses, you'll have a better scope at deciding.

 

[Andar]

there is no simple number answer because it depends on your game.

there are games with one actor where even a second actor would be too much, and there are games with 200 actors that work just as fine.

The key is that the actors are to be needed and are to be different - absolutely no one is interested in trying out ten fighters that have no or almost no difference between using them (like one has 101 AGI and 100 DEF while the other has 100 AGI and 101 ATK and so on). And creating actors that aren't used is a waste of a developers time.

 

[MushroomCake28]

Depends on your game.

Also, all characters don't need to be equally important. You can have many secondary characters which aren't that important.

 

[OmnislashXX]

If you don't know then you shouldn't be making the game. This is not something that somebody should tell you, It's your idea, thus it is your game, thus you should know the details about it.

 

[DownwardSpiral]

Generally, quality over quantity. If you can work with three good characters, i'd have that over 20 rushed ones. Does not mean you cant have 20 or more characters, just focus on the important aspects.

 

[Ksi]

As many as is necessary and makes sense for your game.

That's it. That's the answer.

 

[GLM]

Personally, I think having a huge cast can make things confusing for the player who won't have all the knowledge the creator does and might not pick up on everything.

I'm a fan of the classic four character party for the main cast and a dozen or so important named characters.

 

[Wavelength]

I made a game once which was centered around a game-show setting (and I'm currently working on an extensive remake of that, as a side project). In it, there were 6 main characters, and the player could select one to use each day (they each had slightly different abilities for the game show). And then there were 40 different "Rivals", NPCs who could compete against you in the game show, which fell into 8 different classes (Scholar, Dancer, Hippie Old Man, Elf, etc. - it was very lighthearted). Each day, 11 out of the 40 Rivals were selected at random to compete against you. (There are also several more NPCs that appear around town, just to make it feel more alive and give you some hints.)

In that original version, the Rivals only had a couple unique lines apiece (and skills based on their Class), but when I watched someone LP the game, by the third time or so that a Rival appeared, they could guess who the Rival was based on their intro lines, so it felt like it wasn't too much - the NPC's persona would "stick" with the player. In the remake, my plan is to flesh it out to 50-60 Rivals, each with a dozen or so different lines that can trigger during the game show (for successes, taunts, telegraphs that they're afraid of something, etc.), and to give each "Class" a personality (for example Scholars are better at Puzzle games, Elves are better at Dexterity games, and Merchants will go for any temptation presented to them). I'm also going to make some of the Rivals appear around town as NPCs, where you can get to learn a little more about them and their motivations, as well as accept quests from them (e.g. a Scholar with runaway robots that you need to track down). I think this will really make the Rivals feel like characters rather than just AI opponents!

So with all that being said, here's what I learned: as long as your player gets to see these NPCs repeatedly, there's almost no amount that's "too much"! 40, 60, even 100 NPCs would be fine, even for a small game! If you don't think you can make 100 interesting NPCs, that's fine - make 20 interesting ones instead. But don't worry about "too much" as long as you can keep them interesting. And if you can make those NPCs the opponents in the Game Show, or tie them into the game show in some other way, you give the player an immediate reason to become "invested" in those NPCs, which is a really neat little trick you can use.

 

[Diego_Carvalho]

I like 6 or 8; I think they are more than enough for any Lore, and at most I would opt for 12