Arc the Lad's Poco is a clumsy, rotund fellow who must hold onto his hat while running.

A while ago while I was on vacation I spent a lazy Saturday morning channel-surfing. One of the things that came on was Disney’s Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, and something about it immediately stuck with me: the iconic movement of its characters. Pooh clumsily waddled, Piglet frantically scurried, Roo playfully hopped, Eeyore paced at a glacial speed, Tigger carelessly bounced on his tail and Rabbit had a cocksure stride.

Without explicitly stating anything about the characters, these traits imbued them with an instant and very powerful sense of personality. It’s something videogames have been known to do as well, but not that frequently.

As Sonic picks up speed, his legs turn into the signature swirling blur.

Of course any character trait can be memorable and evocative as body language is a pretty universal thing. Generic personality quirks, though, tend to be tricky. It’s very easy for quirks to become caricatures, especially if they represent some sort of a cliche, e.g., the gruff loner who always crosses his arms. They also cover a large field with plenty of subtleties that are not always feasible to implement. Then there’s the issue of plugging them in: do they happen automatically, or are they random, or only initiated by the player?

There’s validity to all these approaches, but movement is unique because it’s pretty much a guarantee. Your characters will move, so why not use that? It worked wonders for Sly Cooper and his fast and soft gait, and for Altair with his weighty, coiled-spring like movements. And hey, sometimes even cliches are preferable to no personality at all…

Supplemental:

A new post on Gamasutra has popped up that deals with body language a bit more in-depth, so I figured I’d add a link to it.