---

Writing the Characters

---

 

 

I’ve talked before about how before I start any character design I’d like to have the characters’ personalities fleshed out in my head first, so in this weeks post I’m going to  put up the character charts for the two main characters of Milo’s Many Nightmaeres, Milo and The Head of Nightmares.

Milo

---

Description

Milo is a young boy who lives with his mother in a small apartment in a large city. Milo is afraid of everything, and every night Milo is kept awake by the nightmares he has.  Milo had gotten quite good at avoiding the problems in his life during the day so they haunt him at night. That mixed with his own vivid imagination means that Milo has some pretty impressive nightmares.

Identity

• Name: Milo
• Age: 13
• Gender: Male
• Nationality / Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Parents: Single mother, father deceased
• Siblings: None
• Location: Small apartment in a large unnamed fictional city
• Religion: N/A
• Class: Middle lower class
• Marital Status: Single
• Education: Grade School

Physical

• Fat / Skinny: Skinny
• Tall / Short: Short
• Strong / Weak: Weak
• Hair Color/Style: Black Hair
• Style of Dress: Blue Striped Pajamas
• Attractive / Repulsive: Neither
• Unusual Characteristics / Markings / Disabilities: Over-sized head and eyes. Large bags under red tired eyes.

Behavior

• Speech (Accent / Pitch / dialog tags): Soft frail voice
• Temperament ( Cheerful / grumpy): Neither, mostly fearful
• Social Skills: Weak social skills. A very quiet child.
• Ambitions / Desires: Wants to sleep freely
• Hobbies / Obsessions: Enjoys reading
• Special Talents: Vivid imagination
• Self Image: Weak self image
• Emotional Baggage: Some emotional baggage from his father’s death
• Secrets: Many. But they may never be revealed!
• Smoke / Drink: Neither
• Self Destructive / Defeating: Neither
• Mannerisms: Occasional stutter. Never makes eye contact.
• Intelligence: Average level of intelligence
• Strong / Weak: Weak personality type
• Leader / Follower: Follower
• Mean / Kind: Kind
• Right / Left Brained: Left Brained
• Brave / Fearful: Very Fearful
• Graceful / Clumsy: Clumsy
• Seeks Attention / Isolation: Seeks Isolation
• Funny / Serious: Occasionally funny
• Mellow / Energetic: Mellow
• Humble / Arrogant: Humble
• Obedient / Rebellious: Obedient
• Favorite Music: Lullabies

Inspirational Sources:

 

 

 

The Head of Nightmares

---

Description

The head of nightmares isn’t really a man. He has no age, no real name, no family, no beginning and no end. He only has one task and that’s to keep the nightmares running.  Despite his evil job and ghoulish nature, he has no real bad will toward anyone. He only want to do his job.  It’s due to this that he plays the dual roles of both Milo’s antagonist and his only friend.

Identity

• Name: Unknown
• Age: N/A
• Gender: Male
• Nationality / Ethnicity: Caucasian, kind of
• Parents: None – he was not born
• Siblings: None
• Location: The nightmare lobby
• Religion: N/A
• Class: N/A
• Marital Status: Single
• Education: Omnipotent

Physical

• Fat / Skinny: Skinny
• Tall / Short: Tall
• Strong / Weak: Appears weak but appearances are deceiving.
• Hair Color/Style: None
• Style of Dress: Black suit with red power tie
• Attractive / Repulsive: Repulsive
• Unusual Characteristics / Markings / Disabilities: Appears to be made of a crumbling sort of clay. Never moves just appears in different places and different posses instantly. Have no voice. Talks through a tape recorder that he caries with him everywhere.

Behavior

• Speech (Accent / Pitch / dialog tags): Distorted low pitched voice played from a tape recorder
• Temperament ( Cheerful / grumpy): Both and quickly fluctuates between the extremes.
• Social Skills:  Decent, but unnecessary in his line of work.
• Ambitions / Desires: Wishes to keep the nightmares on track. Enjoys everything going according to plan.
• Hobbies / Obsessions: None, too preoccupied with work.
• Special Talents: Can teleport and can be in multiple places at the same time.
• Self Image: Strong self image. Very confident
• Emotional Baggage: None
• Secrets: Knows all of the worlds fears.
• Smoke / Drink: Neither
• Self Destructive / Defeating: Neither
• Mannerisms: Highly expressive face. Holds poses for a while.
• Intelligence: Genius
• Strong / Weak: Strong
• Leader / Follower: Leader
• Mean / Kind: More kind than mean
• Right / Left Brained: Neither
• Brave / Fearful: Brave, but only because there is nothing for him to fear
• Graceful / Clumsy: Neither
• Seeks Attention / Isolation: Seeks Isolation. Does not care for humans.
• Funny / Serious: Serious
• Mellow / Energetic: Neither. Middle of the road
• Humble / Arrogant: Arrogant
• Obedient / Rebellious: Obedient
• Favorite Music: Screams

Inspirational Sources:

 

Well that’s it for this week. I’m getting close to a playable prototype for this game and as soon as I do you’ll be able to get it here. Keep an eye on the blog for more!