Evolution of Characters in Video Games

1948: The first video game 'character' was a small blue dot on the extremely well named 'Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device'. This is more of a tennis ball than a character, but still worth mentioning. This game was fundamentally quite similar to Pong, the player would hit the ball from one end of the court to the other. This game, though, is more closely related to the traditional table tennis or ping-pong.

1980: Jumping ahead to the first humanised video game character. Though in game he was merely a waka-waking cheese wheel, Pac-Man's artwork clearly illustrated a character. The problem was that with such a small amount of pixels to work with the character lacked any sort of relatability. The ghosts, however, Had eyes and notable characteristics.

1981: Donkey Kong, though the enemy of the player 'Jump Man' in his game, was definitely more prominent. The leap in pixel based graphics since Pac-Man are plain to see. The correlation between the improvement of graphics and depth of character begins to become apparent.

1985: In the first Super Mario Bros game, designers were still working with in the limitations of pixel based graphics. It's difficult to see any improvement from Donkey Kong's characters. The scrolling environment, however, was a massive improvement.

1986: Codemasters develop the first animated character, with moving arms and legs. Though the movements were still relatively simple, more depth is added to the character through them. The player begins to feel more as if they are becoming the character through gameplay.

1996: Ten years have passed and the progression into three dimensional gaming is underway. Crash Bandicoot was the protagonist in his self titled game. Crash Bandicoot was a new, fun and slightly insane style of character. His individuality and was only really achievable with three dimensional graphics that just weren't available ten years prior.

1997: Small developments can be seen in Crash's detail.

2007: Moving ahead another ten years... Altair from  Assassin's Creed, the first game in a monstrously successful franchise. I myself was in awe when I first witnessed the level of detail in these games. It was at this point for me that I felt I was truly becoming the character. Altair's body language is strongly based around that of an eagle, which makes him seem assertive or even aggressive in most situations.

2015: Grand Theft Auto V, an expansive sandbox. There are four characters to play as, Trevor (left) being the most interesting. Trevor drives the story forward with his insane antics, being the owner of a meth lab. His reckless behaviour adds an air of uncertainty to the game.