WayForward: Sexy game characters aren't necessarily attractive

Sex sells. It's marketing 101. Give people something nice to stare at/drool over. Make them stop thinking with their brains and start thinking with their, well, you know.

WayForward's Sean Velasco, however, argues that - where videogame characters are concerned - it's not so simple.

"We like our characters to be attractive and appealing, but it’s important to let the personality dictate the look. It’s easy to make a sexy-looking design, but not necessarily an attractive character. Discerning audiences can tell the difference, and it’s easy to turn people off," he told Destructoid.

It's an interesting notion, and one that many of the industry's chainmail bikini-obsessed designers could stand to consider. There's also the matter of feeling downright embarrassed to play a game around other people because, yeah, that character could be hopping up and down while covered in whipped cream and still be more subtle.

Currently, WayForward is designing Mighty Milky Way, a DSiWare puzzler that sees you use "a magical staff to create and destroy planets on a whim" while fending off "vicious space monsters, avoiding sizzling electric barriers, and grabbing all the delicious planet candy you can." Oh, there's also specific mention of "a choral T-Rex anthem and a J-Pop ballad." You can't make this stuff up. Knowing the developer's track record, however, we think it's definitely one to keep an eye on.