AstraVerse

Mythology and culture are rich sources of inspiration for video game characters. However, the common practice of directly copying religious or mythological figures—often termed "god transplantation"—presents significant **UX and ethical challenges**. This approach not only limits creative potential by capping the number of available characters but also frequently leads to backlash from cultural communities when sacred figures from active religions are misrepresented or trivialized in games.

This creates a dilemma for game designers: how can they draw inspiration from deep cultural narratives respectfully, while also creating characters that feel fresh, engaging, and appropriate for a global audience? Furthermore, "Designer's block" is a prevalent phenomenon due to the constant need for new game content.

Our goal was to move beyond simple appropriation and explore: How can cultural spaces and elements inform a *process* for designing characters that are both novel and culturally sensitive?

We adopted a design thinking framework, combining deep user research with systematic analysis and participatory methods. Our aim was to develop and validate a *system* that empowers designers to generate culturally inspired characters respectfully. This involved a two-step generative process to establish the design space and a three-step evaluative process to validate its efficacy.

The core research question guiding our process was: Can cultural spaces inform the design of Culturally Sensitive and Novel Characters in video games?

To grasp the complexities and source authentic design elements, we began with understanding the cultural context and stakeholder perspectives.

Visual Ethnography in Cultural Spaces

Researchers visited four Hindu temples in Sunnyvale, California. Photography and videography were permitted, allowing for the collection of rich visual data. One author adopted a researcher-as-participant stance, engaging in activities and rituals to capture events. A total of 429 images were collected, categorized as:

• Images of Idols: 248
• Images of Ongoing Rituals: 63
• Images of Miscellaneous Objects: 45

Initial Stakeholder Perspectives (Pre-System Design)

Early interactions with cultural stakeholders (Hindu temple priests) involved showing them examples of gods used in existing games. This helped us understand their concerns regarding cultural representation even before our design system was conceptualized. (This also informed the later sensitivity evaluation.)

Digital Ethnography: Player Perceptions

We analyzed discussions on gaming-focused Reddit threads to understand player reactions to the use of religious figures in games. This provided insights into player expectations regarding authenticity, respect, and gameplay integration.

To move beyond "god transplantation," we needed a structured way to identify and organize inspirational cultural elements from the ethnographic data.

Grounded Theory: Developing the "Syntagm & Paradigm" Framework

Using a constructivist Grounded Theory method (GTM), we systematically analyzed the visual data. This iterative coding process (open, axial, and selective coding) transformed raw cultural inspiration into a structured, modular system for creative exploration. Design can be treated as a paradigmatic (set of possible substitutions) and syntagmatic (rules defining structure) process.

The "Syntagm and Paradigm" framework was translated into a tangible design tool: a set of cards representing the identified cultural elements. This allows designers to search for specific elements they are looking for, similar to how Character Creation Interfaces (CCIs) in games present structured choices.

This toolkit prototype aimed to provide a flexible yet structured method for culturally inspired character design.

A design system is only effective if it meets its goals. We conducted a multi-faceted evaluation focusing on our key research questions.

Evaluation 1: Participatory Design Workshop

We invited three game designers from UCSC's Game Design and Development graduate program. They used the AstraVerse card system to create two characters each, tasked with saving a fictional planet. An artist assisted in finalizing the aesthetics.

Evaluation 2: Quantitative Analysis

To objectively measure novelty, each character (participant-generated and transplanted gods from games like SMITE) was represented as a vector embedding based on the 141 Syntagms. We used the Canberra distance metric to compare these vectors.

Evaluation 3: Stakeholder Interviews

We interviewed three cultural experts (two Hindu temple priests, one with a diploma in Hindu scriptures). They evaluated participant-generated characters alongside gods transplanted into games (e.g., Kali from SMITE).

Key Outcomes & Impact

The AstraVerse project successfully demonstrated that it's possible to move beyond direct appropriation in culturally inspired character design. Through a rigorous UX research and design process, we developed and validated a system using syntagms and paradigms that:

• Provides designers with a structured yet flexible tool for creative exploration grounded in cultural aesthetics.
• Enables the generation of characters perceived as statistically novel and visually unique compared to existing transplanted figures.
• Produces character concepts deemed culturally sensitive and acceptable by cultural stakeholders.

This framework offers a practical, validated alternative for game studios and designers seeking to draw inspiration from diverse cultures respectfully. It fosters creativity while mitigating risks of cultural misrepresentation and provides a method to overcome "designer's block." This work opens discussions for further research on culture and avatar creation using UX methods.