--- title: "Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?" | daily.dev description: Game designer Tim Cain addresses the question of why many Western games feature characters that some players consider unattractive. He argues that beauty is... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: "Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?" | daily.dev og:description: Game designer Tim Cain addresses the question of why many Western games feature characters that some players consider unattractive. He argues that beauty is... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/fRiZZbaku.png og:image:alt: "Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?" og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # "Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?" **[Cain on Games](https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Game designer Tim Cain addresses the question of why many Western games feature characters that some players consider unattractive. He argues that beauty is subjective and culturally variable, that variety in character design is a deliberate and valid creative choice, and that the gaming landscape already contains tens of thousands of games with idealized protagonists. He draws on his experience designing Arcanum, where beauty was an objective in-game attribute but portrait selection was left entirely to player preference. He also notes the contradiction in players simultaneously complaining about games being too samey while objecting to any deviation from a narrow aesthetic standard. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Death of Character in Game Console Interfaces](https://daily.dev/posts/the-death-of-character-in-game-console-interfaces-x9f2zvyck) · Lobsters · 18 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Do Game Character Design in 2025: Complete Guide](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-do-game-character-design-in-2025-complete-guide-osbjkxgqs) · Game Designing · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-design](https://daily.dev/tags/game-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"\"Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?\"","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku"},"datePublished":"2026-07-19T07:58:49.014Z","dateModified":"2026-07-19T07:59:19.848Z","description":"Game designer Tim Cain addresses the question of why many Western games feature characters that some players consider unattractive. He argues that beauty is...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7yGm3URKpM/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7yGm3URKpM/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Cain on Games","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cain on Games","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0LDOibCp--/f_auto,q_auto/v1784447924/logos/cainongames?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-there-so-many-ugly-characters--frizzbaku","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-design","timeRequired":"PT8M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"\"Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?\"","description":"Game designer Tim Cain addresses the question of why many Western games feature characters that some players consider unattractive. He argues that beauty is...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7yGm3URKpM/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-19T07:58:49.014Z","duration":"PT8M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/fRiZZbaku","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/U7yGm3URKpM"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cain on Games","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"\"Why Are There So Many Ugly Characters?\""}]} ```