Pragmata’s Holly Reddaway on giving games characters humanity

Creating video games characters that have depth and humanity is an art – and an especially impressive one when one of the characters in question is an android. One person who has harnessed the power of this art to bring characters to life is Lead Voice and Facial Capture Director of Pragmata, Holly Reddaway.

Here, Reddaway, a 2023 BAFTA Breakthrough, shares how she went about the process and describes how satisfying she found it as a director to be working on “what is essentially a two hander”…

Reddaway, whose credits include Control Resonant, Alan Wake 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no stranger to immersing herself in the process of creating deeply complex characters. But, as the director shares, Pragmata was different as she and voice actors David Menkin and Grace Saif “got to deeply examine the journey of these two characters and how they change each other” which “you don’t often get to do [as] usually it’s one person’s journey.”

For this particular sci-fi shooter game Reddaway wanted to make sure players had a chance to invest in the relationship between android Diana and human investigation team member Hugh. Controlling the duo as they try to navigate their way off of a crumbling lunar research station filled with hostile artificial intelligence units.

She says: “The way I always start a process is by asking myself, what don’t I want this to be? Which maybe sounds a bit backwards, but I always ask, what’s the worst version of this? … And then I ask myself, what is the most interesting way of approaching this or the most surprising way?”

Ensuring there was space for character growth that allowed players to connect, and avoided potential tropes – of Diana as an annoying, high energy child android and Hugh, as a macho surface level hero – was vital for the Pragmata team. And delivering nuance performances that had real heart made this possible.

Reddaway shares: “I think that for Diana, what we found with [Grace’s] performance was something where her inner tempo rhythm actually isn’t that frantic. It’s quite gentle in a sense, and she has this really gorgeous curiosity for the world, a deep desire to learn about and drive to experience it. Something I love about Grace’s performance is that there is also this sense that Diana really treasures information when she hears it for the first time.

“I think by playing her and pitching her in that way, we then get to have fun when she does get really excited and playful. It makes for a much more interesting, endearing and nuanced performance. Especially as she’s an android and we’re not sure to begin with if we can trust her, and where that’s going to go.”

One thing the Pragmata team used to their advantage in creating realistic characters was physicality and movement. Turning what can be a challenge into an opportunity the team embraced the nuances of working with motion capture to their advantage.

Reddaway says: “From a directing perspective… we would always have the blocking for each scene so we would have the exact movement and physicality, no matter what state the rest of the animatic was in, which was really useful.

“It’s very technical. We’d time David and Grace’s performances (face and voice) to the specifics of those videos, which is a really interesting way of working, actually, because the motion capture is always making offers to us. The process sort of becomes this lovely conversation between both performers on what the journey of these characters is.

“Acting for games is such a creative process – as it is in any other medium – but there is something about, the specificity of how technical games can be… There are all of these kinds of technical considerations in the performance that you need get right, in order to make it feel truthful and connected, which I think is a real unique challenge to games because often, you are also doing it in a booth on your own.”

Reflecting on how much she enjoyed working with Menkin and Saif, Reddaway made clear how collaboration was an essential part of the whole process.

She says: “They’re so bloody good. But also [they’re] both absolutely meticulous and rigorous in their craft and so hard working… We were always going on that journey together, to really mine for excellence.”

She adds: “They’ve both done such a beautiful job. It really sings. It feels really truthful. And surprising. I love their relationship.”

At BAFTA we are committed to supporting creative Film, Games and TV talent and one way we do this is through our Learning, Inclusion and Talent programmes. Holly Reddaway was a member of BAFTA’s 2023 Breakthrough cohort – our flagship programme showcasing and helping accelerate the careers of the next generation, and part of our charity’s vision that people from all backgrounds will have opportunities to thrive in the screen industries. Find out more about our BAFTA Breakthrough UK programme, supported by Netflix.