Have you ever created a self-insert character?

[ThatCrazyShaman]

Not self-inserts, but definitely people who only explain things.

In my first and second novels, things were a little too cryptic, so I literally had to insert a guy at the end whose sole purpose is to explain everything.

In my third novel, I tried to be a bit more subtle and created "guide" characters who accompanied the main characters so that they knew what was going on. But then I decided to put a guy to explain everything at the end again.

In my NaNo novel, I had a guy who was not only a guide, but he explained everything. All the time.

So yeah.

Sounds like Lir. That's virtually the only use I ever had for him.
In one particular piece, he isn't even physically present; the protagonist finds field notes he left behind detailing how the particular place the story is set in works and what creatures are there. I really should do something with him.

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My 15 year old self, after my family moved into an old spooky house, wrote an awful novel about a 15 year old girl whose family moved into an old spooky house.

As for games, Trystan, the main character in Black Aether, has a lot of me in him. The woodcutter in Bickadoodle is basically what I would look like if I was clean-shaven and stick thin (pun intended).


...And I made a really awful point-and-click game years back where I actually was the protagonist, in a fairytale realism setting... complete with a badly animated sprite made from photos. The world will never be ready to see that game.

I've heard it said that writers tend to put a bit of themselves into their characters without always realizing it. I know some of mine are clear examples of that.

I actually used to write about a character who my friend informed me looked a bit like me when I did illustrations of her [solely because we both have long brunette hair and like to wear orange]. Other than that, I don't think I've ever created anyone who looked like me... that I can recall, anyway.
On a side note, I've been meaning to play Bickadoodle. It's been installed on my computer for ages now.

Lol sounds like some of the incredibly god-awful stories I wrote with friends growing up. I wouldn't show those things to anyone even if they paid me xD

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I did that once in a game I made some time ago, it was mostly for funnsies and the character had no purpose besides just standing around. I do find it slightly weird when people insert themselves as a way to create some sort of power fantasy though, that's why I never "make myself" or make personal choices in games when I play them, I almost always create a character beforehand and stick to it, sometimes I just start one and freestyle, those will most likely end up a bit like myself but not intentionally.

I've seen some examples of people adding themselves into games as background characters or just little references to themselves [like in Don't Starve, where some headstones have the developer's names on them], like how Hitchcock made cameos in his films.

While it doesn't bother me at all when it's stuff like that, it is just a tad odd to me when people do it as fantasy-fullfilment. But whatever float's a person's boat, ya know