the 12 principles of animation: number 1# appeal

the characters have to be appealing to the audience for the audience to take an interest in them; there are several ways to make a character appealing the extremes being really cute like the cats in the kinectimals game for the Xbox 360, to being sardonic or eerie like the little sitters in the Bioshock game.
a screenshot from the kinectimals game
concept art of a little sister from bioshock