SHE can't shoot a gun like Lara Croft or run as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog, but computer game character Rose can do something neither can do.

The sprite, a brainchild of Scottish student Jess Hider, will change her mood depending on her surroundings and is the latest creation to come from Scotland's award-winning computer games industry

Depending on where she finds herself, the little computer character responds to her surroundings in a natural way to enhance the atmosphere and make it more believable for players.

Ms Hider, who studied Computer Arts at Dundee's Abertay University, used the work of psychologist Dr Mica Endsley to give her creation 'situational awareness' and respond more believably to the environment she finds herself in.

Jess said: "At the start of the year, I was playing many games trying to work out what I wanted to do for my dissertation and during this time I realised that in most games I had played, the character was great at reacting to the physical environment, but barely reacted to the tone of their surroundings.

"This bothered me, as I found it most noticeable in areas where the rest of the environment was clearly emitting a specific atmosphere. If the lighting, textures and sound are creating a certain atmosphere, why can't character animations be aligned with this?"

She added: "One challenge was finding the balance between having the character react to their surroundings without disrupting the player's sense of agency or control.

Jess created Rose as part of her final year project at Abertay University, and the game is on show at the Kydd Building and the Hannah Maclure Centre art gallery along with the work of 170 other aspiring games creators.