Eldridge Chan

I tend to design the gameplay to a very detailed level. But the downside is, it requires a large number of parameters. As a result, the goal of design becomes very vague. To address this, I created a few situations that need to be satisfied. And the goal would be finding a parameter set that satisfies all the situations. For example, in this game, I want the player to climb a 3 by 1 slope with the requirement of drawing 1-2 circles per second so that it is very possible but requires a little bit of effort. At the same time, after falling from a 1 by 3 slope I want the player to be able to stop in 3 - 4 flat tiles length so that player has to really try and always worry of not stopping in time. At the end, after many trials of play testing, I found the parameter set to satisfy both situations and fit the goal of my gameplay design.

During the design process of this game, there are a few aspects that I try to achieve. Those are rewarding resources management, minimum downtime boredom and providing game progression.

To reward players that manage the spirits on screen well, there is an elemental weakness system. The enemy has an elemental type. As well as the 4 spells that cost 2 of the same element. Which deals 150%, 100%, 50% and 0% damage respectively regarding enemy elemental type. In this case, the most optimal strategy would be to always focus on enemy weaknesses. However, the spirit on the screen may not always be ideal. Therefore, there are also two spells that cost 3 spirit which alway deal 100% damage. Furthermore, spells with 3 or 4 different types of spirit would spawn 3 or in the latter case, 5 onto the screen. As a result, players have more control over the battle and minimize the effect of luck to achieve rewarding game play.

Secondly, if there is no downtime for the player, it may be too chaotic and stressful for the player. However, if there is too much downtime without anything to do, it also affects the fluency of the game play. To address that, enabling the player to swap around the spirit is just perfect for the downtime. During the down time, the enemy is still waiting to be spawned. At that time, no stress would be added onto the player. But the player can manage around the spirit, increasing their advantage for the next fight. Therefore, providing a resting time without causing boredom of the player.

Lastly, I would like to provide a sense of progression to the player, even if this is a small arcade game. As a result, spells are designed to be unlocked in the library after the player has casted the spell once. Enable players to improve by learning more knowledge of the spells and providing a discovery kind of game play experience.

During the designing process of this game, I would like the 3 classes to counter each other like rock paper scissors. However, the advantage of the counter relationship should not be too significant. As strategy and prediction should be the most important component in the game play. Therefore, my aim is to design an advantage for each class against the counter class. But still able to turn the table if the prediction of the player is correct and precise.

Regarding the relationship between archer and knight, archers move distances further than knight. So, an archer can kite the knight. However, archers would need to reload after an attack which it cannot move when reloading. Therefore, despite the advantage to the archers, knights can win against archers if they can catch archers during the reload.

As for the relationship between knight and scout, knights have significantly higher health than scout, plus, if knight blocks an scout attack, scout cannot damage another pawn with the same attack. Knight can win scouts by trading hits easily. However, if scouts are able to catch the knight off guard and attack from behind, it is possible that a scout will defeat the knight.

Finally, the relationship between scout and archer, as scouts can move very far. They can punish a reloading archer easily. However, since archers, especially a reloading one, are such a good target for scouts. The action of the scout can be easily predicted and punished by another pawn.