High-Level Design & Proto
Prototyping:
Along with an amazing engineer lead (Chris Masterton), we successfully turned an old familiar 2D experience into a new 3D iso-world where gameplay is more responsive, fluid and fun than predecessors in the genre.Camera position and angle went through many iterations before hitting the ‘sweet spot’ where the read of the game board and charm of the characters were both strong and clean. Scale of various elements played an important part of this process.
Key design focus:
Characters/World/Content, Shooting Experience, Board set-up, Enemy propagation and powers, Win/Loss UX, VFX. All these areas held big opportunity-space for the project to stand out as best-in-class.
Core Design Beats
Core Game Overhaul:
While the style of play isn’t entirely new, responsiveness of the shooting, pace of the game, clarity of ux, reward beats both micro and end-level, all went through a deep fine tuning process.Special Powers:
Design started with standard shooting and five special powers that were of various strengths. More were added as power design became threaded with a collection mechanic that helped flesh out longer-term gameplay (see below).Visual and audio design:
This punched up the beats of the special powers. Flashy vfx and reactive animations from the little bubble-guys make the basic gameplay feel more rewarding and evocative than games where the shooter and targets are inanimate objects.
Systems
Collection:
This was built around special enemies in the game that could be captured and collected (big guys with hats).The enemies in the collection recharge special powers or even unlock new powers for the player. This opened up interesting choices in between levels as players focused on ‘outfitting’ their character with powers from their collection while strategizing how to recharge them during gameplay.
Progression design:
These above mechanics are further supported by a non-linear level map that allowed players to inspect challenges and enemies before selecting the level they want to take on. This created a selection of ‘targeted goals’ for players throughout various stages of the game. Good meat for player retention.
Content & Brand
Look & Feel:
The main character used a nature-like magic that was elemental. Contrarily, the enemy used constructed weapons and destructive tools. (and their leaders wore hats, of course!)
Simple shapes of the little villains echoed the ball-like physics gameplay. The cute/tiny/colorful enemies tended to be very nefarious and still were light, funny, not-to-serious. As play progressed the colorful lush world transitioned gradually into a grim and gritty place as the player moved closer and closer to the hub of the enemy. More fire, smoke, destruction, industrialization.
Story:
Simple story beats accentuated the progression of the game. These were presented in colorful panels with slick vfx and animation.
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