Game Systems

METHODOLOGY

This game is designed with casual players in mind, since mobile playtime often comes in short bursts. There is an over-arching story progression that has an episodic structure. Since each of these episodes are likely longer than a given play session, your progress is continually saved and you can always pick up where you left off, even during the middle of combat. But when you don’t feel like going into the story there is another game mode, in the form of Dreams. Dreams are significant on Alteria, as a planet where the other races do not sleep. Dreaming is something only Humans can do and those dreams can alter the waking world, altering fate and spawning demons.

 

In game mechanics, these Dreams serve as a way to advance your character’s abilities. You can enter a Dream any time and it plays like a roguelike run, using all the same mechanics, except when you die you wake up. This differs from waking gameplay, as death there is permanent. This gives a micro and macro progression that fits whatever the player feels like tackling in a given play session. Completing Dream runs is often necessary to advance certain skills and abilities that you pick up along the way. This way there’s always something to work toward, be it story progress or character progress, as Dreams can also unlock facts about your character’s background.

 

(( The video shows some of the basics we built out for the prototype to get some of the movement mechanics down. It still has a ways to go. Art is also temporary. ))

 

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE

Combat State:
User input required to end turn.

CORE LOOP

The game has 2 states: Explore and Combat.

 

 

MECHANICS

All the math behind the scenes for combat was worked out in advance and tested on spreadsheets for balance. It was being implemented but there remains some things to patch up on that front. The idea is to use set damage numbers with a randomized hit chance, allowing for 0x, 1x, 1.5x or 2x damage, depending on the roll (the thresholds for these would need further testing). Once the hit roll was determined, the damage calculation takes the relevant stat modifier (Strength or Prowess) plus a fixed weapon damage, then subtracts the Armor Class for the given damage type. Multiply that by the modified from your hit roll and you get the total damage.

 

WEAPONS & ARMOR

These are some charts that were implemented as scriptable objects with exposed parameters to be able to setup new weapons and armor. Weapons have their set damage along with their Damage Type (Slashing, Piercing, Blunt). For weapons with multiple possible Damage Types, they could be randomized with weights. This allowed for a more varied suite of weapons with possible benefits, depending on the resistances and vulnerabilities of your opponent. Arcane Infusions was another idea for later, to add elemental damage to weapons at the end, but that is yet to be implemented.

 

Armors have a base Armor Class value, plus modifiers for each of the 9 Damage Types, ranging from -3 to +3. These would factor into damage calculations, again allowing for a wide range of armor benefits. Every armor would have its weakness, reflected in the Damage Type modifiers. The Hamper value also applies a penalty to the players Prowess which can hinder Sneak rolls and hit chances.

GRID & STATUS EFFECTS

A number of Abilities and Items in the game can cause Grid Effects, which remain localized to one cell and remain for some duration. Entering into such a cell will incur a chance of receiving a Status Effect. The list of these effects can be seen here. Status Effects can also be applied through weapons or other more direct means, in addition to localized Grid Effects.