Hi there, in this section of my website I wanted to show some example design work I have done. This will largely focus on design documentation or work that isn’t seen publicly but is vital to making a game with other people.
To be clear this is not work done for past employers or games I have worked on, but rather examples of the kind of work I deliver.
I find myself to be strongest as a Systems Designer so much of this work will be related to a game’s systems. Systems Design is also a very broad topic that is often broken down into smaller disciplines depending the size of your team. Some common examples include:
Character Progression
Enemy/Encounter Design
Combat Design
Game Economy
Monetization
Systems Design work is also often filled with spreadsheet and documentation and often can be hard to see in the final game. For these reasons I felt it is valuable to show this work to you.
LUA Space Invaders Project
Here is a link to the game that you can download from my Itch.Io page:
Download: https://mbreese.itch.io/space-invaders-mod
Password: MikeBreese
Below is a bit of an info dump about many of the modifications that went into the game along with what the reasoning was and what the goals were for adding each one.
Health System – Rather standard, allows the player to judge the risk of a decision and lose the game.
Energy System – Energy is consumed by each character’s special attack. It is gained by dealing damage to enemies. This encourages players to play aggressively and rewards player skill.
Parry System – When the player is not shooting their parry radius increases up to a threshold. By clicking the parry button all enemies within range will instantly die regardless of how much health they have left players are rewarded for letting enemies get close, if they can parry effectively. High risk, high reward. Going forward I would like to enhance this with the ability to reflect enemy attacks.
Multiplayer – Things are more fun with other people and many players prefer a coop experience over a competitive one.
Player Downed System – In multiplayer when a player’s health hits 0 they enter a downed state where their speed is reduced and they can not attack. The other player can spend time picking them up, returning them to 2 health. Allows for players to stay engaged after their health hits 0. Creates situations where a player is forced to stay in a small space leaving them vulnerable while doing so. Helps encourage team play and cooperation rather than both people playing a single player game, but on the same screen.
Increases the play space, and pickup drop rate to accommodate both players.
Different Characters – To accommodate different playstyles. This also compounds on multiplayer to create different permutations of character combinations allowing for a small meta game such as what pickups are strong on what characters. This also provides replay ability.
Active Abilities These allow for strong moments where a character can shine and helps clearly define that character’s role/ability.
Passive Abilities These help each character standout from one another and continue to allow characters to feel different from each other when an active ability is not being used.
Excalibur
Active Ability: Dash Attack: Has a lower than average energy cost. While dashing Excalibur is immune to damage. Enemies he dashes through are killed and guaranteed to drop a pick up. This encourages using the ability to hit as many targets as possible, while the lower cost also allows the freedom to use the ability often.
Passive Abilities: Enhanced Parry: Parry regen speed and max range are increased encouraging the player to use more parry attacks.
Volt
Active Ability: Volt Wall: Has an average energy cost. Creates a volt wall that provides a small amount of a protection. If the player shoots through the wall, their attacks are enhanced. This is used to set up points where the player can defend themselves or hunker down to clear out enemies.
Passive Abilities: Enhanced Speed: Volt moves faster than other characters. Helps with getting in and out of risky spots, and helps the player get pick ups.
Mag
Active Ability: Repel Field This has an above average energy cost. Creates a magnetic repel field at the players location that will push away enemies, until it vanishes a few seconds later. When an enemy collides with the field it will shrink and attempt to grow back towards its full size. This allows the player to create a safe space when needed. Such as to collect pickups or helping up an ally. By shrinking it keeps the tension high and requires the player(s) to stay active.
Passive Abilities: Magnetic: Pickups will be slightly pulled towards the Mag player rather than simply falling strait down. This helps sell the magnetic idea promised by the character and helps the player collect pick ups to help offset the cost of their active ability.
UI – A game needs a way to convey information to the player. This is used to show the player’s health and energy percentage.
Ramping difficulty – Every 5 waves the player is given a few seconds of breathing room before the next round of enemies starts spawning. Each round will increase the possibility of spawning extra enemies on each wave, and reduced the time between waves. This is used to increase the tension and eventually bring the game to a stopping point.
Pickups – Small clock enemies have a chance to spawn a pick up on death. These are used to encourage the player to go to points that might be risky and multiplies the benefits of different characters. In multiplayer it also provides a level of strategy of who should get any given pickup.
T split attack – When the player’s attack hits an enemy it will split into two different attacks that fly horizontally. Provides a great way to clear out enemies, this can multiply the effects of attack speed and damage bonuses creating situations you will take greater risks to get both, or use it to clear out enemies.
Attack speed – Increases the players attack speed. Provides a short power boost, and the ability to multiply the effectiveness of the T split attack.
Health gain – Heals the player. Lets the player make up for mistakes.
Energy gain – Grants a large chunk of energy to the player. Encouraging them to take risks, so that they can used their activated ability more often.
Score/highscore saves – A way for the player to gauge their progression across multiple play sessions. This encourages competitiveness in single player, and can help identify particularly effective combinations of characters in multiplayer. While the highscore allows for a level of competitiveness between players.