BLITZFIRE
ROLE : TECHNICAL DESIGNER (SEPTEMBER 2016 - DECEMBER 2016)
PLAYABLE EXE (XBOX CONTROLLER REQUIRED) :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bynxe8QH1U8saWxYQ1lhLTZtVHM
Blitzfire is a Doom styled first person shooter that attempts to explore the concept of orthogonal unit differentiation. The game features two NPC classes orthogonally differentiated on a few axes. The player has at his disposal two different weapons that map to specific use cases in the possibility space. The goal is to author a level where the player is actively formulating strategies which derive directly from the relationship between his weapons and the NPC classes
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To recap on the results from phase 1 of development, based on results from previous gameplay iterations, I was able to create a balanced system with an orthogonally differentiated system of two weapons (pistol : long range, low damage and shotgun : short range, high damage) and two NPC types (soldier : hitscan, low damage and commando : projectile, high damage). To this very basic system we added two additional mechanics to see how the game mechanics interact with orthogonality and therefore player strategy. The first was an enemy stun feature and the second was a crouch based cover system. We now intend to add a third mechanic, a time based forcefield feature. However, before the feature is added in the mix we thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how these features play out in isolation. The information from these tests will allow the formulation of player strategies to specific scenarios therefore allowing us to utilize these learnings in a level with all of these scenarios combined. Here is what we found.
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and shotgun is more useful with forcefield. Our next level should be an attempt to get players to think about which would be more applicable given a scenario, and an attempt to create sub levels where optimum weapon - scenario pattern inverts. In designing this level we will utilize and test the following learnings :
COVER
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FORCEFIELD
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