Heroes of Paligon - Week 1 (8/28-9/1)

Last week I pitched my awesome game idea for a VR tabletop/action RPG and assembled a team. I am the team lead, designer, and composer for our game. We are using Unreal Engine to build the game and Backlog to organize it.

Monday

Today, I implemented a universal scaling formula I created last week into the level up progression of players and estimated a difficulty scale to use for creating monsters. I then finished designing the different stats and the aspects they impact by mapping the level numbers to different amounts based on the need: damage dealt, critical multiplier, gold gained, etc.

Tuesday

Today I help clarify critical design points to the rest of my team by talking to them. I find this to be more effective since people are better listeners than they are readers. I had a strong discussion with my lead artist about character designs and was able to secure drafts to all of our customization options. Between bouncing around and helping out teammates, I also added more to our wikis, specifically with different racial traits that players can gain depending on their race.

Wednesday

I partook in this week's design meeting where we discussed the importance of play testing and designing the game we wished to play. I then worked on combat mechanics such as critical hits, where I combined randomness of normal RPGs with skill based combat by creating enemy weak points. When each enemy spawns, it will be assigned a certain portion of its hotbox that, when hit, will make the enemy take increased damage.

I created a fleeing mechanic that would require the player to physically run away to avoid dropping too many coins. I didn't want to punish the player too severely by barring them from fleeing, but I also didn't want to incentivize fleeing frequently for better combat scenarios.

Thursday

Today I had limited time in the office, so I used that time to create a bunch of tasks in the Backlog that the artists and coders can use to organize their work. I added checklists within those tasks to show the artists what assets need to be created and which ones have been.

Friday

Today I conducted a team meeting to determine our group's approach next week.

I also researched various root words for our game's races to come up with names. I combined these with geometric names to lean into the polygonal aesthetic of our game. Some names I came up with:

Triquetran: Merfolk race based on a triquetra (a triangular shape formed by three arcs). It also plays on the trope of tridents used by merpeople and the Greek god of the sea: Triton.

Prismavian: Bird race combining prism and the root avian.

Hedrodon: Lizardfolk race combining the suffixes -hedron for 3D shapes and -don meaning tooth.

I plan on revising these names after seeing the final designs, but I decided to get ahead on these design decisions so I could sort out the game feel before too many assets are created.