Skill Design Dev Log

Designing skills took a while. We quickly decided on what form the skills would take and the basic rules they must follow. These were two sets of four skills. Each skill fit into one of four categories: Primary, Secondary, Utility/Movement, and Special. Each character would have eight skills, two of each category, organized into two groups of four skills to form a Default Skillset and an Alternate Skillset. From there we needed to decide the design ethos for each character and their respective phase.

Solid was easy. It is the most obviously physical of the four states of matter, and that intuitively translates to melee combat. As a concept, melee can be taken in several directions but we decided that high-power close-combat was the correct direction for Solid. This contrast with the primarily ranged loadouts of the other characters. It would be tricky to balance, since being primarily melee fighting ranged opponents is an inherent disadvantage, but we solved this by giving Solid a fast mobility tool to quickly close gaps (Rollout) and a short-range shotgun attack to finish off fleeing opponents (Gem Burst). The alternate secondary and alternate special had a focus on movement as well. These were in service of giving Solid a way to safely close gaps to put the hurt on.

Liquid wasn’t as obvious. It started with a long-range focus, but as skills were being pitched it started to gain more of a control focus. Liquid would use flowing currents of liquid to push and pull its opponents around the battlefield and several skills were designed to synergize with each other. Whirlpool was designed to hold opponents in place to make landing a hit with the powerful but small effect area of Water Spout much easier. Riptide (the alternate secondary) was meant to grab fleeing opponents as well as form a combo with the alternate primary, Breaker, which would deal more damage to targets the closer they were to the user.

Gas was fairly obvious. The intuitive answer was area of effect damage combined with damage over time. The alternate skillset reflects that aspect, as each of the alternate skills creates an AoE or causes DoT or both. The default skillset, however, features little AoE and no DoT. This was to fit the thematic character that we saw in Gas. Gas was a trickster, fast and mobile, difficult to catch. This was reflected by Vanish, the utility skill, which gives Gas the ability to teleport, as well as the generally oddball nature of the default attacks. Buffeting Wind is a three round burst, Aero Blade is the only piercing projectile, and Burst of Wind provides a mix of utility and AoE damage. These skills make Gas very interesting to play, as it has a very diverse mix of mechanics.

Plasma was also fairly obvious. Plasma is the highest energy state of matter and this intuitively informs a heavy focus on offense. Plasma’s skills are all about power and keeping a high tempo. Plasma’s primaries and secondaries are straightforwards and almost blunt in their design. The utilities offer a choice between incredible movement (Quantum Reposition) or a mix of movement and power (Fusion). Plasma’s specials are the most bombastic of the cast, dealing extreme damage and having large, flashy effects. This reflected the high tempo offense design as well as the character’s personality as an aloof champion who wants to show off as much as they want to win.

4/6 Playtest Dev Log

This was the first wholly external playtest conducted. It included two characters, Liquid and Gas. It revealed a number of technical issues and a few balance issues.

The most prominent issues were UI related. It was difficult to tell what was going on when you were starting a game due to lack of feedback and confirmation. During the game it was difficult to tell what was happening due to glitches and incomplete UI elements.

Identification of Friend or Foe was a common issue for the players. Despite the colored outlines, players would get confused and attack their teammates. This was likely due to the presence of friendly fire. Players would attack their teammate, see it the attack do damage, and assume their target was an enemy. The same assumption occurred on the other end of the attack as a player got damaged by another and would assume their attacker was a member of the opposing team. This lead to us removing friendly fire, which had always been a take it or leave it feature. I would have liked to have kept friendly fire but exclusively for movement effects. That is, moves that push or pull other players don’t damage teammates but still push or pull them as appropriate. I thought that nuance could lead to some interesting and funny interactions but we never ended up implementing that form of friendly fire, which is probably for the best.