Tower of 1000 Blades (Prototype)

My Role

Game Designer / User Researcher

Summary

The purpose of the project is to develop a functioning prototype of an original hack-and-slash game with a team of 5.

Process

Teamwork Process

• During the beginning of the project, my main contribution is finding an efficient way to decide what game we are going to make and aligning the team expectation by considering both our skill sets and skills we want to learn.
• From time to time, I create tools and documents for teamwork and communication. When I see areas for improvements in project management, I provide constructive feedback to the team.
• I provide critical suggestions and feedback that are necessary for our game design and development. Overall, I managed to create and lead healthy arguments and debates on important issues that led to better team alignment and benefited our design process.

Game Mechanics and Dynamics

• My goal is to ensure the design, ultimately the game experience, is aligned with the strategies we set.
• I proposed and settled the MVP for this game design project, as MVP scope was one of our biggest concerns.
• I co-mapped game decision tree. My part focused on moral choices and the calculation and design of 6 different consequences based on players’ decisions.
• Through negotiations, we eventually decided to add moral choices to the game which became our differentiator.
• Another part is that I constantly review our game mechanics and compare it to existing digital prototypes. There are times when unplanned mechanics showed up in prototypes.

Play Testing

• I designed and led four playtesting sessions, including document, process, methods, interview question, and coordination of work distribution.
• So far, we have had 4 playtesting sessions and I am planning the last one before the end of the term. The last one will more likely to use Interest Curve and Heat Map, and focuses on testing the overall game experience for our MVP.
• One major improvement is that I have made team focus on how we can make actionable decisions based on the testing results and analysis.

Animation

• Learning how to animate for the game was a struggle to me. I spent 6 hours doing animation in Unity on a Sunday but only completed a small part of what we need. I have discussed this my team and we decided that this could be just a learning opportunity for me to understand how art and tech development work in game design.
• I scheduled some time with people in our cohort and learn to do animation better.