Jory House Game Design Portfolio

Project Goals

I wanted to create an RPG that gave the player a wide range of abilities without forcing them to choose between a few and still be executable within a few button presses. Inspired by Final Fantasy 14, I used trigger buttons as gates for ability usage, enabling more abilities with minimal button clutter.

Another goal was to design enemies that worked together, using timed attacks and formations. Ground telegraphs created engaging scenarios, requiring the player to solve puzzles in combat and align with level design.

Accomplishments

Primary Developer of Ability and Combat Systems: Led the design and implementation of the game's intricate ability system and engaging enemy attack system.

Innovative Targeting System Development: Developed the Priority Target System, integrating stance-based targeting for enhanced combat dynamics.

Hot Bar System Optimization: Streamlined the Hot Bar by reducing slots and centralizing logic for improved gameplay interaction.

Elemental Stances Mechanic Implementation: Created and refined the Elemental Stances system, enhancing combat strategy and player choice.

Teleportation System Overhaul: Redesigned the teleportation mechanic from an ally-based to a player-centric system, increasing player control and game narrative integration.

Enemy Ability and Formation System Design: Crafted dynamic enemy encounters using timed attack abilities and formation tactics.

Priority Target System

In my research on targeting systems, I observed that most games use direction and distance for manual enemy lock-on. Innovating on this, I considered expanding targeting factors to include abilities and elemental stances. This led to the development of the Priority Target System, which offers both a traditional manual lock-on with a focus camera and a 'no lock' option where the system aids the player based on their current stance.

Stance Specifics

Base/Fire/Water: Auto-attack and close distance to the nearest enemy.
Lightning: Prioritize interrupting enemy casts, then target distant foes.
Wind: Focus on enemies within AoE range.

System Benefits

Reduces target cycling.
Guides new players on stance and ability usage.
Allows player choice for targeting priority.

Elemental Stances

Players can switch between the following stances to enhance strategy and combat choices:

Fire: High single target damage.
Water: Crowd control.
Lightning: Ranged abilities for distant foes.
Wind: Area of effect attacks.

Critical Hits

Critical hits in Solace aren't random. Instead, they're triggered by ability synergies. For instance, applying the Burn status and following up with a Water attack creates an explosion for a critical hit. Critical hits throw enemies off balance, with bold text feedback for players. In this example, Fire abilities followed by Water create dense steam signalling to the player that something has happened.

Hot Bar

The Hot Bar allows quick access to abilities segmented by gamepad triggers for intuitive gameplay. Originally designed with 16 buttons, playtesting revealed that a more streamlined approach was needed. I reduced the Hot Bar to 8 buttons, maintaining the game's core goals while minimizing UI clutter and ensuring each ability was distinct and meaningful.

The Hot Bar tracks cooldown times, ability resource costs, and ability status, expanding as needed and clearly indicating locked abilities, providing players with an intuitive and efficient interface.

Player Ability System

Inspired by Final Fantasy 14, I aimed to create an ability system that makes players feel powerful and in control. The design mirrors the concept of having a "rotation," where players can maximize damage by finding the optimal arrangement and usage of abilities with their cooldowns.

The system includes abilities that inflict debuffs and damage over time (DoT). Players need to keep their DoT abilities active and maintain debuffs on enemies, then use finishers to maximize their damage output. This approach reflects the strategic rotations found in MMOs, encouraging players to think critically about their ability usage.

The abilities in "Solace" feature a horizontal progression system. Players collect materials from fallen enemies to upgrade abilities, enhancing their strength and adding new effects. For example, upgrading the "Bubble" ability traps enemies in water and deals damage over time.

When designing "Solace," I faced constraints due to my limited skills in animation and VFX, which led to removing some planned skills. To tackle this, I creatively used available marketplace assets, tailoring animations to fit various abilities and managing the budget for essential animations.

Teleportation System

The teleportation feature in Solace allows players to move instantly to specific locations within a defined range. This mechanic is vital for dodging enemy attacks and uncovering hidden paths, offering players a dynamic tool for both combat and exploration. By enhancing mobility, it maintains player engagement and enables strategic gameplay.

Initially, the teleportation system was tied to an ally character, which restricted movement and limited its effectiveness. To better align with the game's elemental theme, I reimagined teleportation as a lightning-based ability. This redesign not only integrated it into the game's world but also empowered players with greater control. The mechanic now allows players to respond quickly to enemy formations and reposition strategically during combat.

The system also includes a unique mechanic called "Teleport Strike," where players can teleport behind enemies and deliver a precise counterattack. This ability emphasizes timing and reflexes, adding depth to combat interactions and reinforcing the sense of mastery in gameplay. By leveraging existing assets and systems, I crafted a responsive and thematic teleportation mechanic that enhances both the narrative and the player's experience.

Enemy Formation System

I aimed to design enemies that challenge players both individually and as coordinated groups, enhancing combat dynamics and immersion. By demonstrating enemies working together, players face strategic challenges that require quick thinking and precise movement. A key design philosophy behind the enemy formations is to simulate intelligent behavior you would see with real squads of soldiers. Enemies are programmed to work together, creating dynamic encounters.

The combat system features enemies with timed attack abilities, highlighted by ground telegraphs for player anticipation. Telegraphing attacks becomes crucial when multiple enemies use abilities simultaneously or as part of formations, creating small "puzzle" encounters that require strategic player responses.

Ensuring that the difficulty level remains fair while still challenging is crucial. To achieve this, enemies display the names of the abilities they are using. This allows players to memorize and recognize incoming attacks, giving them the opportunity to anticipate and react appropriately in future encounters. The design philosophy focuses on providing clear feedback and opportunities for the player to learn and adapt.

The coordinated enemy attacks are designed to encourage players to think strategically. Players must analyze enemy formations, predict their movements, and respond with appropriate abilities. This promotes a deeper level of engagement and rewards players for mastering the game's mechanics.

Combat Design

Sora’s Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts sets a high standard for RPG combat with its weighty and impactful animations, creating a sense of momentum and realism in every swing. Inspired by this, I aimed to replicate that satisfying feel in my game’s basic attacks. Through careful animation selection and adjustments, I fine-tuned the motions to deliver a similar sense of impact, ensuring each strike feels fluid, powerful, and rewarding for the player.

Project Goals

Develop and release a mobile game, covering all stages from pre-production to launch, while advancing skills in blueprint coding. The game was designed to be educational and appropriate for younger players, with mechanics that combine colors and solve puzzles to enhance cognitive and learning skills.

Accomplishments

Engine Optimization for Level Design: Enhanced game engine to speed up level creation by 80%, optimizing development workflow.

Save Data System Implementation: Developed a save system, ensuring player progress is retained.

Level Streaming and Memory Management: Implemented level streaming techniques and memory management practices, ensuring optimal game performance and efficiency.

Game Mechanics Development: Designed, iterated, and implemented 'Bomb' and 'Fan' mechanics.

Puzzle Design: Crafted complex puzzles, improving player engagement and challenge.

Game Concept

My vision for the game was to create a simple puzzle game that is easy to pick up, set aside, and be a source of mental stimulation. While younger audiences may be challenged by the color combining, any age can enjoy the puzzle aspect. I committed to a player-friendly approach, avoiding microtransactions and integrating advertisements fairly. Players can either watch ads to regain lives or wait for them to regenerate.

Educationally, the game introduces younger players to color theory, particularly in creating secondary colors, while stimulating cognitive skills through thoughtfully designed puzzles. This blend of simplicity, educational value, and ethical design forms the game's core.

Optimized Engine for Level & Puzzle Creation

I optimized the game engine by developing a map generator actor, enabling the creation of dynamic X by X grids. This tool streamlined level design, allowing for rapid customization of tile types, colors, and layouts. It also facilitated the creation of gaps and the designation of starting tiles, significantly enhancing the efficiency and flexibility of level development.

Key Features:
- Starting Tile: Marks the puzzle's starting point for the player.
- Blob Tile: Restores health, resizes the player's blob, and can change its color.
- Bomb Tile: Gives the player a bomb that can be detonated at will.
- Fan Tile: Spreads the player's blob color to all tiles in a straight line.

Mechanics

The game features multiple tile mechanics, enriching the gameplay with strategic elements that encourage players to think creatively to solve puzzles.

Bomb Mechanic: Players acquire a bomb by moving onto its tile, which can be detonated at their discretion. The explosion spreads the player's blob and color to adjacent tiles, programmed using a trace function to identify and alter neighboring tiles' colors. Smaller blobs interpolate to the center of each affected tile for a visually impactful effect.

Fan Mechanic: This tile blows the player's color across a straight line of tiles, excluding any between the player and the fan. Traces identify tiles in the direct line of effect, requiring players to plan their moves carefully for tactical advantage.

Progression

In Palette Path, I designed the gameplay progression around the Introduce, Practice, and Master pacing structure to create an engaging learning curve. Each mechanic is first introduced with straightforward levels that allow players to grasp its functionality in isolation. This is followed by practice levels, where players encounter the mechanic in increasingly varied and complex scenarios, ensuring they build confidence and familiarity. Finally, I integrate multiple mechanics together, presenting intricate challenges that truly test the player's puzzle-solving skills. This progressive structure encourages mastery while maintaining a balance of challenge and satisfaction, ensuring players feel rewarded for their growth and ingenuity.

Project Goals

The primary objective of this game is to center its design around the grappling mechanic. Drawing inspiration from iconic games like Mario, known for its focus on jumping, and Sonic, with its emphasis on speed, the game delivers a high-quality, immersive experience around a single core action: grappling.

Recently, grappling has been integrated as a side mechanic in many games. I wanted to explore what a game would look like with grappling as the main focus, particularly in combat. This concept guided my design approach.

Identifying Player Actions

To design enemies effectively, I began by identifying the possible actions players could perform with the grappling mechanic. These actions form the "verbs" of the gameplay and drive enemy interactions:

- Pull: Attach the grapple to an object and pull it toward the player.
- Swing: Create a rope swing to traverse areas (dependent on the grappled object).
- Climb: Ascend when suspended over a drop.
- Spin: Rotate an attached object around the player in a circular path (object size-dependent).

These core actions shape the enemy design, with "Pull" becoming a central element of the main combat loop. For example, enemies are powered by batteries, and the player must pull these batteries out to defeat them.

Enemy Design Pillars

To ensure dynamic and engaging encounters, I established three key pillars for enemy design:

1. Size: Size influences the actions players can take on enemies. Larger enemies drag the player when grappled, while smaller enemies can be manipulated freely. Visual and gameplay feedback communicate these size differences clearly, with height, width, and scale exaggerated for clarity.

2. Battery Location: Enemies have batteries that power them. Identifying and targeting these batteries is a core part of combat. Batteries are visibly marked, giving players strategic visual cues.

3. Reaction: Enemies react uniquely when grappled. Some try to shake players off, others become aggressive, and some might pull the player toward them. Understanding these reactions is essential for mastery and rewards skilled players.

Enemy Interaction Concepts

Establishing these pillars led to brainstorming various enemy interactions, creating unique challenges for players. Examples include:

- An enemy with a constantly shifting battery location.
- An enemy that hides its battery, revealing it only during attacks.
- An enemy that spins uncontrollably when grappled, damaging the player unless they detach.
- An enemy that cuts the player's grapple wire, forcing players to prioritize them.
- An enemy that counters the player's pull action by grabbing the wire and pulling the player toward it.
- An enemy that detaches smaller enemies for the player to spin as a weapon.
- An enemy that manipulates the environment, creating hazardous areas and forcing players to stay airborne.
- An enemy that retrieves detached batteries, requiring players to act quickly.

Prototyping Enemies

With the design concepts in place, I began prototyping the first enemy. This prototype features a constantly moving battery that spins in a slow, continuous motion. Players must stay focused on the battery's location during combat, adding intensity and challenge.