WhichCraft

Download GDD (eng) Presentation Doc (eng)

Characteristics

game type : top-down adventure moba mechanics PVE metroid-like alchemy
references : Magicka, Battlerite, Full Metal Alchemist
target : core gamer
team : 1 game & level designer / programmer, 5 programmers, 4 to 1 artist(s)
dev duration : 9 weeks
release : 2020
engine, langage : Unity C#

Pitch, Context & Trivia

After an explosion in the laboratory of the ancient forest, you, an alchemical puppet, woke up and found your Grand'Pa unconscious. Go on an adventure in the magic woods to find a soul fragment to revive him. During your journey, you'll learn how to use alchemy to craft powerful spells and get rid off the naughty monsters.
As our last school project we tried to have the most polished project possible. Due to the COVID-19 issues and the internship period, we had to adapt our work flow to the remote working and to a reduced amount of artists. We managed to ship a project we are proud of, thanks to a design allowing a flexible content scaling (enemy, ld, abilities, collectibles, etc.).
I though about this game concept in 1st year, then I presented my ideas to my team and we decided to work on this theme during our 3rd year. So I worked on my freetime a lot to step up in game designing and worked on WhichCraft? before the production phase. Taking time to mature the concept.

What did I do?

As a Programmer

tutorial
task/quest system
dialog system
interactibles/collectibles
levels save system (collectibles and events)
some SFXs
assets integration

As a Game & Level Designer

establishing Game Concepts ideas, presented to the rest of the team, then discussions about it
force of proposal all along production (without idea monopole despotism of course)
writing a Game Design Document (in english) covering : Gameplay, Game Loop,
Level Design (lvl examples, enemies, items & rules, full tutorial v1),
Story & Lore (including story board and in game writing style), UI mock-ups
full level design : schemas, blockout, test, graph integration, map design
tutorial design
difficulty curve balancing
enemies/AI design
working on ergonomy
presentation doc design with an artist
milestones public presentation, speeches and gameplay live commentary (in english and french)
puns master : indeed WhichCraft? looks like mispell (here is a pun too) of "Witchcraft" but it actually is a nod to the main problematic of this game "WHICH spell CRAFT according to the surrounding foes and environment?"

Baptiste Billard