Creating Darkish Quest 4: The Making of a Fashionable Darkish Fantasy Journey

The Problem of Scale

As talked about earlier than, we needed to maintain the concept of rooms and exploration on the coronary heart of the expertise. We additionally needed every quest to final lengthy sufficient to really feel immersive however by no means develop into drawn-out. Early on, we experimented with bigger maps to offer gamers extra content material and selection, nevertheless it rapidly grew to become clear that the hero was too small on display screen, particulars had been getting misplaced, and it was more durable to see clearly and deal with the technique. That’s once we realized we wanted to scale issues down.

Working at a smaller scale in a tile-based world, nevertheless, introduced its personal challenges. A lot of the playable house is taken up by partitions, doorways, and different constructions, which restricted the sense of openness we needed. On prime of that, the isometric perspective, whereas providing a pleasant view, all the time has angles that obscure components of the scene. Discovering the correct stability between visibility, scale, and the sensation of exploration ended up being one of many trickiest and most vital components of growth.

Hidden Threats

Traps posed a separate downside. In earlier designs, traps had been invisible. On a primary playthrough, there was no approach so that you can know the place traps had been, which could possibly be irritating. Hinting at traps might assist, however when you decoded the sample, the suspense was gone. Worse, invisible traps might disrupt the gameplay – a fastidiously deliberate flip could possibly be ruined by an sudden entice, which didn’t encourage strategic considering or considerate planning.

Hero Selection Problem

With ten obtainable heroes, every with totally different playstyles, we found that each gamers and even the event crew tended to not swap between heroes ceaselessly. This meant that a lot of the potential for experimenting with totally different get together compositions and methods was being underutilized.

As soon as we understood these challenges, the crew started designing options that preserved exploration, technique, and selection whereas conserving the gameplay clear and fascinating.

Exploring New Heights

To deal with the challenges we confronted with scale and visibility, we break up every quest into a number of flooring. Transferring between flooring by way of staircases, coming into new and undiscovered ranges with restricted visibility, recreated that sense of venturing into the unknown whereas conserving the hero and surroundings clear.

We additionally maintained thematic consistency throughout flooring — for instance, if gamers encountered mummies on the primary flooring, it was seemingly they’d face extra mummies supported by extra monsters on subsequent flooring. This method helped gamers anticipate and put together for encounters whereas preserving the sensation of discovery.

Quest descriptions and notes had been used to trace at upcoming encounters, providing you with extra context and the flexibility to plan forward.

Traps as Technique

Traps had been redesigned to help strategic considering relatively than disrupt it. By inserting seen traps in entrance of closed doorways or treasures, you may now make calculated selections: proceed and threat the entice, or discover one other method. Falling right into a entice throughout fight grew to become a deliberate determination, a strategic sacrifice, relatively than an unfair interruption to gameplay.

Rotating the Celebration

To encourage gamers to experiment with totally different heroes, we applied a system simulating exhaustion and “dying.” Steady use of a hero, or their dying in a earlier quest, reduces their beginning well being within the subsequent quest, whereas leaving a hero unused for a number of quests will increase their beginning well being. This encourages rotation and retains every get together composition feeling recent.

Bringing it All Collectively

Now that we had solved what every quest would include, it was time to construct the marketing campaign. We blended in a story that progresses all through the sport, providing you with a transparent sense of motive and immersion as you progress from quest to quest.

On the Hero Camp, you should purchase playing cards and handle your heroes’ development, monitoring progress and making ready for upcoming challenges. The camp serves because the central hub the place technique, preparation, and story intersect.