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Design and Documentation
Level Design Process and Document
Combat Concept Document
Mission Design Document
Game Design Document
Level Design Process:
Nechronos: Phase 1
In the following document I describe the second level of a time loop game that I designed called Nechronos (full GDD below). The challenge of this level is opening up the world of the game, the airship station, to the player gradually--to give freedom without being overwhelming. It also aims to teach the player that dying is not only okay, it's a key mechanic of the game.
Branching Out
In the previous level (the tutorial), the player existed on a line, and for the most part walked to their death. Now, in Phase 1, the player is confronted by exponentially more choices. They can interact with all the points of interest and objects of interest in the space station, and they have more branching dialogue options. For details, see the LDD.
To make sure the sudden freedom is not overwhelming to the player, the time mechanic is introduced. A playable character can only perform a limited number of actions before fixed events trigger in the level, such a another character leaving their room, or a door becoming locked, or the end of the level.
This is tracked via the UI. When the player opens their menu ("looks down at their tablet"), they can see a segmented bar at the top that shows how many more actions they have until the end of the loop. Selecting this module will expand the bar to show events they've already discovered, as a timeline aka time map.
Dying is the Name of the Level
Loops are ways to gather information: there are no consequences to loops that end poorly. This is the first level that the player can use the loop to their advantagbe. They is encouraged to run through every scenario they can think of to see if they can trigger new events or dialogue. These new scenarios are most often coaxed out by building relationships with the NPCs, finding clue objects, and perfecting loop timing.
Tutorial Events
Phase 1 Events
Nechronos_LDD.pdfCaliburn: Sword of Legend
This level is part of a third-person action-adventure game where the player must balance the use of melee skills and magic skills to progress—using your sword eats up stamina so that you have less control of the magic possessing you, causing it to build up. You can release this excess magic as an attack: the more you build up, the stronger the attack. However, if you allow it to build up too much your speed becomes greatly reduced. If it builds to a breaking point, you start to take damage and will take damage when the attack is released.
This mechanic is taught through the level, as the player progresses from a couple of melee enemies to swarmer enemies, who make it more difficult to manage your magic level with your sword attacks if you want to charge up heavier magic attacks.
The challenge of this level design was making sure it was exciting enough to carry the momentum needed near the start of the game, but to not be too ambitious. This meant coming up with high-impact water cooler moments and slimming down my original design--fewer objectives, no mini-bosses--making the overall level stronger and more focused.
LDD_philllips_finalDraft.pdfCombat Concept Document
As part of a design challenge, I was asked to create an unconventional combat system. Because I was already in the middle of developing a highly narrative point-and-click adventure game, I decided to theme it to that. The result is a dialogue based combat system that imagines personality types as enemy archetypes. For example, a Heavy enemy archetype is not susceptible to reason, but is easily infuriated, which leaves them vulnerable to the player drawing important actions or information from them.
Nechronos_combat.pdfMission Design Document
Below is a mission meant to be triggered early on in Nechronos, called There's Something in the Vents. This quest is meant to introduce the players to a critical NPC, Aster, and is their first major chance to consider which side of the war they ultimately want to support (human supremacy or cyborg rebellion). Engaging with the mission costs the player valuable time in each loop, but can gain them an ally has large implications for their relationships.
Nechronos_missionDesign.pdfGame Design Documents:
Nechronos:
Break the Loop,
Save the World
A Point-and-Click branching narrative adventure. (This is the full version, as opposed to the Twine prototype.)
Play as three students—an engineer, a fighter, and a pilot—all podmates striving to pass their Fighterport final exams in the cyber war-torn future. Make decisions to determine their personalities and relationships, and experience the consequences as they fight for their lives against time itself.
Nechronos_GDD.pdf