Rework Time

So... I think it's rework time...

I'll go right to the point, until these last days I was finding it hard to get motivation to work on this game. I know that this is something that everyone has to go through when working on a game, but I was finding really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this game. My struggle was that although I could put a lot of work in this project and see the things working mostly the I wanted to, the game did not have a core FUN gameplay. 

In the very conception of TSV, my idea was to make something inspired by Magicka, but focused on the particle spectacle. I wanted the player to tinker with their spells to be able to conjure the craziest particle systems. That idea quickly crashed when I realized I was not good at making particles (something I will need to learn, just as I did with animations), neither that good at developing mechanics in the first place. I still liked what I was doing, so I continued to work on this project - going through ideas of turning the game into a survival, then a hack-n-slash, then an action RPG, then a souls-like(?). None of these ideas stuck for too long. So by now, I unfortunately had a project which had a lot of work put into it, but no clear purpose, and this was really taking a toll on me.

Then a couple days ago, I decided to do something a little crazy... What if I went back to the original idea for the game? I mean, I still cannot create a mediocre particle system to save my life, but I now have a LOT more knowledge on the pure development side of games.

So I cloned the project for TSV, and flipped it on its head.

Up until now, I was creating spells in a completely deterministic way, by creating the spell assets manually and programming their behavior when cast. This not only was a lot of work, but also put a lot of complexity if I wanted to give the player any type of flexibility on how they would play the game. 

For example, the player had a basic Fireball spell which was a simple projectile, which had a homing effect to enemies that were locked on... pretty simple...

Lately I was also working on some spells that manipulate enemy and prop position, such as a "pull" spell... Ok, but not too exciting...

In the new project I made, I created ONE spell object, and started to ideate on how to parametrize it to give the most flexibility to the player. The idea is that now the player will in fact do what wizards do: CREATE magic to accomplish what they need - sometimes creating something great, sometimes having fun unforeseen consequences.

For now, I have created a total of 10 different aspects of a spell that can be modified:

• Spell Type: Projectile, Area or Weapon Coating
• Cast type: Standard, Concentration, Kill-Skill or Triggered on Block
• Elements: Fire, Ice, Heal, Rock
• Number of Instances: Single, Multiple, Burst
• On-Hit Effect: Explode, Pass Through, Area of Effect or Cast Spell (this will be fun, a spell can cast another)
• Point of Origin: Player's Hand, Feet or Above Head; Enemy's Body, Feet, Above Head; Half Way between player and enemy
• Spell Shape: Sphere, Box, Plane, Cone
• Gravity Effect: No Gravity, Normal Gravity, Inverse Gravity
• Trajectory: Static, Straight Line, Follow Player, Follow Enemy
• Additional Effects (optional): Trigger Kill-Skill on hit, Trigger Hit Effect Periodically, Draw Enemy Attention

There is a lot of stuff here, but I believe this flexibility finally gave the game what it needed: Something to draw the player to keep playing and experimenting. Just while I was programming the initial behaviors, it was a blast to set random values to these parameters and see the spell coming to life, and even more so when it came with funny interactions (some of them even made me add the behavior as a new parameter, such as the origin at the enemy's feet).

I is also amazing how even in this bare-bones state of this spell system, it is already possible to create spells with wildly different behaviors and implications using the same set of rules. As example, the video below shows 4 different spells I created just during my debugging:

This system also enables for a more rewarding game experience. Players would start the game with a more limited set of parameters to control, and unlock new parameters and effects as the game progresses.

This is what I am working on full steam ahead now on TSV, and this is probably the most excited I have ever been with this project since its conception. Let's see how this evolves from this checkpoint onwards.