Beneath the Badlands, Details

Design

• Low HP & Fast movement speed: Keep the wolves a threat with only melee combat, while not overwhelming the player with enemies instantly

• Mid range damage: Threaten a player with large damage amounts of damage for allowing wolves to flank, but allowing them to rectify the mistake after realizing it

• Pack Tactics: Give the wolves a feeling of immersive behavior, create interesting combat dynamics, and reward player mobility and reflexes

Implementation

• Pack Manager: Packs all have a Pack manager, which determines wolf leaders on spawn and leader death, and will determine if wolves flee or get aggressive in low numbers

• Role branching: Both wolf styles are under one BT, which branches based on leader or follower roles

• Pack Differences: Wolves flank based in the BT, and attacks are changed in the Blueprint, both are driven from the pack manager

Design

• Horror Movie Monster: Boards within the arena provide players momentary respite, however the amalgamation can break them, adding dynamism and depth, while keeping the first boss intimidating

• Stealth and counter-stealth: The Arena provides several locations that the player can hide in, The Amalgamation will either circumnavigate these to attack the player or stalk elsewhere to hide, encouraging the player to go on the offensive after recovering

• Unique Critical Zones: Both the amalgamations head and stinger will crit, emphasizing good aim and exploitation of attack recoveries. 

Implementation

• Environmental interactivity: The Amalgamation breaks boards by attacking, which is triggered on proximity to both boards and players

• Cover Seeking: When it cannot reach the player, the Amalgamation switches it's movement behavior to seek cover

• Lance Vulnerability: In the Blueprint the Amalgamation keeps track of if it's most damaging move hit, providing players with a window of vulnerability and reprieve if they successfully evade it

Design

• Multi Phase: Multiple phases allow for shifting dynamics in the fight, keeping it fresh and interesting for the player, and testing player adaptability

• Counterplay: Certain moves with powerful effects, like the area denial of it's Acid Vomit, can be counteracted with a headshot, rewarding skilled play and understanding of tells

• Variety of Options: The vulture's moveset allows for it to combat you up close and at range, and will often switch between the two, testing multiple skills and offering the player a break

Implementation

• Spline Based Flight Patterns: The Vulture uses LERP's along splines to fly, both for low programming overhead and to reward player perception and pattern recognition.

• Split Behavior Tree: The Vulture's flying and grounded move sets are split within the same BT

• Cooldown Cycles: The Vultures more notable attacks, like the area denying acid vomit and it's retreating jump are on slightly randomized cooldowns to keep players on their toes

Design

• Player vs "Player": To both narratively and mechanically parallel the player, Sage has grenades, firearms, and a melee attack

• Position Conscious: Sage will change position frequently, and will rush the player on occasion, this provides unique dynamics, as well as emphasizing quick  mental mapping of the arena, and areas to return fire safely

• Humanoid +: Sages humanoid design provides players with a unique and unforseen challenge, while still retaining and playing within core concepts of design and rewarding players for mastery of the systems

Implementation

• Cover Spots in the Arena: Varying cover provides a range of defense for both the player and Sage, as her Hit scan weaponry has only been used by one enemy with drastically less damage up to this point

• Check Spots: Target points on the map give Sage a wide array of set places, this makes implementation and testing easier, and rewards players for observance, being able to keep track of her by learning these check spots

• Refactored Kit: By refactoring and reworking a lot of the code from the player, but attaching it to an AI, Sage had a relatively low development cost, but maintained a unique fight!

• Parasitic Possession: Snakes Can possess multiple bodies, meaning enemies can be reused, and standard encounters are dynamic with multiple steps to victory

• Humanoid: Allowed for more design space instead of animalistic behavior, opening up hitscan based ranged options and weapon based melee options

• Variance (4 for 1 special): 3 unique bodies for the snakes to possess, as well as the snakes themselves means encounters are emergent and varied, but can also be easily scoped around

Implementation of Gunslinger by Myself

Implementation of Miner by John LaRochelle

Implementation of Parasite and Civilian by Eric Norfleet

• Heavy Bruiser: High base HP, allows it to shrug off damage, compliment the wolves, and ensure it has a chance to close in before it's killed off

• Clumsy Charge: Incredibly high speed and damage make this move a top priority for evasion, however it rewards players evading it by offering a long recovery window for retaliation

• Lack of Range: Their lack or ranged options, as well as their high damage melee attacks rewards players for clever positioning or evasive play

Implementation by John LaRochelle

• Small and Fragile: Spiders one hit health bar deemphasizes their prioritization, however due to their size and mobility, it can be difficult to strike for players

• Ranged Support: Spiders spawn eggs which launch projectiles, supporting enemies and affording them openings by giving the player a tough choice of prioritization

• Flight: Their aerial mobility from wall to wall will reward players for inspecting the environment and break up sight lines in combat, providing more dynamic encounters

Implementation by John LaRochelle

I was one of the 3 designers to outline our Core Pillars of the game, ensuring we always had a fallback when designing new features and ensuring our target audience was always firmly in mind with realistic deliverables and goals (Document organized by Kano Magpuri). I was responsible for ironing out the Enemy pillar, as well as assisting with Designing the rest of the document.