Some thoughts and choices about game design
Below you can find my project GDD as well as excerpts from it about thoughts, ideas and analysis of game design.
My goal is to showcase the foundational design philosophies and gameplay choices behind The Loop.
Game design document
Feel free to have a look at the GDD for additional information about the project.
I'm in the process of refining and updating it.
You can open upthe most up to date version in your browser by clicking on the PDF icon to the right.
First person game feel
I have made quite extensive tweaks to the Movement Component configurations to achieve a game feel similar to how a Destiny Hunter feels to control. The goal was to set up a more fluent way of moving in combination of making the character feel more heavy, a tricky combination but I'm quite happy with the result.
I started by reducing the radius of the Capsule Component. This might seem quite contradictive but it helps with smoothing out the movement as well with making the combat and crawl spaces feel more fair and grounded.
To emulate the feeling of a lower gravity while giving a better sense of weight to the character I increased the Gravity Scale from 1 to 1,5 and raised the Jump Z Velocity to 750 to compensate for the higher Gravity Scale. For a better sense of in-air control I increased both the Braking Deceleration Factor and Air Control, which adds to the Sci-Fi fantasy of having an exoskeleton-like suit. These tweaks have a big impact on the verticality of each jump and better differentiate jumping in a lower gravity with the default configuration. As opposed to the horizontal jump differences that stays quite similar, so we don't lose the increased weight of the controlled pawn.
Examples of this can be seen in the two videos below.
The Max Acceleration also got an increase from 2048 to 3072 for a snappier change of direction for better mobility while Braking Friction got a decrease so the player smoothly decelerates when stopping for better movement control.
Default jump and gravity configs
My movement configuration
Coyote Time
A design technique I rate highly for FPS- and platforming games to give the player more control when jumping. It provides a few extra frames to jump while being in the air. For example, if they would time a jump off a platform slightly wrong, this would provide a little bit of forgiveness to the experience and doesn't punish them for not being pinpoint accurate. For first person games, this is extra helpful as you will not look down at the ledge when jumping. So it removes some frustration from the equation.
The upgrade loop
The MVP's of all components for the upgrade loop are now in place. Next step is to take all the individual systems to a feature complete state. This was the first major gameplay loop I had to have in place since level loading, the two interaction systems and the costumizable upgrade system all depends on eachother.
Hover over the bullet points to get a sneak peak of each part of the upgrade loop.
Planning your next adventure
In order to venture out and discover more of the galaxy the player must first select a destination using the navigation table on board the ship. Interacting with the table spawns a star chart of the galaxy with description and requirements of each destination. Having to manually select where to go adds a good bit of immersion to both the ship and the overall experience.
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But before you enter your boarding pod, the player should pay a visit to the armory. Equipping weapons and tools to your loadout serves as a conditional in order to launch the pod to the selected destination. I made this choice to emphasize on planning and making well informed decision based on the provided feedback about each destination.
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When you are ready to go, the boarding pod will take you to your choosen adventure. The boarding pod itself doesn't add much to the overall gameplay experience but is one of my most important underlying system. It's main purpose is to hide the loading aspects of each new level and auto save progress when used. It will also play an interesting part for level design where I have to keep backtracking levels in mind.
Gathering resources
To be able to buy and trade resources and upgrades, collecting loot is a key component for the upgrade loop. I made a quite extensive and scalable system for loot interactions, RNG and different types of resources. Finding and gathering a balanced but substantial amount to be able to get your hands on new modules is key to both incentives in level and game design.
If you are interested in reading more about the loot system I made a video showcasing the work behind it here.
Play your way
When you have collected enough resources for the upgrades you want, you can head to the abandoned station and visit the different vendors selling you modules for your suit.
Equipping the modules changes the way you play. They can grant you both passive as well as active abilities, both defensive and offensive combined with tools for your suit to alter the environment. I'm utilizing the Gameplay Ability System to easily grant and remove abilities upon attaching the modules to the upgrade bench hooked up to your suit. I think this adds a lot of immersion to customizing your abilities without using 2D menus.
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Having a balanced and diverse set of abilities enables you to play your way. Mixing and matching until you have found what's the most fun for you in combination with what is needed for the challenges ahead provides player agency. And hopfully, with testing and balancing, a way to help out with control mastery.