ROLL FOR ADVENTURE: IDLE RPG

Not only was I the design vision holder for the project, but I also ended up running a lot of the production and project management work. It needed to get done, so I stepped up. While it was a lot of work in between my own actual design and implementation work, it did allow my coworkers to focus on their work and create amazing content.

• Established design pillars and product vision to align engineering, art, design, and narrative.
• Worked with Tech Lead and Lead Writer to balance satisfying client direction and standing up for the product where necessary. 
• Worked with our Lead Writer and art department to set up a concept-to-final art pipeline to streamline our new-IP art process.
• Established project timelines based on resources and work velocity. Created, groomed, and assigned tasks in Jira. Scheduled and ran sprint planning and retrospectives.
• Worked with company leadership and client to creatively problem solve project constraints and feedback.

Early in development, we discovered a need to update the IdleKit end of level ascension mini-game so we could hit RPG player expectations. I took point on designing a simple, cost-effective system that could scale after launch. We also designed additional low-cost features to beef up the D&D and RPG uniqueness based on stakeholder feedback.

• Prototyped, designed, and implemented unique ‘ascension’ RPG combat gameplay. It provided a more engaging end of level experience than other IdleKit products and gives extra value to character card and item upgrades. It consisted of:
  • Short, timed combat (no more than 30 seconds)
  • Simple, minimalist strategy with triggerable special attacks.
    • One character had a strong single target attack, another with a weak, but quick charging multi-hit attack, and the other with a slow charging multi-hit nuke.
    • Choosing which groups of enemies to use these skills on made the difference!
  • Built the design to be scalable with swappable characters, skills, and equipment to boosts your attacks and defenses.
  • Enemy wave-based reward structure. The more waves you clear, the more loot you roll!
• Designed, prototyped, and implemented an ascension dice roll prize mechanic to add extra fun, flavour, and incentive for completing levels (Client request).

  • Added a D20 roll at the end of each level that rewarded a different pool of special Artifact Cards based on your roll.

  • Artifact Card duplicates could be collected and upgraded to boost your character’s attack power by various amounts.

• Designed, prototyped, and implemented a simple map feature to help the game feel more like progressing through an adventure, and help explain the ascension feature of moving to a new town each level.

The Lead Writer and I worked together constantly and efficiently. We springboarded most elements of the game off each other to produce a cohesive whole. Our mutual love of fantasy games and making inclusive content helped keep the energy up!

• Set our narrative goals as ‘Inclusive AF’, and ‘lift up, don’t punch down’.
• Worked with Lead Writer and artists to develop interesting, rpg genre characters, personalities, and locations. 
  • Increased female character representation, with some non-binary and trans inclusion as well!
    • Female human barbarian, male half-elf sorcerer, non-binary halfling druid as our core team.
  • Wholesome LGBTQ+ inclusion for characters, while also not being shoved in your face, nothing being punched down.
    • Two old dwarves married and living together for centuries. Art included wedding bands. Personalities based on Statler and Waldorf.
• Worked with Lead Writer to outlined main story beats all the way past level 100 to ensure a steady narrative arc for post-launch content.
• Updated the existing storyboard system and implemented over 80 story moments.
• Reviewed character and location concepts, providing feedback to help align visual direction. Our refined art pipeline helped a great deal with making this process more efficient for my time, and the artist’s.
• Worked with Lead Writer to plan out 4+ event themes, with unique character skins, stories, and economy.

Most of our balance came from the IdleKit data, but the changes to our gameplay and onboarding necessitated adjusting it to improve our user experience. Between business and upgrade data, I also hand-tuned the combat and enemy data.

• Tuned and balanced economy data to improve player onboarding, early game retention, and game feel.
• Implemented and balanced data for the Ascension dice roll loot tables.
• Implemented and balanced combat data for the Ascension battles.

While I had a lot on my plate, I also had a crack team to work with. I even had junior designers on staff that I helped train up in our tools, and had them help me out with a lot of the story moment and data implementation.

• Functioned as product lead, project manager, and design lead throughout the project.
• Trained, mentored and held regular 1:1s with two junior designer direct reports.

Our art team was pretty tight on time with all the characters, environments, and UI art that needed to be done to hit our MVP release. As a hobby artist and mythical creature enthusiast, I took it upon myself to create some generic monsters to use in our battles.

Our Lead Artist taught me his style and method. The team loved the results!