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Second Year Team Project
GodSoul is an action/adventure deck builder game set in a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy world. The player builds their deck and using a detailed combo orientated combat system, destroys their enemies.
The game was created for our Second Year Team Project, and has a playable physical card based version.
A micro post-mortem
During the development of GodSoul, I was nominated for the role of lead designer and scrum leader, a level of responsibility I took in stride. I was responsible for the card combat design, the cards themselves, and some aspects of design outside of this area, such as the overworld.
Ultimately, while the game had a troubled development and several features were cut due to a lack of commitment by teammates, the feedback we received praised the combat and world the player traversed in.
GodSoul had a troubled development, with several team members being absent during the projects development for the majority of it's duration. Despite this, I feel that the end product was a suitable proof of concept for what the team and I worked on over the course of the year.
GodSoul combo line visualisation video
Concepting and Ideation
Concepting and Ideation
GodSoul began development in early November, as part of a second year university project. We were assigned teams at random, and began concepting world and game designs that we would work on and develop over the course of the term, up until June of the following year.
One of the first things that was concepted was the base combat system and an earlier version of one of the regional decks: Ashenkarrus. It was a fire based deck, and was developed in tandem with the core combat to create a fun and engaging combat system.
Once the core combat and base mechanics was concepted, we began testing with paper prototypes of cards, being biro sketches of fantasy creatures onto flash cards that we would use to test the combo line mechanic. We then updated this paper prototype with finished art work, and testing began with the Ashenkarrus mechanic in paper form.
The paper prototype cards with the updated artwork.
Combat design
Combat design
The game worked in a combo-line format, where the player could play as many cards as they wanted that would all play one after another, as long as they had the mana to do so.
This video is an animated showcase I created to act as a tutorial for the mechanics of GodSoul. It showcases the mechanics of the base combat system and the Ashenkarrus region, and how some examples of potential games could play out.
Personally, I feel that the combat system that I designed was a good basis to create a fun and engaging game from. Feedback regarding the combat system was generally positive, many praising how the base combat system and regional mechanics of the cards worked together. There was some feedback regarding the complexity of the combat system, which I wholeheartedly agree with. There are a number of case-by-case scenarios with how cards interact, but this was simply a cause of the base combat system and, while I tried, were not aspects of the gameplay I was able to rectify.
After creating a functional combat system, I then set out creating several elemental decks, whos attributes tied to their regions and playstyle. I took time to make sure that each region was fun and enjoyable to play, and that each was unique from each other. I then also ensured that the player could create hybrid decks: decks containing cards from two regions would have a synergy that would further engage the players enjoyment of the combat. It was an incredibly enjoyable, if repetitive process, and the result was a series of cards that, even being played via a paper prototype, felt engaging and fun to use.
Card Design
Card Design
This image carousel is the list of all used cards that were designed for GodSoul.
Each region was designed around a different form of skill expression, whilst also being designed so that the player could use cards from two different regions at the same time to create hybrid decks.
Overall, I was very happy with the list of cards I designed, the mechanics they used, and how they interacted with the combo line. A lot of feedback received regarding the cards themselves was greatly positive, people finding the mechanics engaging to learn and use.
Further reading
Further reading
If you want to learn more about GodSoul and its mechanics, you can read the revised combat GDD here:
If you want to learn more about GodSoul and its mechanics, you can read the revised combat GDD here:
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