Astral Onslaught

A Party Fighter about beating the Living Stars out of the Living Stars!

Unity
Winter 2023 - Spring 2023

This project was 2 quarter two-quarter-long journey to create a 2D online party game. This party fighting game would be super chaotic and involve the zodiacs as characters. It was my job to work with a fellow designer to create character kits, and items, and manage systems to keep everything balanced and as chaotic as the director envisioned.

Character Design

In order to design unique characters for a fighting game, we had to go through different defined archetypes and see what fit the most with the experience we wanted to create. We would go into different options for the characters. Below is art created by our artist, Daniel Cherng, which shows off three of the concepts for Gemini during development.

Once a character was concepted, we would implement it and then see how it impacted the player experience. Through playtesting, we adjusted everything to be more in line with other aspects of the overall design, like keeping in mind what systems were already implemented and making full use of them. 

Team-Facing Documentation

Each move was given a unique name, ensuring that it could be easily identified and referenced. Alongside these names, we provided a brief yet informative description of the move's purpose and functionality, offering a quick overview to team members. To further enhance comprehension, we included details on each move's damage, making it easy for team members to gauge its impact. Additionally, we collaborated with artists to create illustrative GIFs, which visually demonstrated how each move worked in action, bridging any potential gaps in understanding. This combination of text, visual aids, and categorization facilitated understanding and improved retention and engagement among the team. In other instances, we employed flowcharts, video tutorials, and FAQs to inform and guide the work of downstream groups, tailoring our approach to suit the unique needs of each feature.

Balancing

I was also responsible for balancing each feature in the game. I kept track of all of the systems using Excel and took notes during playtests to see how the characters performed. Putting out patch notes and visuals to help show what we would be changing and how much. 

Another one of my jobs was to keep Excel sheets clean and organized so that I could show how each character's stats are laid out and how they stack up against each other. Whenever we finished another character, we would test extensively to see if it matched the project goals.