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Blightbound
Video afspelen
Project Details
Role
Gameplay designer
Time frame
February 2019 - November 2020
Team size
30
Engine
Custom engine
Software used
● Ronitech game engine
● Behaviour creator tool to make enemies and bosses
● JIRA
Developer
Ronimo Games
Released on
Steam, Xbox One & PlayStation 4
What is Blightbound?
Blightbound is a 3-player dungeon crawler, where you and your friends explore unique dungeons and fight terrifying monstrous enemies. Grab valuable loot and rescue fallen heroes to expand your roster of heroes.
Each player has a specific role and unique abilities. They will need to work together if they want to survive the blight.
Responsibilities
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Ownership of:
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Player skills
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Enemy and boss designs
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Combat design
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Player progression systems
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How do players get items
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Item designs
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Organize QA, communicate and address feedback
Gameplay
Video afspelen
In this video I designed, created and implemented:
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These player characters and their abilities
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Boss abilities and behavior
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Enemies present in the room, and their behavior
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Phase system, including the boss going airborne and phase transition
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Objectives of hitting the bells to eventually knock the boss to the ground
Player/enemy interactions and abilities are made through a custom in-house 'Settings Editor' where you make and assign settings and functions and set loadouts etc.
Character behaviour is also made through custom in-house editor. Which is a form of visual scripting with nodes, much like Blueprints in Unreal Engine.
"This encounter actually re-uses lots of stuff I already made for other areas in the game. Like the enemies themselves and their abilities.
I re-used boss skills like spawning bone-obstacles, 'fireballs' and enemies for other parts of the game, and is used as foreshadowing for this encounter."
Challenges
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Development happened during Covid-19
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Every software that was used, was custom. So no online tutorials
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Unfortunately, there wasn't done any pre-production when I started. Fundamentals of the game were vague and leads weren't agreeing on all aspects.
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The game requires 3 players, but the content of the game is limited to about 10 hours. Eventually matchmaking queues were too long which locked players out from playing the game
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We decided to make bots to replace missing players in the party. We didn't take bots into account when the content plan was made, so design had to make them without code support. Initially the bots weren't the great at puzzle solving or following orders. We managed in the end but took some time.
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Achievements
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Eventually mastered the custom tech to a point where others come to me for help.
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It was fun seeing streamers play and react to things I designed. This also provides insight on how a new player interacts with the game, as well as seeing public perspective on mechanics.
Boss breakdown
Preface
This game is about working together as a team, and the boss encounters must encourage this player behaviour. It took a couple of iterations after setting on a design to where players of all classes and skill level would feel challenged. The boss should have individual challenges, which can be done by any character/class, but are easier to complete as a certain class (Tank/Support/Assassin).
This is the first big boss you encounter in the game. The player encounters this fight in the third dungeon. By this time, the player has already encountered most of the boss mechanics, except for the boss which can go airborne for a moment.
The boss uses the following abilities:
Phase 1
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Shoot: a projectile towards the closest target
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Prioritizes the Tank if able
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Summon Wretches: low health enemies are summoned around the map
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These enemies can be dispatched quickly with high damage, the Assassin is useful for this
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Summon Writhing Orb: glowing, fast moving red orb that deals high damage to everything in it's path, including enemies. The Writhing Orb follows their closest target
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During phase 1, this spawns at the player furthest from the boss. The Support player can move around and teleport the arena with ease. Making it a good choice for that player to lure and kite the Writhing Orb around till it depletes.
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Summon Bonespike: Deals damage in an area and summons an obstacle which can be destroyed by either attacking it, or luring a Writhing Orb over it.
Phase 2
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Abilities of Phase 1 and the following:
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Summon Bell: summons 3 Bells hat enables a dark ritual, allowing the boss to Fly. These bells can be destroyed.
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Fly: boss clears the area of all enemies and bones, and goes airborne. Making the boss invulnerable.
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When all 3 Bells are destroyed, the boss falls down and is stunned.
Allowing players to have a moment of 'free' damage and no danger of getting hurt. Players can save up their abilities during the flight ability to burst the boss down.
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Phase 3
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Continuation of Phase 2, but with more Writhing Orbs and Bokespikes.
Conclusion
This boss served as an example for what boss fights mean in terms of game design, as well as the level of mastery, flow, duration, cognitive load, and complexity. The game offers different difficulties, so I had to keep that in mind too for setting parameters that could scale off difficulty.
I made all the bosses for BlightBound:
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3 bosses, 2 of them are close to the complexity of this one
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4 bosses which are different (stronger) variants of existing mini-bosses I designed
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5 scenario based boss fights which the player fights existing mini-bosses or multiple enemies
"Though re-using skills were a initial complaint during Early Access. I designed more complex passives for new characters, which didn't require new art or code support.
Players love Clegg and new characters like him, as it opens up new builds and playstyles in their own way."
The skills are made through a settings manager, and the behaviour was made through visual scripting (custom engine tech, similar to Unreal Blueprinting).
The text and localization are done through an external spreadsheet, so it's easier to communicate translations when outsourced.
Furthermore I designed and implemented:
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15 of the 21 playable characters
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15 passives
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30 hero skills
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some skills are present on multiple characters
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some skills are used by enemies too, and vice versa
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5 of the 7 regular enemies
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All 4 mini-bosses
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All elite enemy variants
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These variants have an extra effect, like: shooting multiple projectiles, buffing other enemies, or using boss skills.
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Character breakdown
An example of one of the characters in the video is Commander Clegg.
He is a Tank character commonly used to soak damage and distract enemies.
His passive is unique in a way where it synergizes "Phalanxes" (summoned unit) with your other skills. This helps a lot with getting attention away from your teammates in distress.
He re-uses abilities I made on other characters, and his passive was a way to enable new builds centered around these "Phalanxes". Something that players requested to see for a character during Early Access development. A lot of work was already planned, so designing his passive made it feel like a whole different playstyle, but not requiring much work to make.
Skill
Type
Effect
Natural Leader
Sword Strike
Shield Block
Summon Phalanxes
Awaken Ancient
Taunting Roar
Passive
Basic Attack
Shield
Titan Skill
Titan Skill
Ultimate Skill
Start with a phalanx that has permanent lifetime.
All Titan and Ultimate skills used, will also trigger on your phalanxes.
A three hit combo that deals 80/ 100%/ 190% weapon power as damage. Deals damage 5 times, restores health based on your combo hit when you have a Rage point.
Spending Rage charge your ultimate.
Hold this skill to reduce incoming damage. Blocking gives you Rage. Hit enemies with Sword Strike to spend Rage.
Spending Rage charges your ultimate.
Summon two Phalanx soldiers that will aid you in battle. The Phalanxes return to earth after 30 seconds.
Unleash a provoking roar, stopping enemy casts and forcing all enemies to target you. The roar deals 150% weapon power as damage, and reduce damage taken by 30% for 8 seconds.
Channels the powers of Forge God Siurd.
When cast, you deal 300% weapon power as damage to nearby enemies. For the duration of this effect, damage taken is reduced by 50% while damage output is increasted by 275%. Transformation lasts 15 seconds.
Spending Rage charges your ultimate.
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