Masters Major Project

This project is being made as part of my Masters final project and since I have handed in my proposal and will now be focusing on developing a prototype of a Fantasy RPG game that will be a portfolio piece. (hopefully, I don’t have to write about the purpose again for a while as this is probably the 100th time now)

I’ve set out to create the basics of the game mechanics that I had come up with. From the basic movement and combat system as well as some basic versions of some of the spells I plan to let the player use. When it comes to the combat system I created I actually created two and evaluated which one would be best comparing them with some of the spells I have created. The two versions I had made had one based on the one direction the player was trying to move the character and the other would lock onto enemies, considering some of the spells I had created relied on the player aiming the ability and having it based on the players' movement could cause frustration with the controls and would have required more development time than I could probably spare so using the lock on the system was a better choice. Now that I have had a more focused outlook on my goals this week I feel it would have been better for me to instead of creating what were basic versions of what ended up being 11 abilities I should have focused more on fleshing out a smaller number which has lead me to the design of having these abilities evolve as the player progresses and their visual will evolve with them.

Taking inspiration from games like Elden Ring, Skyrim and Mass Effect for how I would deal with the levelling system. My idea for this is to have several attributes that the player can add

to when they level up, once the attribute reaches a certain value the player can unlock spells

that they can use in the game. These spells can be upgraded as the player levels up further. I wanted these spells to evolve as the player purchases upgrades in the tree and to the player’s attributes.

The tree for the flame skill. The bottom branch is Fireball (ranged) branch and the top is the

Burst (close combat) branch. The Tree also includes some perks between the major changes.

I did this to allow the player to have some choice in how their character plays. This means the skills will have to branch off in different directions and would become something like a

skill tree. On the basic fire attack that starts it’s name as “Flame” I wanted the playstyle to split into two types; one a close combat style that deals damage to a group that is close to the player and the other being a ranged combat style where the player can use the spell to damage enemies at range. Having these different play styles set out has led me to start designing the other abilities to suit them.

This image shows the original design I had for skill trees for fire magic abilities. A progression

bar through the middle will show when the player could purchase the first stage of each tree.

I set the target for this week to be completing this one small skill tree. I feel that it might be worth trying to add an additional target to my sprints and extend it by a week to see if the variety could result in me being more productive or any other design ideas arising.

Flame Ability

Fireball ability

Fire Blast Ability.

Meteor Ability

Flame Burst Ability

Fire Cracker After effect.

Blaze Ability

Screenshot of the skill tree.