PC (Keyboard & Mouse Priority)
Single-Player
Sep - Oct '24
Tools Used
Game overview
Dracula Must Live is
A First-Person Action game where you play as the Grim Reaper, ready to pierce the hordes of peasants. Launch your mighty Scythe in the air!
A Tower-Defense game where your main goal is to protect the Dracula's sleep. Destroy the incoming peasants strategically and keep your master's coffin safe until he wakes up!
An accessible RPG game where surviving for longer enables more upgrade opportunities. Decide what kind of the Reaper you want to be and search for the best synergies!
pre-production
Designing & Prototyping
one of the concepts for the project
Our team was tasked with creating 3 prototypes based on the given theme and personal preferences. After the first day of brainstorming the team’s general preferences were shaped. Out of them, I formed the following principles
Focus on Combat
Establish a tight game loop with the focus on second-to-second experience
Support Self-Expression
Use simplified RPG-elements to encourage versatile playstyles
Make it GOTHIC
We just love GOTHIC
I adhered to these rules when coming up with a pitch and a prototype for the team.
Check out my pre-production work
By the end of the pre-production stage, I had finished a brief documentation and a simple prototype of the concept.
Prototype's Self-Balancing System Documentation
Prototype Encounter Loop Documentation
Prototype's Self-Balancing System Documentation
Key Parts of the Prototype's Documentation
Brief Part of Gameplay
The team (including me) decided to lean towards another concept, which focused around throwing the scythe and recalling it to destroy hordes of enemies. I took on the responsibility to specify the core aspects of it and establish efficient communication with the fellow team members
SPECIFYING THE GAME ON THE RUN
Core Loops Design & Documentation
At the beginning of the production stage, I had to go back to step 1 of conceptualization and categorize the wants and needs of the team
Want
Need
Make progression rapid, impactful, and tied to onboarding itself
Make it like Call of Duty Zombies!
Want
Need
Make each upgrade contribute to the theme and player fantasy
Let players cast spells and be Necromancers!
Want
Need
Incorporate depth
into gameplay
by encouraging experimentation and search for synergies
Let me place traps like in Orcs Must Die!
Keeping these needs and the general team principles in mind, I specified 3 game loops
Core Game Loop
Established the Wave System & Described what would happen before the Wave's start & end
Character Upgrade Loop
Documented how the in-game currency would be earned and spent.
Stage Progression Loop
Introduced the game’s progression on the macro level, with the mechanic of unlocking new Castle’s sections
Within the Upgrade loop, I specified the following systems
Some of my documented systems did not end up in the final version of the project due to scope reasoning. However, at the initial stage of the production, they were tightly incorporated in the game’s loops.
How the player would Interact with the Store
How the Upgrade system would function
check out my documentation of these systems
check out my approach to documentation
Making player a game boss
Character Abilities & AI Design
Designing player abilities was an interesting challenge as there were loads of great ideas coming from everywhere, and I had to filter and systematize them. To fulfill this mission, I established a new set of principles
Make the player play as a game antagonist
I researched multiple gothic games to see what kind of behavior bosses had there
Spectre Knight as a Reference
Unite 2 genres in a readable way
I split the upgrades into Weapon-based (encouraging proactive behavior) and Spell-based (supporting the tower-defense aspect)
In-game Store. Abilities are visually split into Scythe & Spells
Create explicit and implicit synergies
I just did a lot for it
The third principle defined the direction in which I would be designing character systems. Here is how I specified the main aspects of gameplay in order to make the game deeper
Character Stats
I documented how mana system would work and made it tied only to the character’s Spells
Primary Weapon
I designed the abilities of the Scythe so that they created a one-button combo system and their modifiers affected the Character Stats directly
Scythe Ruleset
Scythe Abilities
Scythe Ruleset
Spells
I made sure the Spells consumed different amounts of mana and were balanced efficiency/cost-wise
As a result, the game’s systems encourage efficient behavior and generate feedback loops like the following
2. The player aims at the trapped enemies well and constantly uses the Scythe’s Combo ability with Mana Replenish modifier
1. The player uses the Slowing Spell efficiently and traps enemies
3. The player keeps restoring mana and using more efficient Spells without constraints
To make peasant enemies' AI fit the theme and the scope of our project, I designed their following features
Documented the AI targeting & aggression system
Defined the algorithm of the enemy attack
Specified the AI parameters to be open for designers’ adjustment
additional contribution
Implemented the Scythe attack effects
Default Smear Effect
Combo Smear Effect
Created icons & descriptions for the store
Scythe Combo Upgrades' Descriptions & Icons
Specified and documented the algorithm of how Dracula’s coffin would teleport around the Castle’s sections
Documentation of the Teleportation Algorithm