Turn-based combat games live and die by how well their combat is played. Skills are a good way to develop complexity to the combat system. Being able to develop and flesh out an interesting skill ecosystem where there are multiple playstyles is core to building a successful and fun turn-based combat game.
In Tower (a turn-based dungeon crawler), the player has 2 playable characters that can each use up to 5 skills, giving the player 10 skills available. They are able to equip any skills which they would like, however, they are unable to equip the same skill twice. Being able to build out an interesting library of skills to encourage the player to think of their own loadouts was the core of what Tower was meant to achieve: a fun replayable turn-based combat game.
When developing a skill, I look at what purpose I want the skill to fill, how I intend for the player to use it and how it works with other skills. The plan is to provide the player scenarios where they are happy they chose certain skills. This is how I came up with three criteria to help guide me making Towers skills.
Skill Impact, Direction and Synergies
Impact
Skills need to be impactful enough that players are willing to waste their turn using it. They don't require immediate pay off such as damage. Pure buff/debuff skills are still fine to include, however, the tuning of the buffs/debuffs need to be enough where the player feels justified in sacrificing their turn of damage.
Direction
Skills should give the player a direction. A skill with an inbuilt effect such as a DOT or power gain provides the player with a strategy and game plan. A player should see a skill and think of how they will use that skill in order to achieve their goals.
Synergies
I aim for my skills to be synergistic, which allows the player to further develop their own strategy playing my game. Providing the player an environment to explore the synergies between skills provide the player with replayability. Players will want to replay the game testing out different skill loadouts and seeing what works and what doesn't.
While developing the skills in Tower I thought hard about whether the skill was achieving what I had outlined above. If I felt like a skill wasn't providing the player any of the three criteria then I would revisit the idea, analyse it, and rework it.
An example of this in Tower is the ability Raging Strike. Looking at a skill from tower Raging Strike, we can break down the three criteria
Raging Strike
Impact:
Deals damage to a target, potentially multiple. but at the cost of hitting a random target, the player needs to decide if the risk is worth it.
Direction:
Provides the player with a game plan of getting multiple enemies low, and aiming to kill all of them with this attack.
Synergy:
Casts a damaging AOE ability then follows up with Raging Strikes.
I feel that Raging Strikes fits into the three criteria perfectly. Providing the player a reason to use it, gives them a plan to use it in, and then gives them a strategy to build their loadout with.
Another example of a skill from tower is the Stub Toe buff skill.
Stub Toe
Impact:
Deals damage to player, gaining 5 stacks of Anger. Player has to make a choice if the loss of life is worth the anger stacks gained.
Direction:
Provides the player a way to buff themselves with Anger, allows them to scale during a fight.
Synergy:
Synergizes with any damage skill along with specific Anger skills.
Each stack of Anger provides the player with a 1% damage increase with a 1% chance to hit a random enemy instead of its main target.
The purpose of this skill was to provide the player a way to scale up over the course of a fight, and it also fits into a SHOUT oriented build. This skill would be a core component to many Anger builds as it is a quick way during the early game of the game to build up Anger quickly.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a player Power system in Tower. After climbing the floors of this tower they will receive knowledge periodically. This knowledge is split in 2 tiers: Lesser and Forbidden Knowledge. Lesser is less impactful while Forbidden Knowledge is much more game breaking and redefines the players game plan.
Using this system allows for further complexity in the skill system and provides the players with many more possibilities when playing. The goal of this system was to make the players plan out their loadout with a balanced assortment of skills in order to maximise the use they get out of the potential knowledge drops. Since they will be given a few random knowledge to choose from out of the entire catalogue, having a broader loadout will let them be able to consistently have something that impacts them.
However, if a player focuses on a single build such as a Magical build, when they finally receive the Conduit knowledge they will be ecstatic.
When thinking of a knowledge I first thought of what the players current tools were and looked at ways to enhance it. Magical attacks have a lot of single target skills with interesting effects, providing a Magical oriented build a way to cast these skills to multiple targets opens up their playstyle to be more fast paced, as they are now able to spread out their attacks.
Comments