Summary
Content Design
My role throughout my time at the project was content designer. I designed, pitched and validated the produced content.
The content that I designed ranged from Powers, Enemies, Point of Interest, Win objectives, Classes, Events and other miscellaneous stuff such as Localization.
Powers & Heroes
Enemies
POI & Events
Localization
Power Design
Design philosophy
Design, pitch, validate, iterate and balance Powers under certain guidelines.
Since the game is co-op and you play with 2 other people there are some things to consider when designing the Powers.
There needs to be synergy between Powers within your class.
The Powers needs to be easy to understand, readable, interesting and fun to use.
The Powers needs to fit flavor & the archetype role that you're playing.
Guidelines
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Easy to understand
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Affords optimal play
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Obvious impact
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Impactful synergy
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Avoids twitchy gameplay
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Avoids slow gameplay
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Avoids being a chore
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Avoids being fatiguing
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Fits flavor & role
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Balanced
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Avoid doing nothing
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Avoid being too noisy
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Can be upgraded
Design Process
Task
The process begins with me getting a task to design something specific, like a Power, a Point of interest or an Enemy for example.
Pitch
I pitch the design to the team. Focus on what intention I have with the design and what problems it can solve.
Feedback
I get feedback on the design. "Is the design feasible and within scope? Is the design fun and interesting enough as content?"
Iterate
I Iterate the design based on the feedback and make adjustments accordingly. After the design iteration I go back to pitching the new design and get feedback. This can go back and forth until it's viable.
Create Tasks
When the design is ready to be implemented I create the relevant tasks in Jira. Coding, Art, VFX and Audio. The coding task is what opens up first so I can validate the prototype before opening up the other tasks.
Prototype Validation
One of the most important step in the process is the Prototype Validation. It's where we try out the prototype to see if it fulfills the intention and is fun to play with. This is where we decide if we want to continue to develop the prototype or if it needs further design and iteration. And in some cases it gets scrapped entirely.
Iterate
Based on the feedback and prototype validation we can iterate on the design more to get it to a stage where we feel it's good enough to be user ready.
Maintain & Balance
After everything is implemented there's always some maintenance and balancing that needs to be done. Systems change and the game changes so the designs sometimes needs some tweaking and balancing to complement that.