GAME4000 Group 3 Project 6

Instructions

SPACE - Shoot Spell
[1] - Switch to Colorless Hat
[2] - Switch to Red Hat
[3] - Switch to Green Hat
[4] - Switch to Blue Hat

Progression Mechanic Name

Equipment (Magical Hats)

Description of mechanic and its progression

Magical Hats allow the player to cast spells of different colors. The more enemies they defeat, they unlock colored hats (red, green, and blue), which grant them new spells that correspond to the colors of the enemies. If the player’s hat color matches that of the enemy, they deal extra damage to the enemy. Once the player has progressed enough to unlock all hats, they can switch between them at will, or stick with their favorite color (or lack thereof).

Implementation description

The player is a spellcaster who can cast one of 4 spells based on which hat they are wearing. Initially the player only has a single, colorless hat to wear that does decent damage to each enemy. Using the colorless hat at all times is a dominant strategy. The player can use the colorless hat to defeat enemies. Defeating 1, 5, and 10 enemies unlocks the red, green, and blue hats respectively. Once a hat is unlocked, the player can switch between them at will. If the player attacks an enemy with a mismatched color, they deal reduced damage, but the game is balanced in such a way that every hat is viable during a non-challenge phase. Every time 10 enemies are defeated, the player is presented with a “Challenge” phase, in which the damage dealt by the colorless hat is reduced, enemies become immune to colored attacks that do not match their own color, and their spawn rate increases. These parameters create a scenario in which the player must constantly switch colors to succeed. This challenge is intense and should make the player feel tension and a little fatigue. Once the player has defeated 10 enemies in the challenge phase, they are prompted to “use any hat they like” and the challenge rules are reverted to the original rules. 

Description of how your pattern(s) relate to the prototype. (Include a link the to pattern)

Our pattern, Dress For The Occasion, advises designers to use a horizontal progression system in the form of non-committal gear/equipment changes to allow players to express themselves and specialize while also still being able to complete a variety of challenges they may require a different specialization. In our prototype, enemies represent this variety of challenges, as they require specialized gear (specific hat colors) to defeat. During the basic phase, this specialization is not required as any color hat is able to deal enough damage to each enemy so as not to be overwhelmed. During a challenge phase, the enemy immediately in front of the player represents a challenge that requires specialization, and the player must change their gear to fit that specialization to avoid being overwhelmed. Finally, when the challenge ends, the player is free to use whichever color they like to defeat enemies again. 

Analysis describing your individual expectations of the unbalanced mechanic progression.

(Brandon) - I think it comes down to the type of player who is participating in the trial. The “Achiever” player type is most likely going to use the colorless hat in the non-challenge phases because they can just spam it and it works. I think other player types or more casual players will use one of the colored hats - especially if they have a favorite color among the 3 primary colors. Most importantly, I think the challenge will be stressful for players, and regardless of which hat they fancy, players will not want to change their hats during non-challenge gameplay.

(Zekai) - I think players will feel bored because the overpowered color bullets just instantly kill colored enemies if they use the right color. And their thumb might feel numb spamming the space.

(Julia) - I think without a cooldown on shooting and with the first available bullet being able to deal a decent amount of damage on any enemy players will just end up spamming the gray colored bullet even as they unlock other options. Even if the other bullets do more damage to their respective color ghosts the convenience of not having to consider the colors or switch the hats makes simply spamming the gray bullets the easiest option. Players will get bored with the repetition but ultimately I don’t think they would feel the need to utilize the other bullets when the stream of enemies is so manageable with only the first type.

(Nico) - I think the ability to change hat so fast means that there’s no significant downside to switching them constantly, and players that enjoy optimization will simply make the optimization the gameplay loop — which I found unexpected!

(Austin) - If the players are able to identify that the same colored hats correspond to the same colored enemies, and that you are able to deal more damage when you are wearing a specific hat, they will always choose the hat that enables them to do the most amount of damage possible. This is primarily coming from my perspective as a player who likes to optimize gameplay mechanics

Group thoughts on the results of the in-class playtest. (Was the result what you expected, why or why not?)

Well, the players were extremely spammy with both the changing of the hats and the firing of the spells. They found a pretty optimal strategy of switching hats constantly and spamming fire. The meaning of the hats was lost because the game was so easily optimized. The results were pretty hilarious - one player clearly enjoyed the spectacle of changing colors and firing pretty stars at all the enemies. We believe that in order to encourage the player behavior we designed, we would need to implement a cooldown on the hat switching, such that there was a bit of cost in between hats and the player would act more strategically when deciding the switch them. Overall, Brandon’s prediction was way off - players are chaotic, even in tiny playable concepts. Julia and Nico were spot-on that a lack of cooldowns would lead to an optimal strategy that was not the intended experience. Zekai expected players to feel bored, however people seemed to enjoy shooting stars at enemies, even if they had discovered a dominant strategy. Austin believed that the players would find an optimal strategy, but the strategy he guessed would be optimal was not accurate. This was an extremely helpful exercise in connecting the theory of playable concepts to the practice. They need to be coded very carefully to make a rhetorical argument!

Attribution

All assets used for this playable concept are original except for those listed below:

Fonts

• "Pixelify Sans" font by Stefie Justprince - Used with permission under SIL OPEN FONT LICENSE Version 1.1(Asset Link)