NECROQUEST
(A Casual Teambuilding Raid Mobile Game)
NecroQuest was created to be a hyper casual mobile adventure game. We wanted limited controls (Toggle stick, 3 ability buttons, and tap to walk) but still allow the player to explore new areas, use interesting abilities, and command their own team of Cronies. On our small team I was the game designer, level designer, writer, and unit designer. Overall the project was a great learning experience for all of us on the team. A scrapped ambitious customizable village system taught me an awful lot about small team development through remote communication. My major take away was, at the end of the day, the most important thing when making a game with other people is to be able to communicate effectively together.
In NecroQuest, you play as The Death Knight, a mysterious and powerful being that has just awoken to find himself in the afterlife already at the command of a single Crony (Characters that can accompany Death Knight on missions). Clear levels to acquire more Cronies, unlock new abilities, and command your army! When a level starts, Cronies automatically advance toward the nearest enemies hungry for battle. You are able to walk with a joystick and will automatically attack when not touching the joystick and an enemy is in range. The Death Knight has 5 different tiers of dragon to summon, ranging from baby to full grown. He can heal himself for a significant portion of health, and he has a knockback fear ability. Each Crony that can be acquired has unique stats and behavior as well. Some teleport, some become enraged, some speed up significantly, and a select few summon minions of their own.
In NecroQuest, you play as The Death Knight, a mysterious and powerful being that has just awoken to find himself in the afterlife already at the command of a single Crony (Characters that can accompany Death Knight on missions). Clear levels to acquire more Cronies, unlock new abilities, and command your army! When a level starts, Cronies automatically advance toward the nearest enemies hungry for battle. You are able to walk with a joystick and will automatically attack when not touching the joystick and an enemy is in range. The Death Knight has 5 different tiers of dragon to summon, ranging from baby to full grown. He can heal himself for a significant portion of health, and he has a knockback fear ability. Each Crony that can be acquired has unique stats and behavior as well. Some teleport, some become enraged, some speed up significantly, and a select few summon minions of their own.
4 Core Design Goals:
The project was 2.5 months of part-time remote work for the team at Startale Games, LLC. Our design goals were the following:
1 ) Hyper Casual:
This game needed to be able to handle very casual player interactions while still advancing the player, level to level (until their current team cannot complete a level. Then, they are returned to the hub world where they may upgrade and choose their Crony team). Also, minimal controls, so the player can easily multitask while playing the game. Our intentions with aiming for hyper casual were to accommodate players who would be playing while walking, watching tv, between auto-chess games, etc.
2 ) Create a sense of adventure and exploration while maintaining Portrait orientation.
We needed all the interactions with the game to be completable and readable while holding the phone with one hand. We also had to be aware of what the player would be revealing while exploring the map. The maps naturally became taller and thinner, most likely due to enemies needing to be placed in such a way that the player wouldn't be constantly flanked from the sides. This allowed the side areas to become spots for hidden chests or other collectables.
3 ) Increasable Stats and Abilities to change-up gameplay:
The main character (The Death Knight) has 7 increasable stats:
Each stat begins at level 1 with 100% effectiveness.
Each time a stat is ranked up, it increases a certain amount depending on the stat.
Below, I will be giving examples of values from the game that resulted in good balance.
Vitality: Is the character's Health Points.
The Health Points increase by +10% each level; resulting in 1041% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 500hp than Lv.100= 5205hp
Strength: Is the character's attack damage.
Strength increases by +6% each level; resulting in 694% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 50dmg than Lv.100 = 347dmg per hit
Heal Rate: is the amount of HP regenerated per sec.
Heal Rate increases +5% each level; resulting in 595% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = +10hp/sec than Lv.100 = +59.5hp/sec
Move Speed: Is the variable controlling how quickly the character can move.
Move Speed increases +1% each level; resulting in 199% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 5m/sec than Lv.100 = 9.95m/sec
Attack Speed: Is the variable controlling how fast to play the attack sequence again after the last play.
ASPD increases by +4% each level; resulting in 496% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 1 than Lv.100 = 4.96
Maximum Mana: MM determines your starting mana and your max mana. Mana is used to cast spells that deplete it.
Spells cost between 50 - 200mana. MM increase by 2% each level; resulting in 298% effectiveness at level 100.
Lv.1 = 150mm than Lv.100 = 447mm.
Mana Regeneration Rate: Is the amount of mana regenerated per second.
Mana Regeneration increases by 5% each level; resulting in 595% effectiveness at LV.100. Lv.10 = 10mana/sec than Lv.100 = 59.5mana/sec.
Cronies, or secondary characters, have 4 stats all modified by 3% every time they are levelled up.
Cronies have Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Mana Regen and HP. Cronies have levels tied to themselves, not to their stats. Meaning that a level 10 Crony will have level 10 Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Mana Regen, and HP. All these stats on the Cronies increase by 3% every level; resulting in 397% effectiveness at level 100.
The Enemy character stats must increase as well.
Different from Cronies, Enemy characters have only 2 stats; HP and Attack Damage. These stats increase based on a growth key variable. Meaning that based on what level they are, the percentage increase may vary. Between Lv. 1-9 an Enemy will increase by +5% each level. Between Lv. 10 - 19 they will increase by +10%, Lv. 20 -59 they will increase by +15%. Lv. 60-79 they will increase by 20%. Lv. 80+ they will increase by 25%. All of that results in 1940% effectiveness at level 100.
We have the enemy scaling non-linearly to ensure the feel of the game constantly changes. The same technique shouldn't work through the entire playthrough.
4 ) Unique activatable abilities for the main character and unique passives for Cronies
From the beginning we knew this was going to be a game about levelling up your team as much as completing the levels. To make levelling up interesting for the player, we give them 2 tokens, each level-up, to spend on 2 of their Main Character's 7 upgradable stats. Also, the Cronies they collect along the way need to be unique and upgrade meaningfully. Below are what I designed and implemented through the editor.
Death Knight Abilities:
My goal here was to make 3 unique activatable abilities for the Death knight, each with 5 tiers to upgrade through.
Dragon(Summon a Dragon): Costs 150 Mana
1) Is a baby dragon with 400hp, slow flight, and a low damage fireball.
2) Still a baby, but now with 600hp, faster flight, and a low damage higher rate of fire, fireball.
3) Large walking dragon with 800hp, a slow walk, and a mid damage fireball.
4) Large flying dragon with 1000hp, mid speed flight, and a mid damage fireball.
5) Largest flying dragon with 1500hp, high speed flight, and a high damage fireball.
*The dragon didn't have an actual flight animation, so I jerry rigged a short wing flap animation by looping it carefully timed with its other actions.
Self-Heal(Heal): Costs 100 Mana
1) Heal 10% health
2) Heal 15% health
3) Heal 20% health
4) Heal 25% health
5) Heal 33% health
Fear(AOE Push): Costs 50 Mana
1) Does a small radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a short distance and stunning them for .33 sec
2) Does a small radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a bit more distance and stunning them for .5 sec
3) Does a medium radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a medium distance and stunning them for 1 sec
4) Does a slightly larger radius search around your character, knocking enemies back farther distance and stunning them for 1.5 sec
5) Does a larger radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a fair distance and stunning them for 2 sec
Crony Passive Abilities:
Many of our Crony characters have abilities that activate once their mana has regenerated in addition to their auto attacks.
The abilities include:
Rage: When Rage activates, it triggers a search in a radius around the character and blows any enemies in the area back while stunning them for a few seconds. Then, for 45 sec the character is 1.5x their size and do increased damage.
Spawn: When activated, the character summons another smaller Crony. The character cannot summon again until their mana has regenerated fully and their last summon has fallen. Some summon smaller versions of themselves, some summon dragons, some summon basically just temporary meat shields.
Back Stab Dash: When activated, the character does a large radius search around itself and then dashes behind the nearest enemy and does a huge damage back stab.
Temporary Invincibility: These Cronies grow golden and are given increased attack speed for some time. During this time they cannot take any damage, but can still be moved by enemy attacks.
Fury: When activated, the character slightly increases in size, movement speed, attack damage, and attack speed. The skeleton in purple has Fury as an abilty.
Stun Smite: When activated, the character does a radius search around itself and zaps the nearest enemy. The hit enemy cannot move or use their weapons for 5 seconds.
Ignition: Cronies with ignition wield weapons that, on-impact, set their target ablaze. Most notably is the archer that runs around constantly consumed by flames.
The project was 2.5 months of part-time remote work for the team at Startale Games, LLC. Our design goals were the following:
1 ) Hyper Casual:
This game needed to be able to handle very casual player interactions while still advancing the player, level to level (until their current team cannot complete a level. Then, they are returned to the hub world where they may upgrade and choose their Crony team). Also, minimal controls, so the player can easily multitask while playing the game. Our intentions with aiming for hyper casual were to accommodate players who would be playing while walking, watching tv, between auto-chess games, etc.
2 ) Create a sense of adventure and exploration while maintaining Portrait orientation.
We needed all the interactions with the game to be completable and readable while holding the phone with one hand. We also had to be aware of what the player would be revealing while exploring the map. The maps naturally became taller and thinner, most likely due to enemies needing to be placed in such a way that the player wouldn't be constantly flanked from the sides. This allowed the side areas to become spots for hidden chests or other collectables.
3 ) Increasable Stats and Abilities to change-up gameplay:
The main character (The Death Knight) has 7 increasable stats:
Each stat begins at level 1 with 100% effectiveness.
Each time a stat is ranked up, it increases a certain amount depending on the stat.
Below, I will be giving examples of values from the game that resulted in good balance.
Vitality: Is the character's Health Points.
The Health Points increase by +10% each level; resulting in 1041% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 500hp than Lv.100= 5205hp
Strength: Is the character's attack damage.
Strength increases by +6% each level; resulting in 694% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 50dmg than Lv.100 = 347dmg per hit
Heal Rate: is the amount of HP regenerated per sec.
Heal Rate increases +5% each level; resulting in 595% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = +10hp/sec than Lv.100 = +59.5hp/sec
Move Speed: Is the variable controlling how quickly the character can move.
Move Speed increases +1% each level; resulting in 199% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 5m/sec than Lv.100 = 9.95m/sec
Attack Speed: Is the variable controlling how fast to play the attack sequence again after the last play.
ASPD increases by +4% each level; resulting in 496% effectiveness at level 100. Lv.1 = 1 than Lv.100 = 4.96
Maximum Mana: MM determines your starting mana and your max mana. Mana is used to cast spells that deplete it.
Spells cost between 50 - 200mana. MM increase by 2% each level; resulting in 298% effectiveness at level 100.
Lv.1 = 150mm than Lv.100 = 447mm.
Mana Regeneration Rate: Is the amount of mana regenerated per second.
Mana Regeneration increases by 5% each level; resulting in 595% effectiveness at LV.100. Lv.10 = 10mana/sec than Lv.100 = 59.5mana/sec.
Cronies, or secondary characters, have 4 stats all modified by 3% every time they are levelled up.
Cronies have Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Mana Regen and HP. Cronies have levels tied to themselves, not to their stats. Meaning that a level 10 Crony will have level 10 Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Mana Regen, and HP. All these stats on the Cronies increase by 3% every level; resulting in 397% effectiveness at level 100.
The Enemy character stats must increase as well.
Different from Cronies, Enemy characters have only 2 stats; HP and Attack Damage. These stats increase based on a growth key variable. Meaning that based on what level they are, the percentage increase may vary. Between Lv. 1-9 an Enemy will increase by +5% each level. Between Lv. 10 - 19 they will increase by +10%, Lv. 20 -59 they will increase by +15%. Lv. 60-79 they will increase by 20%. Lv. 80+ they will increase by 25%. All of that results in 1940% effectiveness at level 100.
We have the enemy scaling non-linearly to ensure the feel of the game constantly changes. The same technique shouldn't work through the entire playthrough.
4 ) Unique activatable abilities for the main character and unique passives for Cronies
From the beginning we knew this was going to be a game about levelling up your team as much as completing the levels. To make levelling up interesting for the player, we give them 2 tokens, each level-up, to spend on 2 of their Main Character's 7 upgradable stats. Also, the Cronies they collect along the way need to be unique and upgrade meaningfully. Below are what I designed and implemented through the editor.
Death Knight Abilities:
My goal here was to make 3 unique activatable abilities for the Death knight, each with 5 tiers to upgrade through.
Dragon(Summon a Dragon): Costs 150 Mana
1) Is a baby dragon with 400hp, slow flight, and a low damage fireball.
2) Still a baby, but now with 600hp, faster flight, and a low damage higher rate of fire, fireball.
3) Large walking dragon with 800hp, a slow walk, and a mid damage fireball.
4) Large flying dragon with 1000hp, mid speed flight, and a mid damage fireball.
5) Largest flying dragon with 1500hp, high speed flight, and a high damage fireball.
*The dragon didn't have an actual flight animation, so I jerry rigged a short wing flap animation by looping it carefully timed with its other actions.
Self-Heal(Heal): Costs 100 Mana
1) Heal 10% health
2) Heal 15% health
3) Heal 20% health
4) Heal 25% health
5) Heal 33% health
Fear(AOE Push): Costs 50 Mana
1) Does a small radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a short distance and stunning them for .33 sec
2) Does a small radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a bit more distance and stunning them for .5 sec
3) Does a medium radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a medium distance and stunning them for 1 sec
4) Does a slightly larger radius search around your character, knocking enemies back farther distance and stunning them for 1.5 sec
5) Does a larger radius search around your character, knocking enemies back a fair distance and stunning them for 2 sec
Crony Passive Abilities:
Many of our Crony characters have abilities that activate once their mana has regenerated in addition to their auto attacks.
The abilities include:
Rage: When Rage activates, it triggers a search in a radius around the character and blows any enemies in the area back while stunning them for a few seconds. Then, for 45 sec the character is 1.5x their size and do increased damage.
Spawn: When activated, the character summons another smaller Crony. The character cannot summon again until their mana has regenerated fully and their last summon has fallen. Some summon smaller versions of themselves, some summon dragons, some summon basically just temporary meat shields.
Back Stab Dash: When activated, the character does a large radius search around itself and then dashes behind the nearest enemy and does a huge damage back stab.
Temporary Invincibility: These Cronies grow golden and are given increased attack speed for some time. During this time they cannot take any damage, but can still be moved by enemy attacks.
Fury: When activated, the character slightly increases in size, movement speed, attack damage, and attack speed. The skeleton in purple has Fury as an abilty.
Stun Smite: When activated, the character does a radius search around itself and zaps the nearest enemy. The hit enemy cannot move or use their weapons for 5 seconds.
Ignition: Cronies with ignition wield weapons that, on-impact, set their target ablaze. Most notably is the archer that runs around constantly consumed by flames.
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The graph below shows the growth lines, per statistic, for Cronies and Enemies
