Hello everyone!
We haven't been very active on Steam, and we apologize for that.
In order to have a continuous thread of DEV BLOG updates, we have decided to repost the articles originally posted on Kickstarter.
The other articles will follow shortly, and we hope you will enjoy reading them!
-- this article was originally posted: 10/28/2022
Hello everyone, this is the second dev blog post about the Gold Project.
Today it is “Inateno” who’s gonna talk about Game Design.
In order to make the writing and the reading easier, this dev blog is made using the first person.
Before jumping in, it is maybe useful to explain “what is Game Design” because it is something people heard a lot, but the meaning is probably unclear for you.
Most of the time, some people confuse “design” with “something that is visual” or is somehow related to “visual arts”.
To make it short, the Game Design is the making of the rules and mechanics which allow the game to exist and run, in order to let you live an experience (what you feel by playing).
When we say “rules” it is for example “when the HP reaches 0 the player is dead”.
When we say “mechanics” it is for example “activate a switch”.
Seems pretty simple right?
Today the focus is made on the mechanic of Karma and everything involved.
Some other aspects of the Game Design will be concerned, but we do our best to keep you away from the spoil, so this article is pretty safe.
The idea behind this dev blog is to explain how we represent Karma in order to create rules.
The word Karma is most of the time understood as “good and evil” (and you probably think about the game Fable right now). Some others use this word to describe the fact you receive good after being good, and bad after being bad.
Fable 3 screenshot and the Karma system.
Fable 3 screenshot and the Karma system.
We tend to think that Karma is the binary opposition of two states, like on and off.
And if, for most of the people, Karma is “good or evil” without anything in between, when you deep the definitions around the Karma and the origin coming from the Buddhism, we find this:
In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention, a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences.
Make it short, Karma is a series of actions which will change destiny.
We decided to use the “gauge of Karma” with two ends, because it is the most simple form to understand it and draw it. You can be “Luminated” or “Golded” with a graduation.
Screenshot of the prototype during the preproduction with the old Karma system.
Screenshot of the prototype during the preproduction with the old Karma system.
It could have been more complicated, and it is pretty hard to make something that works without perturbing all the ecosystem of the game, including people (you !) must understand it, and many designers forget this and create overwhelming mechanics.
I have to say it again, none of the Light or Gold is good or evil, you can think that if it’s make you feel more comfortable or is easier to understand (and there is no problem with it), but you will be able to understand the true deepness of what we wanted to create by searching everywhere in the game!
At the beginning of the preproduction (before the prototype) we wanted to change the impact on the Karma each time you kill and absorb an enemy. This was laborious and boring. Too much repetitive.
Also the fact that you can change the balance of the Karma in any place was a huge problem and it was possible to lock the player in the game (while becoming Gold in a place you shouldn’t be Gold for example).
It was required to think about this entire mechanic to find something more interesting that works with every part of the game.
As explained in the first dev blog, now you will have to find statues and decide to enlight/golden it, this will give a ratio and define your allegiance.
Those statues will also be used as checkpoints.
Sadly, I can’t reveal everything hidden behind the statues without spoiling you and ruining the plot of the game, but some details can be explained.
The impact of Karma in the world, and the progression of the Player.
I explained this quickly in the last dev blog:
> Now, the change in the level design will occur not by “blocks” but will be completely different levels with different paths.
> It is more work for us since we will have to make the same map many times, but we will have more control over the rendering and avoid cringe/buggy situations.
And as I said, it will require more work but we will have better control over the rendering and the pathing through the game.
I cannot show you a final rendering today, but I can show you some “blockout” levels to explain how it works.
PS: the following screenshots are what we call “blockout” or "blocking", it means this is how we design levels from a technical point of view.
It is not supposed to reflect the final rendering.
If you are curious about this, I suggest you should check on Twitter with the hashtag "blocktober", you can see many many games and I always like to watch how the others are doing! 👉 https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blocktober?src=hashtag_click
Blockout screenshot in Uncharted.
Blockout screenshot in Uncharted.
I must let you know this: the levels I’m gonna show you are not final.
As designers we do dozens of “test levels” and we do many versions with different patterns, difficulty, monsters, and whatever can change before we keep “only the best”.
Then, once we decide “which version we keep for the final game”, we start again working on this level in order to adjust it to make the Level Art (what makes the game beautiful).
This can seem frustrating as we throw away a lot of work, but this is how we must proceed to have a result we like, and sometimes I wish I have more time to do more iterations, but we are ruled by time and money.
Final words, this iterative process lets us make very hard levels and pretty simple levels. We have some difficulty grades, types, and we can freely try anything without considering the biome we are working on.
This work is made before we think about the biome it will go in, and is a good process to make it easier for integration in the world, and adjust the difficulty.
Here is a level of Light.
The red line is the path of the player.
A level under the influence of Light.
And the same thing but with Gold.
A level under the influence of Gold.
Of course this example is an easy one. There is only one level that can change without changing the pathing.
But we can have different situations, and even if the end of the path remains the same, all the pathing, enemies and difficulty will be different.
One precision in case it is not clear, you cannot go in a Light Level while being Golden.
Here is a new example, a bit more complex, with many levels.
First, the Gold version.
A set of Gold Levels.
And the Light version.
A set of Light Levels.
How to find your way as a player
In a metroidvania, the ability to find your way / use a map is crucial.
What will happen about those Karma areas is that when you find a “Light level”, it will show up on the mini-map.
But once you are Golden, each level of Light will disappear and show “unknown fog” again, until you discover those Gold levels.
The discovery of levels is saved so when you go back to Light, all the knowledge you had is preserved and restored into the mini-map.
We are thinking about a feature that could display both versions of the world at the same time, like a layer system, but we want to avoid adding complexity over things that are already complex by design.
The path, doors, and access will be visible on the mini-map. That way you will be able to analyze and understand what are the possible paths and guess which place you didn’t find.
How are you sure that we can't get stuck with this mechanic?
We changed all the systems to use statues.
Those statues will be placed at strategic places, outside of Karma zones.
So we have control over the quantity and the placement.
What we have to do is: be sure that every place of statues can be accessed at any time, whatever is your allegiance.
Change the side of the Karma
As previously explained, it is the ratio of all the active statues that will define your allegiance (and the level).
To change/reinforce it, you have to backtrack the game to change the statues already active, or keep going through the game to find new ones.
You will have many opportunities to go back to a known place because we’ve made the progression that way (a bit like in Metroid Dreads).
That way the pure backtrack is not required. What you will do depends on you and what you want to do, “when”.
The level of allegiance
The level of allegiance increases with the Karma gauge. The more you are dedicated to a god, the more your allegiance level increases!
This will let you unlock new skills but also some new paths.
It will be interesting for you to try it, if you want to discover everything in the game!
Right now, I can’t talk much about this without spoiling you too much and trust me, this would ruin the best part of the game.
I will talk more about the allegiance levels in a future dev blog which will talk about skills.
The Karma is the main mechanic that will let you change the paths in the world of Gold Project,
Pay attention to the details, be curious and maybe we will find what we are hiding!
Also, and last thing for today: the Karma will have an impact on the end of the game.
I hope this new dev blog was cool to read and interesting. Until the next one, see you on the Discord !