Game Design Analyses

This is a collection of analyses I've written, it's recommended to be at least familiar with the lingo used in a particular game

 Warframe and Shadowbox

Something I mentioned in my Shadowbox demonstration was that one idea couldn't work because a character had a similar ability in a different game that wasn't used often, here I'm going to describe those things.

The character in question is Limbo, and he controls what's called the rift. Limbo himself can freely move in and out of the rift, he's also capable of sending enemies into this rift, while an enemy is in the rift, they can't damage anyone outside of it, and vice versa. You can also stop time for enemies in the rift with the move Stasis.

However, nobody playing seriously plays Limbo like this, because one of his abilities covers an area in rift, putting everyone in it in the rift, and they always follow up with a stasis, freezing all the enemies. It was this thought that contributed to changing the direction of shadowbox.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

It's known by many in the smash community that balance patches for the game change barely anything, and it's kind of annoying not seeing issues addressed. So I'm going to talk about some issues and how they could be fixed.

Luigi is supposed to be known as a wacky brawler character, but Ultimate has made him a one note character, in the form of a touch of death that he has, off of a single grab. After grabbing an opponent he goes down throw-dair-nair-dair-nair-up B, and this can kill an opponent who has taken no damage. I think to fix this, there's a couple ideas, something important to maintain is that Luigi is a brawler character, so making his grab literally useless isn't an option. So what I've thought of was to make his neutral air pop opponents upward, (like it does in melee) so that he can still be a combo heavy character, but without revolving around one move, effectively. You could also reduce the damage of critical up b in the air, to prevent the new knockback from leading into anything.

Another thing to look at is buffing a bad character, enter Donkey Kong, a character with probably the most interesting grab game of the entire cast, solely to the fact that DK can move around while holding somebody. Unfortunately this comes at a serious cost, actually getting that grab is extremely difficult, as Donkey Kong has no projectiles, and no moves that can poke enemies from a distance, as a result, it's really easy to wall him out with farther reaching moves. In addition, DK can't really do much if he's in a combo. To fix this, let's address just one move, nair, this move is DK's fastest aerial, if this move was significantly faster that it already is, it's whole puropose changes. It gives DK a combo break tool, and it's newfound speed let DK control some amount of space with it, it's not ridiculous, but it shouldn't be, this new speed lets DK approach enemies more safely.

Rivals of Aether Workshop

Rivals of Aether is a platform fighter, and something they added a while ago was Steam Wrokshop support, allowing people to make and download custom stages, characters, and buddies. Before the release of the workshop, people showed off lots of animation work and other ideas with the hopes of making characters, and many of them succeeded. One character me and a friend were looking forward to was Peppino from the upcoming indie game Pizza Tower, and it was even being animated by the game creator himself. Eventually it made it to the workshop, coded by somebody else. While the character looked nice, his viability was painfully low. Some moves flat out didn't work, while others had seemingly no purpose to his kit. So me and a friend took it upon ourselves to fix this, as a workshop characters code is easily accessible, fortunately. We had a plan in mind, he should be more of a combo heavy character, with his long range lunging moves leading into aerials and other moves.

 The result was absolutely fantastic, the first goal was to fix a few moves that didn't work, the next was buffing moves so that they could function well together, and a new style arose from this. Peppino became a freestyle brawler and combo character, who could quickly cancel his signature dash into aerial attacks to hit opponents many times, then finish them off with one of his handful of powerful finishers.

Our version isn't posted, on account of ours being so similar to the original work, we'd prefer permission from them to post it, as of this post we haven't received word.

Recently however we've started on a new character, I'm doing the animations and my friend is going to program the moves, here's some screenshots of what we've got so far.

(more may be added as time goes on)

Yoshi's Crafted World - Level Design

Go-Go Yoshi – Yoshi’s Crafted World

The level is a minigame level, where the game’s rules differ from the rest of the game somewhat, in this case, the level has you pilot a giant Yoshi bot, called Go-Go Yoshi. The level starts with you looking at a billboard with scores next to different numbers of smiley flowers, the game’s main collectible, after walking to the right for a bit, you jump into the Go-Go Yoshi. Go-Go Yoshi automatically moves forward, requiring you to only punch and jump.

The level thematically is none too different than the rest of the game, with every character and object made of arts and crafts, including the Go-Go Yoshi. It’s a very cute style that serves the game very well.

The sound design is built to match the visuals, with the sounds of cardboard and paper as you smash through everything before you.

Yoshi games are not known for having exceptional narratives, so there isn’t a whole lot to talk about, just your run of the mill quest for the McGuffin of the day.

Immersion is not that much of a focus in these games, but there is something nice about piloting the Go-Go Yoshi.

The mood is very happy and upbeat, the usual for Yoshi games, with bright colors everywhere and a bright afternoon sky to act as a backdrop to the level.

The main challenge of the level is earning enough points to earn all three extra smiley flowers, though there are some hidden in the level itself. Like other levels, there are bonus smiley flowers for collecting 100 coins, finishing the stage with full health, and finding and collecting all 20 red coins. Your moves in the Go-Go Yoshi are a jump and a punch, you can aim the punch as well as charge it up to knock down multiple obstacles at once, earning bonus points, these are necessary to get the points required to get all three smiley flowers at the end. There is an interesting trick you can do with the punch, if you charge up the punch while aiming down, then quickly aim upwards while punching, you can do this sweeping punch that covers a lot more area in front of you, every obstacle you hit counts toward your score, and running them over doesn’t give any points.

The feedback of the level is on point, the punch of the Go-Go Yoshi is incredibly satisfying, with cartoon punching sound effects to accommodate it, there isn’t much like charging up a punch and knocking down a group of trees in one go, or knocking away an entire house, something that takes 4 regular punches to destroy.

The rhythm of your movements are satisfying in the stage, and the minigame music in the background just adds on to it. While the Go-Go Yoshi is powerful, you’re going to miss a lot if you don’t smash all the things, for instance, occasionally there are panels attached to poles, and hitting all of them reveals several red coins, and if you’re particularly sharp eyes, you may find the UFO’s that fly above you can be hit, and they are the most valuable target in the course for points.