I’m starting to fall in love with this game. Practically all gameplay and features are in place and my most recent to-do list is surprisingly short for programming. This week was spent focusing on the entire character progress system, which primarily means experience gain, training points, and skills. Of course, there will be actual balancing issues to deal with, but that won’t really happen properly until the entire game is mapped out.
I should take some time to explain the skill system, since it is probably the most important aspect of character development in Shadowdawn Genesis. Each character has a “unique skill”, such as Arashi’s shinkirouken (Mirage Blade), and Ket’s psionics. The skills are the definitive traits of the characters in this game, as I have opted not to use a traditional class system (one that uses such denominations as “Thief” and “Mage”). Each skill has three paths, or Disciplines, that train the character’s attributes and improve the techniques tied to the chosen Discipline. For example, training with Arashi’s “Soul” Discipline greatly improves her Leadership, Willpower, and Dexterity, and enhances the effectiveness of the technique “Blade Spark” (and other more advanced techniques tied to the “Soul” Discipline). Each Discipline has 3 base techniques depending on mastery level, but there are 2 extra variations of each base technique that can be learned with a seperate requirement. And for even further customization, as the player gains access to the technomancy runes, each technique can be further empowered by syncronizing a rune to it to increase its range or strength, and sometimes inventing a completely new technique! I hope players have fun trying out all the possible combinations.
After this weekend, there will be nothing but content generation and scripting. I would like this to mean I’ll be able to meet the October 18th deadline for having a playable level for the IGF 2011 competition, but it really depends how fast I can draw the map graphics, enemies, and handful of NPCs. Well, enough writing for now, better get back to work!
