Introduction
The Fowler is made by 10 students, Game Programmers, Game Designers and Game Artists at Rubika Supinfogame in Valenciennes, France.
This is a turn-based RPG, and it is my final school project. The objective was to make a game, as sellable as possible on the Steam platform. Within the group I am a System Designer and the UX Designer.
Purpose of the game
On a world where music is used to communicate with the bird god, malicious worshipers decided to rise above the people and take control of the music.
Into The Fowler, the player embodies Robyn and her group of revolutionary bards. Her goal is to restore music within a word where music instruments can be used as weapons. Beside the revolution, the band members are humans who can build relationships between each other.
Game Presentation
The game is a turn-based RPG, so each character takes turns in a specific order. During their turn, characters can use a skill such as a spell or an attack. Then, it's the next character's turn. The player must keep one character alive and defeat all enemies to win the battle. Narration is also very important in our game, which is why skills are unlocked in stages as the story progresses.
Roles within the project
System Design
During production, I implemented a character relationship system that allowed for unlocking skills. We cut it to prevent the game from being too long. I also set up the combat system with the help of two other game designers.
Battle Design
My work consisted of creating the skills and balancing the game. I have set up different spreadsheets for playable characters and non-playable characters. All the statistics depend on the character’s job (DPS, Tank etc…), and they can be changed individually. The characters’ skills have individual characteristics such as targets, percent of damage (depend on the base character’s damage), attack type etc… Each statistic and ability have a score, and I can compare the balance with the total score. Finally, because every statistic is set on a percentage of base values, I can change the number of turns to kill one enemy or for one enemy to kill an ally without changing the balancing for example.
UX Design
I work on the UX and the UI. Because our game is a turn-based RPG, the UI is verry important. I need to find a balance between the quantity and clarity of information. I work on the accessibility for disabled peoples. We can’t integrate all the things I worked on, so I try to find the solution that works best with our production force. Finally, I organize playtest sessions with playtests protocols, playtest roadmap, feedback form and One to One session.
Balancing by scoring
