Astral Onslaught
Astral Onslaught is a 2D Online Party Fighting game developed in Unity. The stars are out of whack and are itching for a fight! Take control of 1 of the zodiac symbols and zodi-wreck the competition. With characters ranging from Capricorn to Cancer, shoot, punch and careen your way through the competition! Tussle with tarot cards, selecting a variety of power up to boaster your brawl!
Summary:
Designed and Documented 36 unique abilities across nine characters so that they would contrast from each other and allow for player expression.
Maintained documentation for each character and system while tracking numbers, kits, items, and creating a intentional meta.
Balanced each system and created patch notes and spreadsheets for internal use to better illustrate iterations on characters.
Character Kits
Design Goals
Create a diverse cast of characters that felt vastly different.
Collaborate with Artist and Director to match vision.
Match the Zodiacs theming with the move set.
Characters
In order to design unique characters for a fighting game, we had to go through different defined archetypes and see what fit the most with the experience we wanted to create. We would go into different options for the characters.
Each character was a contract with a different artists, so we worked together to create a visual style we were happy with and then passed it to the game's director for feedback.
Overall Meta
Once a character was concepted, we would implement it and then see how it impacted the player experience. Through playtesting, we adjusted everything to be more in line with other aspects of the overall design, like keeping in mind what systems were already implemented and making full use of them.
Team-Facing Documentation
Characters
Each move was given a unique name, ensuring that it could be easily identified and referenced.
Alongside these names, we provided a brief yet informative description of the move's purpose and functionality, offering a quick overview to team members.
To further enhance comprehension, we included details on each move's damage, making it easy for team members to gauge its impact.
Characters
Collaborated with artists to create illustrative GIFs, which visually demonstrated how each move worked in action, bridging any potential gaps in understanding.
This combination of text, visual aids, and categorization facilitated understanding and improved retention and engagement among the team.
In other instances, we employed flowcharts, video tutorials, and FAQs to inform and guide the work of downstream groups, tailoring our approach to suit the unique needs of each feature.
Balancing
Patch Highlights
I was also responsible for balancing each feature in the game. I kept track of all of the systems using Excel and took notes during playtests to see how the characters performed. Putting out patch notes and visuals to help show what we would be changing and how much.
Another one of my jobs was to keep Excel sheets clean and organized so that I could show how each character's stats are laid out and how they stack up against each other. Whenever we finished another character, we would test extensively to see if it matched the project goals.
Character Patch Notes
I created patch notes each sprint to show how we updated each character. Actual changes were made by me in engine but in order to showcase the changes these were made.
Each move was given a unique name, ensuring that it could be easily identified and referenced. Alongside these names, we provided a brief yet informative description of the move's purpose and functionality, offering a quick overview to team members. To further e