High Roller, Low Profile
General Designer
September 2018 - December 2018 (4 months) | solo project
High Roller, Low Profile is about two teams of spies hiding in crowds, searching for enemies, and using a variety of weapons to eliminate them.
This project went through 3 phases: a basic 1v1 combat system, a single-player board game that added ranged combat and scripted enemy behaviors, and finally a 2v2 board game with 8 distinct playable characters. These different versions were designed to give us students practice with system, level, and narrative design, respectively.
This was my process for creating the final project:
This project went through 3 phases: a basic 1v1 combat system, a single-player board game that added ranged combat and scripted enemy behaviors, and finally a 2v2 board game with 8 distinct playable characters. These different versions were designed to give us students practice with system, level, and narrative design, respectively.
This was my process for creating the final project:
- Designing a 5D combat system with health, power, accuracy, armor, and dodge
- Adding a map and range to the combat system
- Creating enemy AI flipbooks that balanced setup time and complexity with challenge
- Designing a diverse cast of characters with unique movesets
- Creating simple abilities that combine to allow teammates to form complex strategies
- Usability testing, surveys, and tracking metrics through every iteration
- Rigorous documentation of changes and explanation of design decisions
Characters
Rulebook
Design documentation / methodology
Defends design decisions with playtest feedback, and provides future steps to address shortcomings:
- Rules tutorialization
- Game mechanics that reward cooperative play, and enable counterplay
- Character designs and balance
- Asymmetrical map balance with heatmap