Difference between revisions of "Chadius: SwordDraw PlayerExperience"

Revision as of 23:14, 28 December 2005

Terms

This is the basic idea and concepts in the game. Whenever I say "you," I'm referring to the player.

Endurance

This is the amount of time you have to attack with. Once it's gone, the enemy gets a turn to attack. The enemy controls how much time you have.

Pattern Shape and Size

During your round, a series of patterns appear on the screen. They vary in shapes and sizes, and are ordered in terms of difficulty. Enemies control which patterns and which sizes you will see the patterns.

Hit Points, Attack, Damage

The player and the enemy have hit points, attack level, and defense level. These help in pacing the outcome of the round.

Gaining stats

When you draw on the patterns, they will increase your stats. Red means it will raise your attack, and blue will raise your defense. Green restores hit points, and white does nothing.

Hit Points

Whoever runs out of HP first loses the round. The enemy will lose most of the time.

Attack vs Defense

The amount of damage you do is affected by your attack versus the enemy's defense.

• If they are equal, you will deal normal damage.
• If your attack is greater, you deal more damage.
• If your attack is less, you deal less damage.

You must connect some part of the pattern, or you will deal half damage. The pattern changes color when this is done.

This mechanic keeps you struggling to increase your stats, and gives positive feedback towards attacking.

Overkill

When the player defeats the enemy, they spend the remaining endurance in overkill mode. When the player attacks in this mode, they recover lost HP. This is used to help players regain HP lost, and helps them feel good when they've squished a particularly annoying enemy.

The player will always have a minimum amount of endurance to regain HP. This helps players get a breather when they have "just beat" an enemy.

Experience during the course of a game

This covers what the player should experience while playing Sword Draw.

Beginning

Player should build up attack and defense quickly. Enemies should be low damage, to encourage playstyles and give users their 90 seconds of enjoyment. Enemies should die quickly, not lasting more than 2 rounds.

Midway

Player should notice that he needs to keep up his stat levels. Player should lose slightly more than he gained. Enemies can last between 2-3 rounds.

End Game

Player should need many levels of attack and defense. Enemies should have high attack and defense levels. They shouldn't take much damage from the player, but should be able to dish it out. Enemies should last for up to 5 rounds, giving the players hell until the end.

Stat Loss

Every five rounds, the player's stats drop by one. This prevents the player from building a high defense and cruising their way through the rest of the game. This is especially important when the player will spend several rounds against a relatively harmless enemy.

The player's attack is not reduced if it cannot penetrate the enemy's defense. The player gets more attack but no defense icons . These measures help the player gain more attack to defeat their foes.

Player Choices

These are issues the player should have to keep interested in the game.

Speed vs Accuracy

Should the player try to quickly trace the pattern, or slowly and accurately trace each dot?

Speed

• The user can quickly finish attacks, increasing attacks over time.
• Better used if the pattern can be finished in a single stroke
• If the enemy is finished off quickly, the user can spend the remaining time healing.

Accuracy

• Connecting all of the dots maximizes damage potential, and gets the best stat gains.
• Better used for complicated patterns.

Side Effects

The user will draw quickly in the beginning to cover the small, simple lines. By endgame, the users will have to slow down to cover the complicated lines.

Premature Attacks

Attacks can be finished prematurely for less damage.

Benefits

• The player can quickly finish attacks to deal damage.
• The player can discard pesky patterns immediately, instead of wasting time tracing it over.

Disadvantages

• If the player does not overcome the enemy defense before finishing off the pattern, they take a huge damage penalty.
• The enemy takes less damage from the attack, reducing damage over time (efficiency.)
• The player may have gotten more stat boosts if the pattern was completed.

Enemy Design

Each enemy type should punish a player mentality. The player should be able to switch tactics when faced with certain types of enemies.

Fairy

• Complicated Patterns.
• High Endurance Drain.

Fairies are meant to be annoying. The player needs to squeeze out attacks whenever the opportunity arises.

Slime

• High hit points.
• Big patterns.

Slimes wear the player down; it's simply a battle of attrition.

Armored

• High Offense.
• High Defense.

Armored characters (like golems and Black Knights) punish those with low stats.

Wizard

• High Endurance Drain
• High Damage

Wizards punish those who are slow.

Theif

• Complicated Patterns
• High Damage

Theives force the player to draw the whole pattern and nothing but the pattern. Missed draws means the enemy gets extra attacks, which leads to big damage.

Dragon

Dragons are the all-around badguys: Nothing in particular stands out about them.