1. Cover Letter 2. Abstract of the article 3. Copy editing for “God Cards� 3.1 Copy editing 3.2 Screenshots 3.3 Examples
4 Battle of Gods 4.1 The tasks of design 4.1 Introduction to the playing 4.2 Concept of Design 4.3 Paper Prototype 4.4 Updates of the design
5 Designing of Bosses 5.1 Significance of the design 5.2 Introduction of the Bosses 5.3 Design Concept
6 GGJ project: Kacha Factory 6.1 Introduction of the game 6.2 Participated Content 6.3 Screenshot of the game
1. Cover Letter My name is Huo Xuewei, from Shanxi, China. I have graduated from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, undergraduate, majored in Finance. My internship experience was a game tester for 6 months in Shanghai Yue Teng Technology Co., Ltd. My formal work experience was a game designer, which I worked for 2 years and 8 months, in Beijing Hua Xia Le You Technology Co., Ltd. I have been interested in computer games since I was a child. After I entered university, I began to learn about the game industry, and I have made many attempts. In the game forum I have written some game stories and game mechanism for sharing. I also made several game videos, read some game design books. When I was in my senior year, I applied for a game design position and got the offer, and eventually became a regular employee, in service until last November. These provided me with the basic practices of the gaming industry and the experience of game designing. I have been participated in and responsible for a lot of work, including a complete developing experience for a game from developing until release. Also, an online operation game work for which I had more than one year of experience involved in the developing and operation. By knowing many practices of the game industry and reviewing myself, I came up with the idea of going abroad. Consider a lot of circumstances, I started to prepare and hope to go abroad to study game designing as a major. Mostly, I hope to learn the systematic theory of game design, and by taking this opportunity, in a place of artistic atmosphere, I could get the feeling and enhance my own design capabilities. My second purpose is to learn programming. In my work experience, I regretted not to learn programming. In my previous career, I have carried out a lot of work with programmers and art designers, including requirements contacting, work acceptance and following optimization. Because of that I come to understand the how computer programmers convert codes into the interesting gameplay. These experiences have led me to a great curiosity and a desire about programming, and I will take this opportunity to enhance my programming ability and coding capability as well. Learning game designing in the UK is something that makes me looking forward to and excited. I prefer the sense of design in UK to the commercial atmosphere of the US. I don’t mean that business benefit is not important. It’s about saying that my work experience for more than three years has taught me what I want to obtain now indeed. Comprehensive and interesting theoretic learning, comprehensive project developing, comprehensive project coding, researching on interesting subjects, advanced equipment available for experiencing, numerous advanced game exhibitions, technology sharing, art exhibitions, all of these are the points that drives me, which will make me learn and grow in the field. My vision for the future is to be engaged in the gaming industry as much as possible in my career. Perhaps as a level designer, perhaps a game designer, perhaps the founder of a game-related organization to create and maintain a certain game activity. It’s difficult to confirm but I will find all the time. All of these goals are hard for me now. And this opportunity of master’s study as a
game designing major, is a chance for me to build a solid foundation. I used to think hard at dealing with how to achieve business benefit and gameplay with pleasure at the same time. I finally have the opportunity to design and study, like Game Jam, where many people work together, or alone. I regard this study as a great opportunity. When I was a university student, what I know about the game industry is only game companies. When I started my career, I know there are not only games companies, but also world-wide companies, there are also many interesting theoretical researchers, as well as many interesting exhibitions, there is a more brilliant and open world. Not only to improve my own ability in game design but provides me to see a larger world and express my own passion in a way of game. In the following, I’ll list work content or other projects I’ve been responsible for and participated in to briefly introduce my portfolio, introduce my design ideas, and let you know me better. In my opinion, I’m a creative game designer. It’s not enough to be conscious of being creative, and I need something else because I want to pursue something better, rather than stay steadily in the studio and design a mobile game, or HTML5 game. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like these jobs, but that I want to have broader opportunities and challenges. And, I firmly believe that to be a good game producer, excellent theoretical learning, fundamental programming skills, as well as unique and rich aesthetic ability, are all essential. I hope that my creativity can be impressed through my portfolio, either in playing methods, copy writing, action, as well as communication skills.
2. Abstract of the Article I’ll pick out five events of my past work experience for a brief explanation. 1. The copy editor of “God Cards”, the view of the world is a perfection. 2. The design idea of the playing methods of “Battle of the Gods” in “Milky Way god of war”. 3. The design of the 2 bosses in “Milky Way god of war”. Which includes the requirements for original paintings, requirements for bosses’ movements, bosses’ mode of attacking, bosses’ bullet design and edit, requirements for voices. 4. Participation and design of the 2018 GGJ project “Kacha Factory”.
3. Copy editing for “God Cards” 3.1 Copy editing I have written the background stories of 35 gods, which accord with the world view of the game. In the initial design there were only 20 gods. Through the subsequent game updates, 15 new gods were added one after another. Western Greek mythology and the Oriental Chinese tales of legend are made into a combination. And I designed the last 2 bosses of the Oriental legend, including the requirements for original paintings, requirements for bosses’ movements, bosses’ mode of attacking, bosses’ bullet design and edit, requirements for voices. The following are the 2 screenshots of the interface of the Gods systems, one is the main interface and the other is the interface that conclude some details. I edited the background stories of the 35 Gods. Why do I have to mention the edit? Because it was an impressive job for me. It’s not just about arranging, but to create a story of the gods that match the game’s world view in the existing game plot. This job prompted me to clarify the context of the existing plot in the game and understand the construction of the view of the world. After that, I designed a story plot about the awakening of a Mecha, which also exhibits my efforts to perfect the view of the world. In many mobile games, players often omit the content and pay less attention to the plot, but there are still a number of players, who will be surprised by your plot, your characters as well as your backstory. I think creating a perfect and fascinating view of the world is the key to make the players feel the world’s attractiveness. By completing the designing mission of the Mecha Awaken, I also created puzzles for the Mecha plot in the game, prompting players to track down and discover, which is not a mandatory task though. After the plot of Awaken, my next design is the introduction of Oriental legend tales: the 4 figures of Chinese tales, namely Nuwa, the Black and White emissaries, Nezha and Yaksha. In a word, I’m impressed by the backstory of 35 gods card and I grew up along these backstories at the same time. From my start at the game until I finally responsible for the important systems of the game, the stories of these gods card are always with me.
3.2 Screenshots
3.3 Examples 1. Zeus: Zeus is the ruler of the Olympus galaxy, with the support of a large number of gods. Holding the West, his combat power is the top existence. Although he has a strong desire for conquest of the Galaxy, he settled peacefully in the temple because of the battle with Thor, the god of lightning, which help Zeus to comprehend the true meaning of a god. From then on, Zeus, whose view on power became weaken, finally felt that peace is the most valuable asset of the Olympus galaxy, and no one could take it away! 2. Athena: Athena is one of the popular goddesses of the Olympus Galaxy, who is responsible not only for the various governmental affairs within the Olympus Galaxy, but also acts as a diplomatic ambassador, and has signed friendly agreements with several nearby galaxies. On one occasion, during an interstellar trip beyond the Galaxy, she was acutely aware of a trace of unusual mental rays. She started the search with mental rays as an important clue, and step by step she uncovered Rocky’s scheme, and finally protected the peace of the Olympus galaxy. 3. Titan: Titan is the ancient god family of the Olympus galaxy, who were over-worshipping the use of force and ignoring the development of science and technologies, consequently they are replaced by the new type of Olympus god family who focus on the development Galaxy science and technologies, and the Titan family was exiled by Zeus to the edge of the Olympus Galaxy. Under Athena’s persuasion, the Titans dropped their holy blood and vowed not to seize power again. In such a way, the Titans gained a stable environment within the Olympus galaxy. 4. Poseidon: As the God of the sea in Greek mythology, Poseidon is a radical in the Olympus galaxy, who not only has the magic trident, but also has a strong possession mind. Not only did he drive the original sea gods to take charge of the sea, but he also conspired to take the throne of Zeus, however due to his failure he was ostracized by the Galaxy gods. When he saw the mighty Rocky and Omega the ultimate Mecha, he showed a keen appreciation and shows willingness to work with Rocky to plot something secretly.
4. Battle of Gods 4.1 The tasks of design 1. At Photon Studio, I’m chiefly involved in the “Milky Way god of war” game. As I gradually improved my game designing skills, I began to independently take charge of some systems and playing methods. I designed the new method of playing “pet combat” for the game, a method similar to on-hook, where there will be random events for full-service players to PK, award medals, and finally full-service ranking. In this play method, a lot of random mechanisms were designed to ensure the fun of the game. I have also involved in the optimization of many existing playing method, payment systems and has also designed three separate operation events with their own playing method nature and publicity. In all of these designs, what I am most proud of and worth to recollect is the playing method “Battle of Gods”. This is a playing method in the late stage of the project, based on the existing gods card system, a playing method I was independently responsible for. 2.
To me, this play method is a full-scale design, from the original idea came into being, to the trial play of paper prototypes, then feedback, until formal developing, and later for the time limit of the project and implementation difficulties I made a series of adjustments. But in the whole process, I’m committed to the strategy and entertaining nature of this playing method, never compromised. It’s a playing method that I’m happy with and proud of.
3. Next, I’ll explain it through 4 aspects: Introduction to the playing method “Battle of Gods”; Clarification of the design concept; Paper prototype implementation; Trade-offs in the development process.
4.2 Introduction to the playing method “Battle of Gods” 1. The player’s initial score is 0, which corresponds to a war zone according to the scores. of ladders. 2. It is a battle play that is operated by matching the combination of gods card. The length of every play is short. Game reward is rich. 3. The war zone is divided into novice area and master area, where the novice area has no limit on the number of battles, equivalent to a novice village, loss and draw in the novice area will not deduct points, I hope that players can fully enjoy playing in the novice area, so as to get familiar with the rules of the battles, master the skills and improve the winning rate. 4. In the Master area there will be a limit on the number of battles each day, winning will be added points, while losing will be deducted points. Once entered the master area, will not fall back to the novice area. 5. By configuring one’s own offensive and defensive card groups, the player can battle against each other to improve your ranking and get more rewards. 6. You can only make configuration after you combined the gods card. 7. The offensive card group only need to configure 1 group, when you initiatively click to invite a battle to challenge others, this set of cards is being used. Although you can draw up to 4 cards, you can bring up to 5 cards in order to have more flexible options. 8. The defensive card group is provided with a configuration of up to 3 groups. When others challenge you on the ladder, the game system will randomly select 1 group from your configuration of the defensive card group for the battle. The order of issuing the cards is the order of configuration. 9. Each gods card has its basic points, green, blue, purple and orange labeled gods cards are corresponding to 10, 11, 12 and13 points respectively. When the fourth-round ends, if all the cards drawn are the same character, points will be added. If all of the drawn cards are green character, 15 points will be added; If all of the drawn cards are blue character, 14 points will be added; If all of the drawn cards are purple character, 13 points will be added; If all of the drawn cards are orange character, 12 points will be added. 10. Each god card belongs to a certain camp. There are two camps, namely, the Olympus galaxy and the World tree galaxy. When the fourth-round ends, if all the cards drawn are of the same camp, then 10 points will be added. 11. In each of the first 3 rounds, if there is an elemental restraint effect, the dominant party will have 5 points added, the disadvantaged party will not be deducted with the points and the base points will be maintained effective. 12. The winning rule of the game is: by configuration and issuing the cards, after 4 rounds, the party with more total final points wins. 13. The game is divided into 4 rounds. The first 3 rounds are ordinary rounds. Even if there is elemental restraint, base points of the card group will still take effect. 14. The 4th round of the game is called the battle-round. In the battle-round, if there is any element restraint between the god cards, then the gods card of the restrained side will be crushed, and the base points will be invalid. On the dominant side, the base points are maintained without additional restraint points being added.
4.3 Concept of Design I want to design a strategy-based game, for which the design requirements given to me, have to be limited to be based on the existing gods card system for further developing. Meanwhile, the time for developing is limited to less than a week, in which only 1 computer programmer was responsible for my design. We can call him “Jun Yan�. In the meantime, he was also responsible for the developing of other content. Because I prefer pro-strategy, and I get along very well with him. He is a lover of the Hearthstone, almost plays this game every day. After an overall consideration, I asked myself why not to design a card battle game of real-time battle. Considering the existing game foundation, and the final effect I want to achieve, and then step by step I brought elements and mechanisms into it, and eventually mechanisms related to points, camp, element restraint as well as round were included. Eventually a trial version took shape.
4.4 Paper Prototype When I designed a complete set of rules of the battle game, I immediately started to design a prototype drafting. On the paper I wrote the names and points of the gods. As soon as I clarified the rules with Jun Yan, we began to make cards, a total of 20. When production of the cards is completed, the real-time battle begins. Each of us choose 4 cards to start the battle. It was incredible to note that we had continued playing for more than an hour. The more we played the more interesting it became. As we got familiar with the rules and restraints, the importance of strategy became more obvious, while the battle became more fascinating and interesting, that it also attracted other colleagues around. Therefore, we played it with other colleagues. In this process, I had felt a lot of interesting points, on the other hand, there were still a lot of shortcomings found in its experience. These are important for my subsequent update and alteration of the rules.
4.5 Updates of the Design In this section, you can see various changes and optimizations I have made in the design and developing process. You will understand how I think, how I dealt with the contradiction between commercialization and intuitive gaming, how to keep the game interesting, how to ensure the developing cycle.
1. Coordinating business benefit and gameplay With the card, you can make configuration. Having a card is a lower requirement for the players which guaranteed business benefit. If you want to have more cards for configuration, try to collect cards or accelerate the process through payment. At the same time, the higher the quality of card character, the higher the cost is. In order to take account of the lowquality character of cards, I add an account of points in the final account. If the cards are of the same character, there will be extra points bonus. The higher in the quality of a character, the lower the bonus points are, which balances the high point nature of the highcharacter cards.
2. To ensure the developing cycle, alteration is made from real-time battle to non-real time battle. Real-time matching means a higher implementation difficulty, which requires a longer developing duration, and a long period time to check. Under the precondition of ensuring the core playing methods, change from real-time battle to non-real time battle is implemented. After changing to a non-real time battle, the opponents were visible on the battle list, and the player can autonomously choose the opponent whose ranking is closer to himself. However, this will cause a problem, the same player’s card group will not change. If a player continues to challenge the same person, the player’s score will rise faster, while the entertaining nature of gaming would be lost, causing injustice results. As a result,
the random mechanism of the defensive card group is introduced. The player can configure 3 defensive card groups. When the player is challenged by other players, the system will select randomly one of the three card groups to face the battle, which can greatly increase the randomness. Consequently, it reduces the possibility of players’ cheating.
3. Entertaining of battling Although there are 4 rounds in total, the player draws one card per round. In the third and fourth rounds the available strategies will be drastically reduced. Especially in the fourth round, the player only has one card left, and can choose nothing but this card. The experience of the fourth round for a player is more boring, seemingly helpless, where no choice can be made. Therefore, a total of 5 cards can be carried for the battle, but only up to 4 cards can be used. Which allows a player to have more strategies and choices in the third and fourth round, so as to enhance interest.
4. Relieve the loser experience and increase the randomness of a battle If you are behind in the first round, also in the second and third round, then would you still have the mood to play the fourth round again, I don’t think you will. I specialize the fourth round and call it a Battle Round. In this round, the card whose element is restrained could not have a base point and the advantage card will retain its own base points, while the 5 points of restrained element will no longer take effect. Benefits as well as risks are tremendously enlarged in this round. The loser’s experience is relieved due to the randomness is enhanced, which give the fourth round the meaning of gambling, making this round exciting.
5. Combination of the game plot with the view of the world Combining the game plot and the world view, the elements of camps are highlighted. While in the settlement, the judgment of adding points for the same camp is introduced. Many high quality labeled cards are not all in the same camp, while the scores of the same camp bonus are extremely high, which sometimes forces the players to choose a more specific strategy, that is, to keep the four in the same camp, or choose the four from different camps but are the highest quality cards. However, this strategy, will be used by your rivals to predict after the end of the third round, and up to this stage, the Battle Round is coming. In this round, all the information in the first three rounds will be used as clues to provide information for the player to make choice. At this point, the fourth round is apparently very interesting. Does your rival may choose the same camp or the same quality cards? It’s a question, right? What’s your choice?
6. In order to solve the difference between the playing method and the core playing method of the game The requirements for getting familiar with the game are relatively high, and at the same
time, it is quite different from the core playing method of the game: the shooting gameplay. Therefore, I set up the novice zone, a battlefield where times of round won’t be limited for the players. At the same time, as your scores continue to increase, you will enter the master area, and at this point, higher requirements will be put on you. For example, you need to configure three groups of defensive card groups that are not all identical, because we want to ensure the intuitiveness of battles for players in the master area. In addition, once you have entered the master area, it is proved that you have a certain understanding of the rules of the battle which will help you have more fun. 7.
Guide the players to the details of settlement By introducing a detailed analysis of the scores in the account interface, it is hoped that the player can better understand the rules of the battles after multiple settlements, making it easier for the player to get started. Meanwhile it allows the player to see the proportion and volume of each point, providing them with better choices and useful feedbacks.
8.
Shortcomings There is no doubt that there are still many shortcomings in this playing method. For example, the interface is small, the card information display is incomplete, the requirements for configuring the cards is relatively high, and the information prompt is not comprehensive. During a battle, consistent memorizing and judgement for the information of the card is required. While a total span of 20-second countdown per round for players to make choices is really not so appropriate, which limits the flexibility. Non-real time battles still will not completely eliminate injustice points gaining, since players whose ranking are close to each other can still negotiate with each other in private for such gaining of points. This playing method still has more room for improvement. But what makes sense is that I believe I have designed a playing method that I am satisfied with under limited resources and conditions. I hope you could know what’s my thoughts and how I think by these interpretations.
5. Designing of Bosses 5.1 Significance of the design Why do I have to pose the designing of bosses as a separate portfolio? That is because I participated in the design of the last two bosses in the last chapter of the game. And even today these two bosses are still the final bosses of the game. I participated in the complete course of design for these two bosses, including the requirements for original paintings, requirements for bosses’ movements, bosses’ mode of attacking, bosses’ bullet design and edit, requirements for voices It is a representative set of design from the initial design to the configuration and to the acceptance.
5.2 Introduction of the Bosses Black and White emissaries These two Bosses are Nuwa and Black and White emissaries. These two are the representative mythical figures in Chinese legend tales. Especially Nuwa. Nuwa is the mother of the Huaxia nationality. According to the legend, Nuwa created the human being and the human society with loess in the image of herself; She used the five-color stones to repair the damaged sky and maintained the peace of the earth. This mythical figure is a particularly powerful existence in Chinese legend tales. The Black and White emissaries is a famous pair of gods in Chinese mythology. They are also famous emissaries of hell, who hold handcuffs and shackles, to arrest ghosts as their job and help to reward the upright and punish the evil.
5.3 Design Concept BOSS: Nuwa In Chinese legend tales, the image of Nuwa is a snake body with a human head. And this has a strong similarity with another boss in the game: Midgard serpent. In order to highlight the difference between Midgard serpent and the noble status of Nuwa, I set her in the plot as the ruler of the Kunlun Galaxy. With gold as the main element, she lives within the huge protective cover. When this boss enters the turbulent phase, the protective cover unfolds and surrounds her, showing her ultimate noble status. At the same time, the representative element of the five-color stones was extracted and used as a weapon, and a lot of actions and special effects were designed especially around the five-color stone. In the subsequent bullet screens, I also made the designs around the five-color stone. Actions, fivecolor stones, and bullet screens are all interrelated points.
BOSS: The Black and White emissaries The Black and White emissaries are leaders of the Kunlun galaxy. They are two characteristic gods of the Underworld in Chinese legend tales. Their characteristic chains are one of their important features. I put these two gods together into one body and combined these 2 bosses as a unite Mecha. After entering the battle stage, two bosses launch attack at the same time, firing bullet screens. Combining these two characteristic bosses into one to maintain a sense of the entirety in its mythological tale. At the same time, in the design of bullet screens, the performance of the chains is incorporated. The character of the mythical tale is maintained by designing multiple chains with automatic tracking for simultaneous attack.
6. GGJ Project: Kacha Factory 6.1 Introduction of the Game This is a game named Kacha Factory. “Kacha” is a sound when you control machines. The theme of the game is about love of transmission for the human. You can press “Q” “W” “E” to complete your transmission. You can control easily to play the game. When you finish it, there is a hidden level 4 for you to find. You can press F4 to open the hidden level if you want to challenge it.
6.2 Participated Content After the game theme came out, as our team leader, I set up a simple schedule allocation. Under strict time limit, I fully analyzed the playing method of the game, and selected the most interesting one among multiple schemes. Of course, this is not the most interesting item from a creative point of view, but this is the one that can guarantee the developing efficiency. The core goal of the team is unified to make a complete small game, the most important goal is completeness. Therefore, under the time allocation, we made a trade-off; at the same time, in the level design, there is a certain space to ensure that we are creative. While in charge of project management and recommendation, another member CW and I began to discuss the specific level values. For example, the number of balls, and the spacing between the balls. It needs to be interesting enough and needs to be challenging enough. As it turns out, for the seemingly simpler playing method, the operating threshold is still high. Given to there is no fault to tolerance, as long as one ball is lost, it will be judged as fail. This is not perfect in design. But this is also the result of a compromise out of the project circle. If you are interested, you can go to GGJ’s official website and search for Kacha Factory to find the demo version.
6.3 Screenshots of the Game