Fin Rovers
Game Mechanics & Narrative designer
Description
Project: From the stars is an ongoing personal project of mine where I strife to make a game using my own game design and script it inside the Godot Engine. I’m very excited about the project and have been steadily working on the mechanics of the game to prepare for the first prototype.
The concept is for a turn-based RPG with heavy dark-fantasy elements and a Lovecraftian theme about the stars where positioning of the characters is a big part of the game. This page will be dedicated towards the explanation of the design and will be regularly updated over time when new development steps are being made.
This project currently only exists as a concept for the combat mechanics as I wish to prototype the game inside the Godot engine before I am expanding its design.
The concept
Mechanics
The core mechanic of the game is that both the player and the enemies during combat are positioned on a 3x3 grid. On this grid, the player’s characters are stationed on one of the nine squares. Their position is important as this not only determines the attacks they can perform, but also the attacks the enemy can perform on the player party.
Each playable character comes with a dedicated class that determines the attacks they can perform, but also their favourited position. The Templar character wants to stick to the front as they can take a few hits while being well-equipped to handle the front-line enemies, but they will be targeted by more attacks in return. Characters such as the Geomancer want to keep their distance as they have range to hit the back-line of the enemies, but they have lesser defences compared to the Templar.
Environment is also going to be a big part of the game. This is divided over two categories; Hazards and field-wide conditions.
Hazards are used to alter the grid of both the player party with
negative status effects, blockades or to buff the party. They take in one square space on the grid.
Field-wide conditions are powerful effects that occupies the space above the battlefield, providing strong buffs / debuffs or alter certain actions. These conditions affect both the player and the enemies.
Overview of the combat system with the 3x3 grid. The player party is presented on the left and the enemy party on the right,
Some iterations for environment hazards that change the battlefield. From left to right: Poison sludge, spikes and nature's stagnation