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Content Systems Design

Core Gameplay Loop + Gameplay Pillars

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Core Gameplay Loop

The core gameplay loop of explore 🠮 collect 🠮 upgrade created a solid loop that would show the player experience in a nutshell.  As the player explored the Wastelands, they would collect scraps and key parts for their rocket.  With their collected pieces, the players could upgrade and build parts of their rocket ship or buy upgrades that would unlock new abilities that allowed players to explore new areas, and repeat the loop again.

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Gameplay Pillars

The gameplay pillars of exploration, collaboration, and customization were meant to tie heavily with player progression as the further the player progressed in game and learned new mechanics they would be able to explore new areas of the world, encounter new puzzle and combat scenarios, and visualize the completion of their rocket.

Combat Design

Distinguishable Hero Systems

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Developing the distinction between Nuts & Volts, and their respective playstyles was pertinent in order to sell the vision of the buddy-cop / dynamic duo dynamic.  The way I went about designing this was that Nuts was designed to be more analog and physical whenever the player would utilize him in combat and puzzle scenarios, whereas Volts was more technological, his abilities catering to more power and electrical related puzzles.

The main character design came in the form of the idea of "stronger together" where both Nuts & Volts, while able to solve some puzzles and fight fodder enemies on their own, in order to ultimately progress, both characters needed to be utilized by the player, one cannot go far without the other.   The development of the small prototyped made for this game's proof of concept shows this through the puzzle design, as different objectives needed either Nuts, Volts, or both to proceed.  The Buddy AI I developed also had that if there were no blockers that prevented the pair from being together, whichever character the player was not in control of, would loyally follow the player.

Player Mechanics & Interactions

Nuts and Volts have their own set of tools specific to their character that allow them to perform actions that aid them in puzzle and combat scenarios.  Their abilities are intended to also combine and be used in conjunction with one another, to make for a stronger pair of characters.

Nuts is an mechanical-based character, whose gameplay actions mainly rely on utilizing their wrench and other physical tasks. Nuts' arsenal allows him to perform various actions:

Nuts using Wrench to break crates and search junk piles

Wrench

  • Puzzles

    • Screw / Unscrew metal nuts

    • Hold Levers

  • Combat

    • Melee Attacks

Grappling Hook

  • Puzzles

    • Grab Items / Levers

    • (With Volts) Zipline

  • Combat

    • Pulls Enemies / Armor

    • (With Volts) Electric Rope

Volts is an electrical-based character, whose gameplay actions are geared towards puzzles that require any electrical charge. Volts' arsenal allows him to perform various actions:

Volts' Electric Shock

  • Puzzles

    • Jumpstart Generators​

    • Code decoders

  • Combat

    • Shock enemies

    • (With Volts) Electric Rope

Volts unlocking a gate

Enemy Classes

For enemy design, I wanted to create several classes that would be encountered in the Wastelands, each with varying methods for combat.

For the proof of concept, I had put in the fodder enemy class, Junk-Rats,  however on a larger-scale the following enemy classes and behaviors would be as described.

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Player fighting Junk-Rats

  • Junk-Rats (Fodder)

    • Basic enemy class that can be killed using either Nuts' Melee or Volt’s Electric Shock

    • Attack - Wind-up pounce (Directional)

    • Spawning - Travel in Packs with wind-up

  • Pala-Drones (Projectile + Flight)

    • Ranged enemy class that can be  brought down by Nuts' Grappling Hook and used to AOE damage a circle of enemies

    • Attack - Ranged targeted projectiles towards players in FOV

    • Spawning - In Restricted Areas alone patrolling

  • Junkyard Scrappers (Shielded)

    • Armored enemy class that require Nut's Grappling Hook to make vulnerable.

    • Attack - Melee swing

    • Spawning - In small groups or alone in open-world

  • Gigantour Dregs (Bosses)

    • Mini-boss enemy class that require the Nuts & Volts Electric Rope combination attack to temporarily stun, Nuts' Grappling Hook to expose weak spots, and Volts' Electric Shock to short circuit each core powering it

    • Attack - Stomping AOE & Melee Tusk Swipe

    • Spawning - At different points for the enemy’s health, the enemy’s side panels will open up, revealing a wave of the other 3 classes of enemies for the player to defeat

Quest Design

Vertical Slice Tutorialization + Worldbuilding

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Quest Flow Diagram

When creating the quests for the proof of concept prototype, I wanted to ensure players would get a basic grasp of the dynamic of Nuts and Volts and their respective actions that combine together to complete objectives and progress through quests together. A further breakdown of game quests can be found in the game design document.

Trying to keep the experience contained, the progression of the quest is largely linear, with only a couple of optional actions the player can take not affecting the questline or story.  This mainly consists of player rocket customization, exploring the Hub and collecting scraps to purchase cosmetics at a shop.

Player Progression (Rocket Building)

Building & Customizing Rocket

With customization and rocket building as some of the main things about the game, building the rocket became a key part to visually showcasing player progression.  As the player progresses throughout the story, the more parts for the rocket they would collect and be able to customize to their liking, something that also encouraged player agency.

Technical Design

Quest Manager

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Early Prototyping of Quest Manager

Quest Manager In Editor

I created a quest manager to be able to make creating objectives of different types easily placed into sequences for myself as a designer.  

The Quest Manager allows the player to complete the following types of quests:

  • Travel

    • Player must travel to a specified location

  • Count

    • Player must complete x amount of any objective (Example: Defeat 3 Junk-Rats, Search 7 Dumpster Piles)

  • Talk

    • Players must talk to a specified NPC

  • Objective

    • Players must complete a singular objective (Example: Power on the Gate)

Other design considerations in mind came in the form of having the player manager automatically switch control to the intended character meant for a part of the objective.  Some things that included if had more time would have been arrow indicators as well as a mini map to visually guide players.

Level Design

The Hub

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For The Hub, I wanted it to act as a centralized player hub and safe zone where the player could interact with NPCs, get new quests, and visualize their progression with their rocket in the middle of the space.  I also wanted to use the placement of the rocket ship in the center to show that the support of the other NPCs for Nut's & Volt's goals.  

Within the gameplay prototype, the player actions allowed show basic NPC interaction and rocket building & customization.

Hub Blockout

In a larger-scale version of the game, the intended locations and NPCs within the space would be:

  • Slicky’s Oil Saloon / Slicky’s (Slicky)

    • Getting Tips for different key parts for the player’s rocketship (Missions)

    • Serves as the Main Mission-giver

  • Patches’ Porto-Hospital (Patches)

    • Player can either spend time at the doctor getting patched up (healing full)

      • Costs Scraps

  • Gizmo’s Gadgets Galore (Gizmo)

    • Player can buy and sell junk for items, upgrade / mod kits for their Omni-Grabber, Volts, Wrench, & Rocket​

  • Random Citizens

    • Random Exploration and Narrative Tidbits

The Junkyard

Junkyard Blockout

For The Junkyard, it acts as the main area of exploration within the proof of concept prototype, and is used to introduce players to the main core gameplay loop and puzzling aspects between Nuts & Volts.

Within this space, I wanted to have a water tower act as a POI for the players as they navigated a winding path within the Junkyard, to ensure they knew the general direction of where to head next. 

Small and harmless versions of the enemy Junk-Rats are also placed in the path leading up to the enemy encounter with the full-size ones to foreshadow their existence to players.

I wanted to use the path to include gameplay from both and Nuts and Volts, scattering Interactables and breakables as well as power gate puzzles and an enemy encounter.  This would ensure that within the small gameplay space, I would be able to show basic player interactions in the Junkyard as well as in the Hub.

Quest Design
Systems Design
Technical Design
Level Design
Combat Design
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NUTS & VOLTS

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Nuts & Volts is a Third-Person Adventure RPG Game targeted towards children with a Buddy Cop cast set in an apocalyptic wasteland

 

Explore Traverse the Wastelands as Nuts & Volts, interacting with characters, solving puzzles, collecting scraps, and scavenging for parts to build your very own rocket ship, in order to launch over to paradise, the city of the sky.

Players will switch between Nuts & Volts in order to solve different puzzles, utilizing their different abilities to progress.

ROLE

DURATION

TOOLS USED

Solo Project

11/2022 - 12/2022

Unity, C#, Blender

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Thanks for checking out my portfolio!

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