Designer Blog #1

Hello hello everyone,

My name is Marisa Moreno, and I am the lead designer over at Sparkplug Studios, where our development team is creating Robot Riot. This two-player fighting game pits players against each other as they control their very own battle ready robot. Their goal is to be the last player standing as they hurl weapons and launch traps in order to outlive the other.

Our team consists of twelve core members at Sparkplug Studios, all managed by our lead producer, Miciah Coley.

As the lead designer, my goal for this blog is to give a general overview of the game's core vision I crafted, from the core gameplay loop to the very items players will use against their enemy player.

As all game visions and ideas should start in my opinion, I got to work on the pre-production that would be needed to convey these ideas effectively to my team both at the start and during the production process. I managed to detail everything into a Game Design Document, sometimes shortened to a "GDD", as to how the different components would interlink and interact with each other. This works in tandem with the game's asset list, sometimes shortened to an "ALR," that details assets needed for the game's development. These documents effectively give my team a great starting point and build momentum later into development.

I originally created the idea of Robot Riot to provide player choice into the bulk of their decisions and actions while simultaneously giving them multiple ways to never play the same game twice exactly. Players are given the choice of which bot to choose as they play, and while exploring levels, they are also given the choice of which items to use against each other. I kept this decision in mind as while most games follow a linear progression or storyline, few become playable time and time again. With the idea of making Robot Riot very open ended, I intend that our team can prevent that lack of replayability for multiple plays.

For the main features of the game, I would like to first focus on the modes each bot character will have. All bots essentially have two modes: bot mode and combat mode. In bot mode, the bots are more compact in size and are faster; however, they can only use floor hazards while in this state. I made the comparison to Battlebots, with their compact scale while fighting. In contrast, players can also switch to combat mode, where bots are in their full sized scale and can use the weapons designed against their opponent. These modes are reflected in the sketches that our 3D artist, Veronica Leon Guerrero, created in tandem with the rest of our 3D artists and myself to accurately portray these different modes.

The next feature of the game is the power-ups themselves. There are three kinds of items that players are able to pick up: weapons, hazards, and power-ups. Weapons are a bit self-explanatory, they deal damage to the opposing player when used but are only allowed to be used while in combat mode (as aforementioned above). Hazards are slightly different, as they can either damage the opposing player or affect them with a sudden change to their base stats. The power-ups are more beneficial to the player who activates them, from replenishing health to becoming invincible to projectiles launched by weapons.

As for the base design of the game's environment, I wanted to reflect a similar design that the Portal series has by locking the player inside each level that contains their own distinct aesthetics and characteristics.

In our first level, nicknamed "The Facility," I wanted to pay homage to the aesthetic inspiration of Portal and have the first level feel industrial and give players that sense of entrapment of locking the players within the level, even though physical travel between levels is not a feature.

The next level, nicknamed "The Village," is more of a miniature town that attempts to distract from the looming sense of entrapment with bright colors and a familiar feel of a small neighborhood block, similar to the Nuketown maps throughout the Call of Duty franchise. In this design, I worked with the level designers to highlight areas where the player characters' bot modes can be utilized in small spaces and corridors.

As of the time of this writing, I am currently working on designing the next level, and perhaps another level after. So please stay tuned for any updates in the near future.

Our team at Sparkplug Studios has been hard at work on Robot Riot, and I cannot be any more proud of our team's continuing success as we continue into development.