FIRMLY PLANTED

An Isometric Grid-Based Strategy Game. Place down Plants in the backyard of an unsuspecting human's house. Build up your fort, manage your resources and begin your attack plan-t against the human race!

2024-02-12 13-36-40.mp4

PROJECT DETAILS

ROLE | Game Designer & Project Manager

TOOLS | Unity, Miro, Notion, Jira, Excel

DURATION | 5 Months

TEAM SIZE | 5 Members

RESPONSIBILITIES

Iterating on designs for the Plants of the Tree
Diagramming the Game Flow and Functionality of the Grid System
Detailing the Economy & Rates of the Tree's Sunlight & Water
Creating the Tutorial Menu
Creating Balancing Sheets for the Plants and Resources
Designing and Setting Up Telemetry
Hosting Team Meetings and Recording Notes
Organizing the Jira and Planning Sprints
Documenting Team & Project Charters and Game Mechanics
Managing the Notion

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

I was a core Game Designer for the team. I focused on growing as a Game Designer and creating a game that encouraged Resource Management & Strategic Planning. These are questions I asked myself throughout development:

How can my designs condition the player to take every action in service of a strategic goal?
How do I design Resources to create a system where the player must constantly manage the rate in which they gain/lose Resources?
How do I set up the Balancing Excel to show the impact of balancing changes through charts?
How can I improve my One-Pages to be easily understood and convey as much information as possible?

DESIGN PROCESS

GAME FLOW & PLANTS

After the game was defined and we knew what we wanted to make it was time to design the Plants. Initially they were designed as a team, until I went for ownership of the Feature and designed the Plants further.

DESIGNING THE GAME SPACE & FLOW

How the game space functions will heavily influence how the player plays and what they can do. I created the space to have the player make intentional decisions in service of a strategic goal with the use of a Grid-Based system.

Limiting the player's actions with a Grid-Based system gives the player set periods in which they influence the game world. This is done through having every action the player can take cost Sunlight and/or Water, the player's only resources, and by only allowing the player to perform one action at a time.

This gives the player time to analyze the current status of the map and themselves. Limiting their influences through slots in a grid channels their influence on the game space. The player is forced to think of actions they take within this context, freeing up their mental space, which allows the player to make more intentional actions.

I made the Human, the enemy of the player Tree, contrast the limitations on the player. The Human can walk freely across the map, freely moving in between the slots on the grid. I made the main obstacle to the player move this way because it forces the player to place down Plants with the asymmetry of abilities in mind.

The player has to overpower the freedom the human has with clever placements of Plants, cultivating a focus on strategic play and intentional actions.

DETAILING RISKS

During Pre-Production the team designed a lot of mechanics simultaneously. Some of these mechanics were dependent on how other mechanics would work.

I detailed a list of Risks & Assumptions with every design I made during Pre-Production. This was done to avoid any conflict that could potentially exist with other designs still in development.

I wanted to make quick changes an incredibly easy process. Listing down Assumptions & Risks allowed for the team to know where a design could clash with other designs made. I'll know what I need to change or scope down on based off team feedback.

I was also looking for feedback about my design process. Showing the team my assumptions and asking for suggestions allowed me to develop my processes as a designer and integrate better into the team workflow.

IMPROVING THE PLANTS

After taking ownership of the Plants I worked on expanding their designs. Having discussed initial risks and concerns I had with my original pitches, I knew how to keep my designs focused in maintaining the project vision and scope. Plants being the only tool the player has to fight against the Human Enemy AND keep Sunlight & Water Production optimized I took charge in designing this system to cultivate the Strategic Experience for the game.

Through iterating on these designs, I pushed the visual language of my One-Page Designs (OPDs). I wanted to convey the systems that the Plants exist under and systems that exist within the Plant purely through visuals. I learned how to use symbols and group visual cues together in my designs so the team can easily understand and reference these OPDs when further developing these mechanics.

SUNFLOWER & WATER CRESS

The Sunflower & Water Cress are responsible for speeding up Sunlight & Water production. You spend Water to purchase Sunflowers & Sunlight to purchase Water Cresses.

Having these two Plants develop the Resources to purchase each other controls the growth rate of Sunlight & Water.

The player has to manage the growth of both Resources by planning when to buy a Sunflower or Water Cress. This influences when the player gets other Attack Plants.

WEED WACKER & VENUS BEAR TRAP

These tools are the player's only defense against the Humans. Resource Management focuses on the player's use of these two Plants.

The Weed Wacker was always understood to be the player's main source of attack. I wanted it to be good in dealing damage to the Human in a substantial amount of time.

I made them cost both Sunlight and Water in order to be placed down on the Grid. This cultivates Resource Management through having the player plan their Resource growth in order to purchase the Weed Wacker.

The Venus Bear Trap went through the most iteration. I wasn't sure on how to create a plant that could create many strategies alongside the Weed Wacker. The Thorny Wall was an attempt at doing this, unfortunately it was too big in scope.

Having the Venus Bear Trap heavily damage the Human while costing a substantial amount of Resources was a good way to coexist with the Weed Wacker, a plant dealing moderate damage but has a significantly smaller cost compared to the Venus Bear Trap.

Managing Resources to plan when to place these two Plants on the Grid garners an experience where the player has to constantly think on how to manage their Resources and make sure each decision will lead to a better decision later in the game.

BALANCING TOOLS

I took charge in creating tools that the team can use to balance the game. After presenting my Excel Balancing Sheet to the team, mine was chosen out of everyone from the team. When creating Balancing Tools I focus on creating editable inputs that can be transferred to values in the engine through Telemetry, and to create a simulation of the effects of a change within the Balancing Tool. That way when me or any other team members are tasked with balancing an aspect of the game we can balance with visual predictions on how our changes will function, leading to concrete design choices.

It also makes the balancing tool more accessible to everyone in the team, since only one person has to understand the functionality of the Balancing Tool while everyone else can use it for their own purposes.

USING EXCEL FOR BALANCING

I used Excel as the main Balancing Tool for the team. I'm comfortable in using it to create tables and charts representing data from inputs and I have a fun time in using math to represent processes that exist in Firmly Planted.

The logic capabilities of Excel allows me to create simulations with the tools. I created simulation detailing how many Humans a Weed Wacker could kill before dying from Human Attacks. The parameters of the Human and Weed Wacker are editable.

Alongside Weed Wacker attacks I created a simulation to see how long a Sunflower & Water Cress Plant will last against a Human and how much Sunlight & Water is produced during that period. The duration of the simulation is editable through parameters linked to the Sunflower, Water Cress and Human stats. The rest is automated with Excel logic and math.

I make my spreadsheets easily readable so others can understand on how to navigate the Excel.

SETTING UP TELEMETRY

Creating Telemetry was an easy process in getting inputs from the Excel into the engine. I've made the Excel easy to read and I have the best understanding of how the spreadsheet works, so I decided to set up Telemetry for the spreadsheet. I put in the necessary game objects and code to get Telemetry working.

Setting up Telemetry to record data from builds of the game to the spreadsheet data was trickier. I had to decide what data was necessary to pull from playtests in order to understand how our systems interact with the player.

I decided to focus on positions of plants, times a plant was selected, total amount of Humans killed and times a game has been won.

These data points directly reflect the effectiveness of the tools we give to the player and certain strategies the player can employ. Seeing how much Humans killed compared to Plants placed allows us to see if we're achieving the desired results from our playtests.

I also recorded data not directly related to Plants effectiveness but rather how the player plays, like positional data, to better measure how players play our game. This allows us to see if any ideas we want to implement will synergize with player playstyles, or to see if there's any player behaviours we don't want practiced.

VISUALIZING FOR BALANCE

Spreadsheets and charts can only help someone's understanding of a system go so far. I wanted to be sure that everyone's understanding of the system was in unison. I took it upon myself to create a visual representation of our game with a Systems Map.

I wanted to test my understanding of the systems of the game with this map and practice my diagramming skills. I prioritized detailing the Objects & Attributes between the Human, House, Tree and Plants.

Showing interactions between Objects and their Attributes led to a greater understanding on how I should balance the system, and which Objects and relationships get affected with my changes.

The team was incredibly greatful for the System Map. I'm grateful I took initiative in designing this map as well. It was beneficial for the team in balancing the game.

Here is a link to view the System map in greater detail: Miro of Systems Map

KEY TAKEAWAYS

LIST GOALS FOR YOUR DESIGN

Keeps your designs focused, allowing you to better see how your designs will change the game.
Allows for easier explanation of why you designed things a certain way, opening up for easier iteration.
Makes your designs align with the game's vision, creating a cohesive experience.

USE TOOLS TO ENHANCE YOUR DESIGN, NOT DESIGN FOR YOU

Tools can only be used efficiently if you understand the design of your game.
Trying to use tools to do design for you will only confuse your designs and the mechanics you change.
Understand how you can use tools like Excel to reflect how your design will function in certain contexts. Allows for easier balancing and iteration.

TAKE INITIATIVE WHEN YOU CAN

Allows you to grow as a designer more, outside of assigned tasks.
Could benefit your understanding and the team's understanding of the game.
Try to see if the work you do outside of the team blends in with what the team needs. Helps your understanding of the team to grow further.

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