PORTFOLIO

Zelda-Like Project

This project aimed to work on the functioning of Rational Game Design , a methodology invented by Ubisoft.

We had to imagine a Zelda for the Chinese market.

For this we had to use the legend of the Monkey King and Mount Song as a constraint.

I will introduce you to my workshops during the creation of this project.

In this Zelda opus, Link goes on a journey far from the plain of Hyrule to a mountainous region where he discovers that his enemy Ganon is trying to take the place of the great Buddha.

Game Genre: Zelda-like

Number of players: Solo game

Public : Chinese player

Support: Nintendo Switch

Engine: Unity

Game Design

GDD link (french only)

Rational Game Design is a methodology for quantifying (subjectively) different elements of the player experience in order to better manage the overall difficulty of a game.

My job was to complete level 4 of this project out of the 8 existing ones.

My level had to be neither too easy nor too hard compared to theirs , but fit into a general, fluid and ascending curve.

Level 4 can be separated into two main parts:

learning superhuman strength,
and initiation to changing the size of the stick.

He will first use superhuman strength to move elements in the level while creating a path , and fighting enemies that will hinder him in his mission . He will then fight a boss in using previously learned combat techniques with his new staff, to unlock the enlargement .

He will then use it in puzzle and platform situations to discover the new possibilities that the stick offers him.

Finally, he will have to use the elements learned in a fight against a boss with a time limit.

General curve of the Rational Game Design project

In yellow, I have circled the area that corresponds to the learning I have done.

Here is the general curve of our levels. As you can see, it is concentrated in 3 large parts, separated by obvious drops in difficulty. These take place at the beginning of level 4 and 7:

- The first (level 4) is a relaxation phase in the pacing, the player having just unlocked a new skill, it is interesting to lower the overall tension so that he can concentrate on this learning (something that goes hand in hand with the workshops that we are going to see) and this allows to create a feeling of power in the player, in front of the acquisition of this new skill and the artificial reduction in difficulty.

-The second being a boss rush (level 7) , the workshops have a lot of atomic parameters, with a very high additive difficulty of the workshop, but an average that seems lower. This is a part that will vary in difficulty depending on the type of profile of the players, and their playing time.

Otherwise, we think we have succeeded in creating a flow curve with concrete tensions and releases , allowing us to keep the player's attention without him finding himself in too much difficulty or getting bored, as you can see with the detail of a workshop and curve below.

We have, as said above, communicated regularly in order to verify that our levels started and ended at difficulties consistent with the people in charge of the levels adjacent to ours, while keeping a controlled and interesting flow both on the micro aspect of the level and on the macro aspect of the overall curve.

For this, we iterated on our work to have something coherent and interesting , because we all had cascade diagrams and intention workflows (which you can find in the GD part) that allowed us to argue and be able to understand each other's work. In particular, for example, by changing our cascade diagrams, both in the order of learning the verbs and the combination within a level, and the order of the learnings themselves, which allowed us to arrive at this result.

Level 4 Workshop

How to create a moment of relaxation and then create a challenge on a new mechanic?

Level 4 Intention:

A moment of release to relax the player from the tension of the previous level.

2 new gameplays, in order to maintain the player's interest while teaching them the lessons.

MDA:

Mechanics: 2 new tools allowing players to express themselves
Dynamics: Variation and mix of inputs, in order to challenge the player on their new learnings
Aestethics: The gameplay offers something refreshing and new.

OCR Loop:
Objective: Reach the end of the dungeon
Challenge: Learn two new mechanics
Reward: Discovering new tools, relaxing after a moment of great tension.

Average curve

Detailed curve