R 0 N 1 N
Quest Design Process
Overview
They took everything.
They will regret it.
R0N1N is a fast-paced first-person hack and slash game, where the player takes on the role of the last robot of his tribe, seeking vengeance against the King, who razed his village to the ground.
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As a quest designer, I have to effectively convey the emotions and motivations of the character that the player embodies, all through a 3-part journey to eradicate the tyrannical King.
Planning the Journey
I first laid out the context of the game world, mechanics, and mission objectives of each level. From here, I broke down the details of what to teach, what I can assume, and what I can challenge the player with.
I plotted all this information into a timeline with an intensity curve to solidify the expected player's journey for the level.
Sketching the Space
Using real-world references, I drafted out a functional space using bubble diagrams to represent the connection of rooms and what players can see. As the world is set in a post-apocalyptic version of modern day architecture, I could find many real-life references around me, such as shopping malls and carparks.
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Using these diagrams, I then drew up multiple sketches of what I feel could work best to serve the player's experience, before building the playable prototypes.
Iteration and Polish
From here, while time was available, the levels were blocked out and constantly iterated upon, based on focused group testing, playtest forms, and interviews to figure out whether the core intentions of the level have been met.
At the tail end of the timeline, changes were locked in and the focus changed to propping up, making small tweaks and polishing the overall gameplay experience.
POSt
mortem
My main takeaway from this experience is to really define when to draw the line during the iteration process and move on, as polish is an easily overlooked part of the timeline, but delivers the most impact to players.
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Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed pushing my boundaries to design a memorable journey in R0N1N!
Full gameplay
