Game Summary

AoShu Spell Slinger is an isometric action RPG, set in ancient China. Instead of discovering gunpowder they have discovered magic known as arcane alchemy. This game follows a female protagonist who has learnt the ways of these powers. As she has such power she must use it to defeat those who are using these power to harm the world.

Role

Length

Tool

Game Designer

Programmer Lead

Programmer

1 Year

Unity

Perforce

Team Size

15+

Controls

Combat System

The combat system of this game is built upon the idea of spell weaving. Where the player will learn to use the umbrella weapon and spell coherently. The player has to manage resources to use the spells and gain the resource by parrying attacks. Although this worked, this made the combat revolve too much around spell and parrying. If I were to rework this part of the system I’d make attacking directly increase mana. Doing so helps increase the spell weaving idea that this combat system is based on.

Action Combat System

The action combat system consists of a 3 hit combo and a parry. The 3 hit combo is the main form of damage as it is not limited by any form of resources. The last hit of the combo also knocks the enemy upwards. Parrying is another major part of this system as it will instantly give one mana to the player when parry successfully. If there were more time for this project I would rework the 3 hit combo into a heavy light attack combo system. This will give more offensive choices to the player instead of spamming the attack button.

Spell System

Spell is the core of the game and the story. Players have five different spells based on the five elements in the Chinese culture, Wu Xing(五行). It includes Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Ground. All spells consume one mana on use and they all have their own individual cooldown. The five spells are designed to be used in different situations, mobility, healing, crowd control, damage and ranged.

Mana System

Mana is the resource for casting spells, whenever a spell is casted it will consume one mana. There two main ways to gain mana, through parrying attacks from enemies and auto regeneration. Mana bar is separated into two sections: the normal mana and bonus mana. The difference between them is that the bonus mana bar can only be filled with parries. As mentioned in the combat system section I’d like to allow attacks to give the player some mana(below one), the amount gained will be based on light or heavy attacks. On top of that I’d combine the mana bar into one and remove auto regen on mana, as attacking and parrying should be the main method of gaining mana. This will help push spell weaving instead of running around and casting spells.

UI

The in game UI holds 3 main contents: spells, health and mana. First of all the spells, it contains an icon of the spell and an indicator when it is on cooldown. Then the health UI which is a standard HP bar, helps indicate the character's health to the player. Lastly the mana UI is separated into two sections: Blue Mana Bar and Orange Mana Bar. The blue mana bar indicates the mana that is gained from either parrying or auto regeneration. The orange mana bar indicates extra stored mana that can only be gained from parrying.

Enemy Ai

There are three different enemies in this game: Melee Fodder, Bruiser and Mid Ranger. They are all designed with a purpose so it can provide a challenge to the player. The melee fodder is designed to be a disturbance to the player as they always rush towards the player and attack only when in melee range.

Then there is the Bruiser whose goal is to damage the player and make the player dodge and parry its attack. It is also a melee attack enemy but will do a leap smash attack when the player is too far away.

Lastly there is a mid ranger enemy, the goal of this enemy is to do damage and take the players attention away from the melee enemies.