Live Service Action RPG
Intro
In my ~2 years working on this title, I have been responsible for a diverse array of systems within the game, from combat systems, to narrative components, to game modes, and more.
Most notably, I am the design owner for Year 7 Season 1 – Crossroads, responsible for the Seasonal Modifiers and Scouts System, as well as the design owner for the next upcoming season.
Highlights
■ Design Owner of two key seasonal systems within Year 7 Season 1 – Crossroads, namely the Seasonal Modifiers and Scouts. You can see me talking about the season here, and here is a content creator talking about the Modifiers.
■ Design Owner of two key seasonal components of Year 7 Season 2 (upcoming), which I will disclose once the season is officially announced.
■ Responsible with handling the player flow between the base game and the upcoming expansion. This includes Tutorials, eligibility requirements and other base-game-to-expansion transition topics.
■ Created the Milestone Builds system – a way for new players to learn the basics of gear and builds within our game. It is meant as a way to onboard players to the endgame before they reach it so that they feel less lost. Content Creators and players alike received them pretty positively.
■ Reworked the Dark Zone matchmaking system, addressing common complaints regarding a large discrepancy between skill levels of the PvPvE environment. The community received the feature very well, as you can see here.
■ Rebalanced Loot Rarity Charts to support the One Endgame update (Y6S1), which allowed all players to enjoy the same content equally, regardless of expansion ownership.
■ Revamped the Projects System in Y6S1, allowing for all players to enjoy the same daily and weekly activities together, regardless of expansion ownership.
■ [NDA Bound] An exciting feature that I’m very proud of having designed is coming very soon: stay tuned!
The design philosophy behind Y7S1’s Seasonal Modifiers
With each new season, we aim to bring new toys for players to explore and experiment with.
These toys need to revolve one central mechanic – the Global Modifier – and must bring something new that is fun and meaningful.
At the same time, it needs to give players an opportunity to change how they build their character for the season – therefore it needs to be closely tied to the game’s gear system.
■ Global Modifier: “Hard-Core” – a new system that introduces elements familiar from the first game in the form of three new attributes: Firearms, Stamina and Electronics. Each one of them synergizes with the gear composition of the player’s build, offering new bonuses in exchange.
■ Hostile Modifiers – their job is to give enemy combatants a way to counteract the boosts given to players this season, while also being carefully integrated into the seasonal gameplay loop. This season, enemies are marked with any combination of the same three attributes that players have – offering powerful bonuses to them, while at the same time increasing the player’s corresponding attribute when defeated.
■ Active Modifiers are a new, input-activated way of manipulating the Global Modifier. This season’s Active and Enemy Modifiers are designed to synergize and introduce a new minute-to-minute combat loop: build up your attribute score → use the Active Modifier → gain a powerful boost → reset your attribute scores -> repeat.
■ Passive Modifiers – a new component to build-making. They resemble The Division 1’s Weapon Talents, in the fact that they only activate when the player’s Attribute Scores reach a certain threshold. The player can select up to 3 from the 11 available, each one of them being designed to offer variety to all manners of builds and shaking up the current meta.