ViewTube

Multi-phase bosses are a cliche in JRPGs, but they've made a home in every genre by now. For game designers, breaking up a single fight into a bunch of phases can create more flexibility, more payoff, more chance to tell an interesting narrative, and yeah, maybe more things to watch out for. You think it's over? It's never over. Let's talk about boss phases on a NEW DESIGN DOC TUESDAY! 

Invincibility shows up in tons of games, but a lot of games hinge on the give and take between risk and reward. Invincibility can easily wreck that balance. Get it right though, and you could gain a power fantasy, a run-saver, a tension builder, or a great story theme. Let's talk about how to make invincibility fun!

BEHOLD THE 100TH EPISODE OF DESIGN DOC, SOMETIME BETWEEN FRIDAY AND MONDAY! 

Sleep: The Most Relatable Status Effect. It's everywhere in games, but how sleep finds its way into a game design is open to interpretation. Is it a turn skip, a skill refresh, a dose of realism, a limiter, a thematic element, a pace setter, an obligation, a skeuomorphic convenience, or even something completely different? Sleep is flexible enough to handle a lot of jobs, and the exact implementation can dramatically change how a game feels.

Wake up, get up, get out there. NEW DESIGN DOC THURSDAY! 

Game shops don’t get enough love. Sure, they can be simple exchanges of money for stuff, but they can also act as a center for bartering and negotiating. Or as a place for meeting new characters and uncovering deeper story details. Or a system of chance that can make or break a run. All the way up to mechanics so detailed that they become the entire game itself. We’re talking shop on a NEW DESIGN DOC FRIDAY! 26 minutes for the price of FUN! 

Basic healing systems can be very boring. But healing doesn’t have to be basic. Healing is a high stakes situation, and you can shove in all kinds of risks and dilemmas into healing to make it a cornerstone of the game loop. Damage modifiers, animation lock, stat upgrades, opportunity costs - lots of games have found an arsenal of new spices to perk things up. Let’s talk about how to add spice to a healing system. NEW DESIGN DOC, I’M THINKING FRIDAY!
EDIT: Pushing it back to Saturday for polish. 

Happy 2024! We're chest-deep in the next Design Doc episode process, but we're also sprucing up our Patreon for the new year! We've got an ongoing podcast about how we produce each episode, we added a monthly links newsletter this past year, and we want to add more. What would you like to see us add to the Patreon? 

If your game has room for only 1 status effect, it's probably going to be poison. It's super common for a reason. Poison can adapt to all kinds of different game mechanics - everything from minor chip damage, to a big stat decrease, to a Doom Timer that you have to deal with RIGHT NOW. It's even flexible enough to anchor tons of unique aesthetics and settings. Let's talk about how games use poison! NEW DESIGN DOC MONDAY!

EDIT: TUESDAY! 

Boss fights aren't all equally cool. Any game can shove a weird centipede or a floaty hands man in your face and call that a boss. Rival boss fights are usually way more memorable. But rival bosses are a slow burn. Rivals have to be built over time to fit the deeper structure of a game's narrative and gameplay. The extra work is worth it, though, if you want maximum impact. Let's make it personal. NEW DESIGN DOC MONDAY! 

Super moves have a baked-in design problem. They're almost by definition the most powerful thing you can do in a game, but they can't be TOO good. All that power has to come at a major price, else super moves can destroy the fabric of the combat system they're built into, no matter if it's a fighting game or any other genre. Luckily, that price can come in all kinds of forms, and this give-and-take can create the signature feel of a game's action. Let's take a tour of some ways you can balance a super move. NEW DESIGN DOC FRIDAY! (or Monday if I drop my combo) 

There are too many games this fall. I will destroy them all myself. You get to save one. Pick your favorite child.

(this upcoming ep's taking longer than expected, probably out next thursday)