FOOD FIGHT!

Persona 5 - Atlus, 2016

Pokémon White - Game Freak, 2010

I mention these two masterpieces of role-playing combat not to undermine my own merits, but to highlight what they do that breathes new life into a somewhat outdated form of play.

Persona and UI

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The design team at Atlus recognized that half of their game would take place in menus and stillness. Persona 5, with its insane UI design and animations can take mundane aspects of role-playing games and make them snappy, artistic experiences in themselves. ​

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Following in their footsteps, tried my hand at programming

interesting movement for my own UI. I designed the UI to move

and change when switching between Attack, Spell, and Learn.

By simply making an animation state machine for the UI canvas

and switching it between states for each of the three options, I

was able to create a similar dynamic feeling when choosing

options, granted with a much smaller scope. 

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Also, the choice to make the enemies 2D images versus 3D

models was a creative decision that I think gives the game 

a more coherent sense of style.

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Pokémon and Strategy

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UI doesn't make up the full game, though. If I wanted that, I would just whip something up in After Effects. I wanted my game to have layers to it, something that could keep players engaged by making them think of strategies to survive longer. The first game I could think of that has these deep layers is Pokémon. From Items, to Abilities, to IV/EV's, these games have more layers than the earth has sand, and I knew if I could simulate just a fraction of that, Food Fight! would become a much more engaging game.

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So I took a long time looking over my source material- my own Tabletop RPG I made months before called Flavoresque, and looked at what could count as a layer of strategy. Within that RPG I remembered a spell list I reserved for magic-users. I also remembered a level-up system I designed within each individual class that let players "learn" new abilities. I wanted to simulate playing the tabletop game if it were a JRPG, so I did my best to translate these elements into video game form.

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An interesting innovation that came from this was the Learn button- an option for the player to use up a turn in order to learn a new Spell or a new skill (though for time purposes, I had to tighten the scope and make skills general damage and accuracy buffs rather than entirely new skills). When playtesting, I noticed common strategies appear wherein using the Learn action became a privilege reserved for those who could survive longer or had more Sugar (the "mana" of Flavoresque), after which they had much less trouble overcoming any enemies.

I also learned to pick and choose Spells from my tabletop game's spell list, prioritizing those that would be 1) easy to implement, 2) add layers of strategy, and 3) were fun and interesting - my favorite of which is a spell that creates a pickle satellite that protects the player from damage. 

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The Game Loop

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The strategy only works because of the tightness of the game loop. Designed to add pressure to each decision, the game loop affects each goal or event directly, making every choice meaningful-- and in a game of choice, that matters. 

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As seen in the visual, killing monsters gives a player more

Tastecoins, and a bit of security to buy new Spells. These

spells can in turn be used to increase their own

survivability, thus creating space for them to learn new

spells or upgrade their accuracy/damage. This increases

their overall arsenal and damage output, meaning they

can survive longer.

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