Timeless Tale
Battle System
I was in charge of design and creation of the game's turn-based battle system. Both the system itself and the user menus are very modular and make frequent use of inheritance to make adding new enemies and attacks as simple as possible. By the end of the project, it was as easy for the designers to swap out enemies for each battle as selecting them from a drop-down menu.
ChronoBooster™
The game's attack mechanics were designed with three rules in mind: they should be fun, active, and masterable. This led to the creation of the ChronoBooster™ system, a rhythm-game-inspired quicktime event that allows the player to boost the effectiveness of their attacks. I implemented it such that the pattern is the same every time, but the inputs are randomized so even experienced players still need to focus to reap the rewards.
Defense
The main focus for defense mechanics was player agency, so I created a system that gives the player four options: they can block, duck, jump, and counter. Enemies can attack from three angles, and they will always telegraph their decision. This allows the player to react and select the defensive option they believe will be most effective.
Dialogue System
RPGs tend to have a lot of dialogue, so I designed a text system with a large variety of customization options. The text scrolls and plays a "speaking" sound while a character is talking, and displays a button prompt when they have finished. The scroll speed, sound pitch, text color, boldness, and italicization are all customizable.
Dialogue Events
Important in-game events tend to be paired with dialogue. For this reason, I created an event system that allows designers to specify functions to be called at specific points in the dialogue. This can be used for anything from rewarding a player with an item to triggering cutscene animations.
Character Controller
Any game with an overworld needs some way for the character to move around and explore. I designed a 3D character controller that allows the player walk, run, jump, and interact with NPCs and objects. The speed and jump physics can be adjusted inside the Unity editor to get the feel of it just right.
Boss Battle
Working on this game opened my eyes to the design of boss fights. Bosses aren't just stronger enemies - they're puzzles that test your knowledge of game mechanics. As such, I designed the boss battle with a puzzle of its own that, if solved, makes the fight a lot easier. Additionally, I personally implemented all of the attacks and balanced the numbers myself.
Story
As there was no writer on the team, we needed someone to come up with the dialogue for all the characters. I ended up taking on the task and writing almost every line of dialogue in the game. I think I do a better job at writing humorous characters than serious ones, but I'm pretty happy with it overall. I also threw in a few references to past projects.