Designer
My work at Grimlore Games
SpellForce 3: Journey Mode
Role: Lead Content Designer & Scripter
Journey is a game mode available for owners of any SpellForce 3 game, providing more than 20 hours of gameplay with emphasis on co-op and replayability. As Lead Content Designer & Scripter I was responsible for designing and implementing (scripting in AngelScript) all missions and gameplay systems of the mode, as well as providing narrative background for its events. I also created technical setup for all dialogues and quests in the mode using Articy, Grimlore Games content creation tool of choice.
You can familiarize yourself with the nature of scripts I wrote for Journey mode by taking a look at this Git repository: https://github.com/DmitriiGruzdev/SF3_JourneyMode_Scripts
Examples of some Mission Design documentation I created:
- Contract: Sacred Duty
- Contract: Heart of Darkness
- Contract: The Kidnapping
- Contract: How to Tame a Dragon
Examples of some Systems Design documentation I created:
- Random Minibosses
- Random Loot
Both systems I designed and implemented were used by another game designer working on the mode. The documentation proved to be sufficient for him to add new random minibosses and random loot to Journey maps on his own.
We used levels from original SpellForce 3 campaign and Soul Harvest expansion as foundation for Journey missions (10 in total and 1 city-HUB), however completely new gameplay that took place there required a lot of changes. On new Journey maps I implemented all technical level changes that directly influence gameplay, such as:
- Placing and tuning logic objects used in scripted events (trigger boxes, interactable objects, etc.)
- Placing spawns (mobs, NPCs, Player)
- Configuring patrol paths of the mobs
- Configuring NPCs' ambient behavior (played animations, movement patterns)
- Placing and tuning resource deposits used for rts economies
- Placing gameplay-significant prebuilt rts buildings
- Creating new and adjusting existing rts sectors (SpellForce 3 is sectors-based rts)
While I was responsible for technical setup of Journey levels, our level designers changed their visuals where it was needed and also tuned ambient NPCs behavior on 'Homecoming' level. In some cases for my technical adjustments or gameplay purposes I had to change visuals of the levels as well and then I kept track of my changes, so level designers will be able to easily find and tweak them if needed:
- Visual Changes to Original Levels
My additional contributions to the mode also include:
- Encounters design
- Tuning experience gain from quests
- Loot distribution
- Additional writing for in-game texts and names
Journey mode was very well received by players and created a significant bump in SpellForce 3 online activity as many opted to play the mode in co-op. It was released on 7th of December 2021.
SpellForce 3:
Arena Mode
Role: Co-Lead Content Designer & Scripter, Game Designer
Arena Mode is endless rogue-like game mode available for all owners of any SpellForce 3 game that can be played in co-op. In this mode you start each session with a fresh character, fight against waves of monsters increasing in difficulty, and buy gear and spells from merchants to compete with other players in the leaderboards.
Before I joined Arena Mode development another scripter prototyped the core concept and defined its game design principles. However, due to another project in development demanded all time of this scripter, I eventually became Arena Mode feature-owner, responsible for the final iteration of the mode that we released.
My work on Arena Mode:
- Balancing player progression from the ground-up
- Balancing Encounters and their scaling
- Scripting unique arena mode mechanics
- Iterating on the mode based on feedback from beta-testers
- Writing all Arena Mode specific in-game texts
- Collaboratively improving initial level designs of Arena maps together with level designers
SpellForce 3:
Reforced Campaign
Role: Content Designer & Scripter
Reforced is a total rework of original SpellForce 3 Campaign that came out in December 2017. This rework involved completely rewriting game scripts, along fixing numerous dialogue and quest bugs, including their localization.
We released Reforced version of SpellForce 3 on 7th of December 2021 for PC, which was claimed by some players to be the largest patch in history of rts games. The main idea behind it was to raise quality of the original game to match with Soul Harvest and Fallen God expansions before SpellForce 3 release on consoles, that is currently planned for March 2022.
The legacy version was extremely riddled with bugs due to inappropriate setup of scripts, quests and dialogues. For Reforced our scripting team was tasked to fix all these issues, spread over 100+ hours of the campaign content of which approximately 40 hours were recorded dialogues.
During SpellForce 3: Reforced development I was responsible for:
- Completely rewriting scripts of major story-heavy levels, facilitating more enjoyable and bugs-free gameplay
- Restructuring quests and dialogues of major story-heavy levels to improve pacing and narrative
- Fixing dialogues and quest setup in Articy to eliminate bugs
- Adjusting and fine-tuning cutscenes
- Designing and scripting new side content
- Fixing in-game texts of dialogues and quests
Shortly after SpellForce 3: Reforced release we also published the detailed modding guide for our community, that was written by me and another designer, and proof-read by one of our writers who is a native English speaker.
Sections of the Modding Guide (table of content has embedded links) that I was responsible for:
- Creating a Journey Map
- Step-By-Step Articy Quest Design Guide
- Step-By-Step Dialogue Creation Guide
- Useful Tips