Jordan Brown - Game Design Documentation Samples

What is Hail?

Hail is a unique default action available to the player through Bell throughout the game.

What does Hail do?

When players use Hail, they choose an active enemy Mech within range. Bell then engages the NPC in a brief Visual Novel conversation where they try to convince the enemy pilot to defect, leaving their allies to fight alongside Bell and company. If Bell successfully Defects the enemy pilot to their side, they immediately change sides, entering the player's combat turn order like their other Units. If Bell is unsuccessful, the enemy Pilot closes all communications, and their turn automatically ends. In the AAR after the mission, the defected enemy Pilot and their Mech enter the player's inventory, becoming available for combat individually or as a component of Batallion.

Functions Within the Design

Hail has a few critical functions in HoF:

• Serves as a moral and mechanical foil to killing enemy Pilots and gaining Currency
• Provide players with Recruitment Points - the number of enemy Pilots the player successfully Defects in a mission is directly proportional to the quantity of Recruitment Points received in the AAR
• Allows the player to gain new, possibly more specialized or powerful Mechs and Pilots
• Allows the player to appeal to the morality and desires of an NPC(s) that doesn’t believe in murdering fellow humans on the battlefield, increasing their Narrative Progression Value
• Allows the player to exercise their own beliefs in combat if they want to pursue a non-violent course of action

Hail Range

Conceptually, Hail has unlimited range —> the player can target any enemy on the battlefield with Hail since it’s basically a Skype / Discord / Phone call.

In Engine:

• 30

Hail Defection Calculations

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1in6TRwkDqPZdpQsyaWySDj1tIJ8iNj5tbZIHVooACJU/edit?usp=sharing