Jordan Brown - Game Design Documentation Samples

Mechanical Progression

How Does Unlocking Abilities Work?

Since one of the primary ways players express themselves in combat is through activated and passive abilities that expand a Unit's capabilities in combat, the Player should be able to change what abilities their Units use. We can control how and when the Player gains access to new abilities as they progress using a progression system that tracks how many resources the Player has invested into improving a Mech. To do this, we can use Levels, a simple number that represents how many times the player has purchased a Mech stat upgrade using both Currency and Recruitment Points. Each time a Mech reaches a Level Threshold, they can choose a new ability.

How Are New Abilities Unlocked?

Unlockable abilities are arranged in a table, and each Mech has a unique table with unique abilities. Every time a Mech reaches a Level threshold (in five-level increments), they unlock a new “row” of abilities. The Player can select one ability from each row to use in combat. The player can change which ability they use in each row in both the pre-combat phase and post-combat phase.

How Many Rows And Abilities Are There?

Levels

Rows

Ability Unlock Tables

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UA14nlOPDuS5MrdqMZFziSM_s3wXuRcJYBk3zfvUMqI/edit?usp=sharing

Costs to Unlock New Abilities

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WlbRJZmhtQUn-qXmyjXlmH77HMxik5QS6WlXL_Hjsnc/edit?usp=sharing