Project Overview:

In Caves, Shrooms & Crystals you play as a skeleton looking to eradicate the mushroom infestation that has taken over the crystal caves in a mix of gun play and platforming.

When killed, enemies release different effects that affect both the Player and Enemies in the Area of Effect, making them both a threat and a weapon for the player.

My Role:

As System Designer, I designed all the enemy’s attacks and effects on death.

There are 7 types of enemies, 2 of which have melee and ranged attacks and no Effect on Death.

For the other five, I compiled a document to describe their effects, their attack patterns and references for VFX that AI Programmer used as reference for their implementation:

Explosive – explodes when in contact with the player or killed;

Freezing – creates a small area that damages and slows down who is in the AoE and does the same when killed, but in a larger area, slowing for a longer time and dealing more damage;

Lightning – When killed release a bolt in a straight line forward and backward, stunning and damaging who gets hit;

Poisonous – releases a small poisonous cloud when close to the player and a bigger one when killed. Both deal damage on tick to whoever is in the AoE;

Smoke Cloud – When killed releases a cloud of black thick smoke that impairs the vision of the player when inside of its AoE;

As these effects on death affect both the enemies and the player, the latter can use them to sweep multiple enemies at once creating satisfying chain effects.

I also designed and implemented all the upgrades in the game and the chest system used to randomize the item drop. Upgrades are divided into 4 categories of rarity.

Players receive a random Item from each chest, and most of them have stackable effects, so it’s possible to create builds that rely more on damage or movement, depending on player’s preference. To give the player some freedom in the build creation we also implemented a shop system that uses the same randomization of the chest, but offer a choice of up to 5 upgrades that can be bought multiple times, with an increased price after every purchase.

As Gameplay Designer, I balanced enemy encounters and the values of enemy and player damage, health and upgrades value, to create a challenging but satisfying experience. To get the right balance the whole team playtested the game and then referred to me how they felt about it so that I could adjust it.