A strong player progression is fundamental for most games.
During development we begin to feel that such progression was lacking.
The game was asking us to add something else to empower the players.
After some discussion we agreeded to add a Skill Tree, where players could increase their stats and buy a series of Special Skills.
Design
One of the main design pillars we chose for Shards of Hope was 'Game as a canvas', so we wanted to push forward as many mechanics and systems that could let the player decide their own playstyle.
Hence, we made sure that each of the 6 Skills we were making had a different use:
raw damage, defense, support, movement, dps, etc.
We wanted all players to have, at least, one Skill they’d find fun to use.
Initial design for the Skills
Implementation
Adding the Skills to the game was no easy task.
Some of them required systems that didn’t exist, one of them required a whole manager to ensure the time alterations didn’t cause negative effects…
The most important lesson I've learned from this process was that it doesn't matter if something works on paper.
What's really important is how it works on the game.
Does it work with all the other systems?
Is it fun to play?
Some skills, like the Light of Nyx or Light Armor were changed and iterated until those answers were a solid ‘Yes!’.
Others suffered minimun to none changes in their approach, but still received a lot of work adjusting every parameter until they were utmost polished.
Result
In the following video you’ll see how the Skills look like on the finished version.
I also want to mention that all of the Skills' sound design was also my job.
It greatly helped me realize how many implications every little mechanic has on every person on the team: production, code, art, sound, etc.