A blog where I do my best to practice game design and analysis. Mostly used to post ideas and brainstorming and the occasional thoughts I have as I work.
In this
one, the title really just speaks for itself, an enclosed area in which the
player uses their current Diablo 3 characters to clear waves and attempt to
make it o the end.Not much more to it
than that.Easy enough to get creative
with wave design with the large number of monsters and champion affixes in
Diablo 3.Various modes could be
created, some with set waves, others random, some infinite.It would give players a pretty chaotic
challenge and they would be easy to design.
Aside from
that, not a whole lot to say, most gamers have encountered an arena style game
or fight, this would not be much different from that.
The second
mode that has come to my mind is a take on the current MOBA genre (games like
LoL, DotA, HoN).For those who have
actually played a Strife map back in Warcraft 3 days, this will seem pretty
familiar.I do believe however that it
would fit very well into the Diablo 3 engine and universe.
Goal
Each map
will consist of two bases on opposite sides.One will be the player base, the other will be the base of the
demons.They will be connected by multiple
paths upon which computer controlled minions will travel down and fight.Players will spend their time pushing enemy
minions down the lanes, ultimately attempting to reach and destroy the enemy
base.
Lanes
A good
majority of the players time will be spent in the lanes.As the enemy will only be NPCs, their waves
of minions will be stronger than the players and will quickly push towards a player’s
base if a lane is left alone for too long.Under normal circumstances, when a player is in lane, they will begin to
push the lane towards the enemy base.As
time progresses, the enemy minions will go stronger and new types will begin to
spawn.
The lanes
themselves will each be different.One
may be a straight shot to the base, others may wind through a forest or
swamp.Some may even go through a cave
system.Having paths of different lengths,
perhaps even different spawns than the other ones, would force players to
decide the priority of each lane, and how far they wanted to push them respectively.
The Player Base
A large
part of player decision making would be made at the player base.Here, there would be a lot of options for
them to spend the resources they will earn over the course of the mode.Players would have to choose from buying
equipment for themselves, upgrading their troops, adding new spawns, creating
new buildings and defenses, summoning special troops, and a host of other
options.
Champions, Control
Points, and Events
While most
of a players time will be spent in a lane, several things will happen that will
force players to have to change lanes and shift their focus from simply pushing
them.The first and most common of these
will be Champion spawns.Occasionally
and generally in a random lane, a Champion pack will spawn.These will represent a major threat to the
lane they are in and players will be forced to shift their attention to this
spawn or otherwise watch the lane quickly make the way to the player base.
The second
distraction from the lanes will be Control Points placed along the map.These can be directly in the lanes, or off in
random places.Players will fight the
NPC’s for these points and the team that controls them will acquire some sort
of advantage.This could be in the form
of resource generation, way points, long range defenses, or area/global buffs.Keeping control of these points would greatly
benefit the player and while under their control the enemy would at times send
special waves to try to reclaim them.
A third
distraction, would be events.These
could be triggered by the player (such as the construction of a trebuchet), or
be random generated (such as a massive enemy wave, or having to interrupt the
channeling of an enemy spell.).Some
events could even be the claiming of an objective in which both sides must
fight to reach it and bring it back to base
Player Characters
There are two ways to use the
classes of Diablo 3 and players characters in this mode.The first is an extremely simple
implementation.Just use player’s actual
characters.For most situations this would
work out well, basing difficulties off of the difficulty structure of the main
game.The only downside to this would be
that players could out scale the challenge at extremely high levels of gear.
The other option would be give
players a starting set of gear at the beginning of the mode, and allow them to
use resources or gold gather in the mode to upgrade their gear from shops (as
well as potentially having enemies drop loot.This would allow designers to create a stable level of challenge based
on the map/difficulty of that mode, keeping it as something for players to overcome,
not overpower.
Of course, both methods could also
be used with varying difficulties created for both.
End
A mode like this would allow for
designers to quickly create content that would be both enjoyable and
challenging to players.It would be
different and fresh style of play while still remaining true to the feel of
Diablo 3.Current content could be
recycled and used in a new way providing players with a change of pace without
a lot of design time.As the main Diablo
3 game progressed, any new content created there could be used in this mode as
well.
My first idea is a take on the
classical tower defense genre, but much more action oriented.For this mode, I have made a small map as an
example.
Grey – Ramparts
Blue – Area to Protect
Brown – Destructible Barricades
Red – Bridge
Yellow – Cliff
Green – Underground Entrance
Arrows – Wave Spawn Points
White – Monster Paths
Goal
Players will be attempting to stop a
constant flow of monsters from reaching their revive crystal located at the end
of the NPC pathways.If this crystal is
destroyed, the mode is over.Players
will protect this crystal by actively fighting against the stream of monsters
and hiring squads to aide them in their defense.
Squads
Rather than your traditional towers
for defense, Squad Captains will be placed in various locations of the map (or
a new system could be designed to allow them to be placed anywhere, but with
the current mechanics, preplaced NPC’s would be easiest).Players could then talk to these squad
captains to hire various types of soldiers under their command.These squads would then protect their area,
attacking and/or distracting anything within range.However, unlike traditional defenses, your
squads will be attacked, causing the player to have to decide how to build
them, based upon their location (some captains will be in places monsters never
attack, others may be right along the paths).The squads will the player’s main source of dealing with the constant
stream of monsters, allowing the player’s to focus on the more dangerous
threats.
Monsters and Events
In each map, weak/normal monsters will
constantly be attacking from the main spawn points.At first, players will be handling this
stream on their own. As they collect resources, they will begin to hire the
squads to deal with them.Over time,
they constant streams will get stronger, forcing the player to keep an eye on
them, and continue to upgrade and hire squad members.The primary focus of the players however,
will not be these streams of monsters, but rather the random events/spawns that
will occur throughout the defense.
Throughout the course of the mode,
most of a player’s time will be dealing with Champion and Elite spawns.Left unchecked, these spawns will take a
heavy toll on your squads, putting the player far behind and causing the
regular stream of minions to become a big threat.So players will run to the various lanes and
spawn points (aided by waypoints) to handle this larger threat.
Aside from just champion spawns,
players will have to turn their attention to events that transpire over the
course of the fight.These could include
new paths opening up, a wave of flyers, or a group of mobs that climb your
walls attempting to attack your squads from behind.Events could also include protecting workers
while they build a long range catapult, new training facility, or put up a
wall.Players could also be required to
stop enemy events that would summon devastating creatures or debuff spells.
Player Characters
There are two ways to use the
classes of Diablo 3 and players characters in this mode.The first is an extremely simple
implementation.Just use player’s actual
characters.For most situations this would
work out well, basing difficulties off of the difficulty structure of the main
game.The only downside to this would be
that players could out scale the challenge at extremely high levels of gear.
The other option would be give
players a starting set of gear at the beginning of the mode, and allow them to
use resources or gold gather in the mode to upgrade their gear from shops (as
well as potentially having enemies drop loot.This would allow designers to create a stable level of challenge based
on the map/difficulty of that mode, keeping it as something for players to overcome,
not overpower.
Of course, both methods could also
be used with varying difficulties created for both.
End
A mode like this would allow for
designers to quickly create content that would be both enjoyable and
challenging to players.It would be
different and fresh style of play while still remaining true to the feel of
Diablo 3.Current content could be
recycled and used in a new way providing players with a change of pace without
a lot of design time.As the main Diablo
3 game progressed, any new content created there could be used in this mode as
well.
New Gameplay from Old
Content – Diablo 3 Game Modes
Recently,
Blizzard announced that Diablo 3’s endgame is currently unsustainable.There is only so much pull that the item hunt
can generate, especially with so much gear readily available on the Auction
House.However, creating brand new
content is a huge endeavor.The time and
money that goes into the art, story, sound, music, quest design, character and
monster creation, to name a few parts, is enormous, especially for a game with
the quality that Diablo 3 has.Adding on
to that, new content (specifically a new Act) has to fit into the difficulty
structure currently in the game, leading to a potential redistribution of
difficulty, exp, items, etc throughout the current difficulty levels.
This got me
thinking and so, I started brainstorming and I’d like to share a few ideas I
came up with.Now bear with me one
these, I know the Diablo universe is not known for “modes” but with PvP being
designated to an arena separate from the game itself, “modes” might work out
pretty well.The reason I’ve come up
with ways to create content in terms of mode is two-fold.One, using current content in new ways to
create new styles or realms of play cuts down tremendously on time and money
design takes.The other reason, is that
people enjoy short term burst of challenges; they keep players engaged without
becoming too much because there is no end. So, without further ado and without
going into a ton of detail (which I have), here are some of my ideas for content
that can be challenging, enjoyable, and quickly designed.
