Bedevil
Role
Economy Designer,
Level Designer
Engine
Unity
Genre
Rogue-like
Platform
Itch.io
Year
2024
Design Pillars
Replay-ability,
Strategy,
Variety
Bedevil was the final major work I created during my studies at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment Sydney. Over about 6 months I worked with 6 other classmates to create an ambitious rogue-like stealth game in a medieval insectoid setting.
This project stands out among my other work on this portfolio because of its sheer quantity of unique mechanics. The buff system we designed allowed for the replay-ability and strategy the game needed, but also meant that there were many dynamic interactions and edge-cases that we needed to consider.
As the team's Economy Designer, balancing all this was a massive task alongside my other responsibilities. This project proved that I could handle complex large-scale design, compared to the more simple stream-lined prototypes that I've done in the past.
This is the Core Loop of Bedevil's gameplay, and this not only helped inform the moment-to-moment gameplay, but also the content of the unlockable upgrades in the game. While Observe and Plan are universal to any game with strategy, possessing civilians and escaping paladins were unique to this experience, and make up the main actions the player takes.
In response to this, we made sure all of the player buffs related directly to these two actions/phases. In the concepting of new abilities, we kept to three "buff categories": Speed, Possession, and Evasion.