DESIGNER
IndieCade Audience Choice Award winning 12-person multiplayer arcade game where two rival crews battle for supremacy on the high seas. Defeat the enemy captain, scuttle their ship, plunder enough booty or end up shark bait in Davy Jones’ Locker!
I worked on the level design and placement of elements on the island and ships, game balance between the four victory conditions, and quality assurance to find and fix any bugs.
RESPONSIBILITIES
​
Island Design
The island design is extremely important to the gameplay, as two of the four victory conditions, the cannon and gold piles, are on it. Since it is a 6 vs 6 multiplayer game, I had to make sure that every platform and interactable was spaced equally between the opposing ships to keep things fair and symmetrical.
Chest Placement
To win with a plunder victory, players have to collect enough gold from the island and deposit it back to their ship's treasure chest. The chests were originally on the deck of the ships, but this made it too easy to deposit or for opposing players to steal it. Putting the chest on a mast near the top made it less realistic but more challenging to reach, and gave two paths to reach it from.
Game Balance
With four win conditions, having each be balanced and viable was extremely important. By tweaking values and balancing timings, we achieved a near even split across all four from our IndieCade playtest data. We also balanced the game if there are uneven teams by limiting the number of swords, gold you need for a victory, and the number of captain lives based on the other team.
Sword Shop Placement
The sword shop creates an interesting choice: to use held gold towards a plunder victory, or to spend it on a sword to kill enemy players or defuse the cannon. The shops were originally on the island, but that led to players camping them and then only one team possessing swords. By being on the ship, players can buy a sword by taking from their own chest or quickly plundering some island gold.