The Demoness of St. Valesky
January 2020 - April 2020
The Demoness of St. Valesky is a short RPG about the leader of a mercenary group who is tasked with clearing out a dungeon full of monsters.
Development Focus
The assignment for the project to develop a game with a focus on narrative design, and featuring catharsis.
What Worked
Serialization
This was my first attempt at using serialization to create saved game files in Unity. Learning to structure all game data so that it could be serialized, and later de-serialized, was a new challenge that I was able to implement in this project.
Dialogue
I was able to create a custom dialogue system that allowed the player to talk to NPC's and interact with some objects in the environment. It it capable of multiple dialogue choices, calling functions in response to choices, allotting different kinds of XP to the player for selecting certain options, and checking for skill levels to access certain dialogue options (although this feature was cut from the final game due to balancing issues).
Interaction Design
I put a lot of work into the UI and how it feels to use. I made a ton of use of Unity's animation system in all UI interactions. A big focus for me was to make sure that each menu felt like it should lead naturally into the next one.
What Didn’t Work
Scope and Unique Development Difficulties
The game was a huge challenge to create due to the scope of being an RPG developed by one person in 4 months. On top of that, the COVID-19 crisis began midway through development. Trying to adapt to how school came to be structured during those months certainly affected development.
XP and Progression Balance
I was not prepared to balance an RPG system in this project. XP gain and progression are extremely rough. I simply did not allot the necessary amount of time to refine these systems. The focus on the Narrative (as that was the purpose of the assignment) also took precedent over refining the system, which is a priority I had to adhere to.