Portfolio

Aeon Wars

A digital wargaming experience

Working at an indie game studio

Aeon Wars: Maschinen Crisis is a digital wargaming game set in a unique Hard Scifi universe developed by Soliton Interactive; Command your customized armies and execute daring strategies in this highly detailed game fusing tabletop wargaming and video games in a new and exciting way.

Â

During my internship at Soliton Interactive, I worked closely with the creative director Liko-Paul Pinsonnault on overhauling the design of multiple game systems including unit movement, unit activation, action points, unlocks and progression. I also collaborated with studio producer Catherine Messier on pre-production, scope and risk management.

My Roles as a Game Designer

Overhauland redesign the movement system to include verticality.
-Create new abilities and equipment to give each unit a unique role and flavor.
-Task Management in Jira, Meetings in MS Teams and design documentation in Confluence.
-Help set a realist production scope for the game’s budget and timeline.
Explore and iterate on the game’s undefined areas (unlocks, progression, player journey) to limit risk.

Core Gameplay Loop Redesign

Initiative and Command Points

Each player starts the game with a set amount ofÂCommand Points(CP)a resource that can be used at the start of the game to win initiative or spentÂduring any turn to give extra Action Points (AP)
to a unit.

The player that bid the most CP will win initiative and be the first player to act. Initiative can be leveraged to play more aggressively, initiate favorable engagements and pressure the other player, but the second player will have access to more CP to invest into its turns, generating a strong defense.

Alternating activation & Action Points

Each unit has its own pool of Action Points (AP).

At the start of every player turn, all units of that player recharge a set amount of AP.

The player can then activate one unit and spend some or all of its AP to perform actions (players alternate activating one unit at a time).

Some actions (or combinations of actions) will consume more AP than the amount recharged by the unit in a turn, so playing the same unit in succession will result in less and less impactful turns (since less and less actions will be performed).

This mechanic would give astrong incentive to players toactivate different units every turn to alwaysperform full AP turns (spending all of the accumulated AP of a unit),cycling other units until the used units have fully recharged, while alsogiving theoption to reactivate a recently played unit (but doing so might result in a less impactful turn, since it has less AP to use.

Movement System Overhaul

Movement system exploration takeaways

  • Units that are able to get to a destination without needing to use a ladder (by using equipment like Rocket Jump or Thrusters) always reach the destination faster than units forced to use ladders.

  • Ladders (or similar terrain features) are necessaryto give access to verticality to all units and avoidsituations where one player is unable to respond to its opponent’s movement or to contest a zone.

  • Ladders are key control points enabling vertical movement for infantry units. Their strategic advantage will often lead them to be targeted by Overwatch actions, disabled via terrain destruction, trapped with mines or covered with effects (slows, fire, etc.).

  • The risks tied to using ladders, combined with the slower movement tied to the necessity of getting close to a ladder before going up, makes movement abilities really impactful during gameplay and strong picks for any units able to equip them.

  • Getting a +20% range bonus when firing at lower units encourages players to take verticality into consideration when building their army and preparing strategies (ignoring high ground will come at a cost, as units on high ground will be able to shoot units in low ground, while the units in low ground won’t be able to shoot back at them unless they close the distance first). The range bonus could scale with the height difference between a unit and its target.

New equipment: Grenade

Each frag grenade deals 1-3 damage in its area of effect. Since attack patterns are relatively tight, enemy models are likely to be hit by multiple grenades and suffer more damage. This ability is really powerful at the start of the game, but looses power as models die and less grenades are thrown. Its limited uses (1 to 3) and short range also serve as balancing factor.

Each variants of the Grenade Throw ability use a different attack pattern to determine how the grenades are spread (Cross, Line, Moon and Torus, etc.).

New equipment: Proximity Mine

Mines have a 3M detection radius. When a unit moves inside the range of a mine or when a mine is shot or damaged (by grenades, shotgun AoE, fire, etc.), it detonates, covering a 3M radius zone with explosions.

If a mine is deployed within 3M of a unit, it detonates as soon as that unit moves or the mine takes damage. The Pinned unit can still use other actions (like shooting) without triggering the mine.

Mines can trigger a chain reaction if placed within 3M of each other.

Unit Progression Cards

To add more varietyand depth, each unit was designed with various stats upgrades and abilitiesthat can be obtained by playing that unit in matches. Each unit exists in 3 tiers: Recruit, Trooper and Elite. A higher tier brings more powerful stats and options, but comes at a bigger recruitment cost.