Case Study Project

Case Study Project: Week One

Our task was to select a retro arcade game or a more recent retro-style 2D game that we will work with as a case study. This week we sketched 3 interactable objects that could fit into the game's design and describe their features, mechanics and how the player would know to interact with them.

I chose Dead Cells as my case study game, as it was a game that I had experience and was comfortable with. If you have never heard of it, then here is a quick rundown. Dead Cells was released in May 2017 by the studio Motion Twin. It is a 2D, roguelike, indie game that follows the story of a character named the prisoner. The prisoner fights through different, randomly generated levels, earning new gear and upgrades while fighting enemies and bosses, all which get stronger as the character progresses through the levels. The order of the levels is always the same and there are a few different pathways of levels you can choose to traverse, all of which lead to the same final boss, The Hand Of The King. After defeating this boss, you go back to the start, and you unlock a new difficulty as well as all the upgrades you achieved in the last run. You collect gold coins to upgrade your gear during the run, and cells by defeating enemies which you use to unlock permanent upgrades, such as weapon and perk unlocks or new cosmetics. Playing on higher difficulties makes the game more rewarding but require more skill to progress.

All images are personal in-game screenshots.

Now let's talk about the task for Week One. I wanted to create objects that were based on already-existing in-game objects, essentially creating the same object but with a different look and mechanic. It was hard to find different objects to create that would fit the game's gameplay loop and because the game already has several different mechanical objects already. I found three game objects that I decided to 're-create'. These were the chest, currency node and doors. Here is a brief explanation of how the game objects work as well my sketch of my version of the object.

Object One: Chest

Dead cells have two different chests that you can encounter in a run. There's the regular chest, that gives you a free weapon or skill when opened, and the cursed chest that rewards an improved weapon or skill but gives the player the curse (the curse is essentially a de-buff that requires the player to defeat X amount of enemies without being hit. If the player is damaged from any source while they are cursed, they are killed instantly).

The regular chest.

The chest that I created somewhat joins the mechanics of both the existing chests into one. The 'Chest of Wealth' takes the idea of the regular chest giving an item that causes to negative effects and the idea of the cursed chest having a requirement to fulfil. This chest will require the player to spend X number of coins in return for one improved weapon and one improved skill. The player will see a prompt to open the chest when close to it.

A sketch of a basic chest design.

Object Two: Barrel

For this object I wanted to create an additional way the player could earn the in-game currency. The game currently has a few different ways to earn currency such as defeating enemies, finding gold nodes and finding gems that are hidden in the levels.

I decided to create a gold barrel as I though it fit much of the game's visuals. I designed this object with the intention of it being a rarer source of currency or something that is harder to reach or achieve. For example, barrels could be located at the end of challenge rifts or inside the doors that require boss cells to enter. The amount they would give you would sit in middle of the range that the hidden gems can offer. To clarify, the lowest value items are gold teeth and shiny rocks at 100 gold and drop frequently from enemies, bosses, challenges or even by parrying with the greed shield. The highest value item is a fragment of the philosopher's stone at 75,000, however it has a 0.2% drop chance from enemies and is incredibly rare to find in wall runes. the midground in terms of currency pickups are the sapphires and rubies at roughly 100 to 1500 gold. Seeing as this barrel is full of the lower valued shiny rocks, a value in this range seems suitable. The gold would be visible from the top of the barrel and would create a shiny effect, encouraging the player to attack is with their weapon to break it and collect the gold. According to the Dead Cells wiki, the sapphires and rubies are rare and very rare. The barrel would follow the same rarity but would be more predictable to locate.

Object Three: Door and Key System

Dead Cells has a few different doors with different mechanics. For example, doors that require boss stem cells (which you get from beating the game) give the player more to explore and more gear to earn. The Stilt Village level is also full of doors that lead to markets, chests or keys that are essential to progress the level. With this system I wanted to reward the player for exploring the whole level, as the key to this door would be hidden in a random area of the level. Technically this already exists in the second level with the Gardener's keys as well as across multiple different levels, but using these keys would only reward gear and/or currency. The system I am proposing creates a new challenge for the player in terms of enemies or a challenge, or both. These doors could be hidden in every other level for example and could present challenges that the player has never seen. The game Hollow Knight has a coliseum arena like area where you can attempt the three, escalating in difficulty, trial of the Warrior, Conqueror and Fool to earn rewards and level up your player. What I am saying is essentially adding a horde based minigame behind these doors that rewards the player for staying alive and surviving.

These challenges could be some of the most rewarding tasks in the game as there are multiple steps, but should not be esetnial as this could affect speed runs or no-hit runs. These challenges could offer a new permanent rune unlock, or could offer new cosmetics and high level equipment. They could also be filled with the gold barrels I designed. I wanted these doors to be easily noticable and they should not look inviting but also rewarding at the same time. When the player nears the door a prompt would show explaining that the corresponding key would be needed to open the door. As mentioned earlier this is in a random part of the level and could be guarded by higher level enemies, for example.