Chenyang Huang
© Chenyang Huang

VAHALLA

My role: System Design, UX design, UI design, Narrative design

After Mythic Heroes was released two years ago, many players complained that the game was not fun anymore. They are doing Daily tasks over and over, especially those who have been at the final level. 


To solve these issues, we had many discussions. I suggested this new game mode, Bounty Contract, to my lead designer, who accepted it. 


In this game mode, the player will select a series of bounties before the battle starts. The more Bounties they choose, the harder the battle will be and the more battle points they can get.

Economic Flow Map


The map below explains the economic flow. Bounty is to increase the battle difficulty, and Boon, on the contrary, decreases the difficulty.


In Depth

The most challenging thing for this system is adjusting the difficulty flow. We have to keep testing while changing it. Here I list some things we did to achieve it.

Four Classes Enemeis


Although the difficulty curve is set up, as I tested, there is insufficient progress. That is because the player level difference in our game is enormous, and the bounties and boons are not enough to compensate.


My lead designer gave me a solution to set up enemies with four classes. So, the enemy level is classified into Lv250, Lv300, Lv350, and Lv400. The higher class’s enemies also give more battle points by 2, 3, and 4 times.


By doing so, the average player can feel a strong progression each time they choose a higher-class enemy. And the difficulty will drop after they unlock more boons.




Design Bounty and Boons


Bounty makes the battle more difficult, while Boons, on the contrary, make the battle easier. As I previously stated, the reason for designing them both is so that we can control the difficulty curve as we see fit.


Designing an interesting bounty, or boon, makes the player's decision much more fun, while some bad designs make the player feel it only changes the attribute. 


For example, I purposefully designed two bounties as a group. If you select only one of them, it doesn't impact much. However, if you choose the other one, the impact is substantial. So, the player has to choose carefully and try out different combinations.

User Experience


User experience design plays a significant role in this system. The player needs to be able to select or deselect the bounty quickly, so they can keep trying out different combinations.


Research





I researched several games with a similar system, such as Hades, Arc-knight, the Forbidden Divines, and Genshin Impact.


After studying them, I think ARC knight has the best layout, because the player can see the description of the bounty and the list of items they have already selected on the same screen.




Wireframe

I use Adobe XD to drew some wireframes to explain the user experience to the UI artist.







Prototype


Later, I create a functional prototype to help the programmer to understand the UI flow.

Numeriacal Design & Data Test

Difficulty Curve


A point of 300 on the green line equals maximum rewards. Once the player passes this point, there are no more rewards, only ranking. That means average players can get full rewards, but the top player can keep challenging themselves by climbing the rank.


I gave this difficulty curve to the combat designer, which explains the average player experience I try to achieve, although it is just an early plan. In the beginning, I want the player to feel that the difficulty is acceptable, and then as they unlock more bounty, the enemies get stronger, and the battle gets more brutal. The player will stop at a certain point because it is too hard for them.


However, we also give the player boons, which buff the player, so as they unlock more boons, the difficulty will drop, and they can get further.




Test Sheet

We pull out some player data from the server and separate them into four groups based on their level to ensure all groups of players have a good experience. We kept track of how many points they received each day, how many leaves they had, how difficult they could do, and how many tasks they could complete.



QA Test sheet

This sheet is designed for the QA debugging