A Cyberpunk, Turn Based RPG Constructed in RPG Maker.

Platform: PC

Engine: RPG Maker MV

Team Size: 2 (Remote)

Duration: 12 weeks

Responsibilities: Combat Systems Design, Encounter Design, Level Design, and Music

Combat Design

The EDGE_NYC (ver. 0.1) features turn based combat similar to many classic JPRGs, featuring a slew of futuristic weapons, skills, and abilities. Touching enemy units on the overworld pulls the player into combat encounters. I set up the combat databases within RPG Maker for character skills, abilities, weapons, debuffs, and statuses. Over 40 different abilities with a variety of strengths and tradeoffs are implemented in the finished game. Skills are divided into 3 distinct categories: Weaponskills, Ordinance and Enhancements.

Weaponskills are dependent on equipped weapon. Swapping weapons changes what Weaponskills a party member will have access to. These skills are related to the role that each weapon plays in combat. Weapons like rifles and pistols offer abilities with balanced single target damage, while SMGs and shotguns instead opt to do damage to multiple targets. Though useful, using Weaponskills burns Energy (or EN), so players can’t just continuously spam high damage attacks.

Ordinance abilities are primarily used to either counter enemy buffs, or inflict debuffs on enemies. These skills, which range from hacking enemies to overheating their weapons, can allow clever players to more quickly and efficiently clear encounters. Ordinance abilities that negate enemy defensive buffs use a different resource to offensive abilities. This resource, Combat Supples (or CS), slowly regenerates to ensure that players will almost always have enough resources on hand to deal with buffed enemies.

Enhancements allow the player to buff or heal their party. This gives players extra options for survivability and dealing additional damage.

Together, all of these systems make up the combat of THE EDGE_NYC (ver. 0.1).

Encounter Design

The current state of the game uses 3 different enemy types (plus two boss level enemies) in different arrangements for each encounter. Enemies have different attack patterns based on their current health (i.e., prioritizing damage when at high health, using healing/support abilities at lower health) and the status of the player’s party members . Encounters are triggered by running into enemy units in the overworld, and can often be avoided by clever maneuvering. Early encounters are limited to 2 enemies. Once Kira is added to the party, the encounters gain an additional enemy to keep the combat from getting too same-y.

Tutorials

The initial encounter is heavily scripted to allow for a thorough exploration of the game’s core mechanics in a low stakes environment. Comedic writing is used to offset the potentially annoying railroading of the encounter.

Several tricks were used to tweak RPG Maker’s limited functionality and allow the tutorial to progress correctly. The player character is given invisible status debuffs/buffs that disable/enable abilities based on progression through the fight.

Level Design

Genovese’s manor is designed to emulate a section of a sprawling gangster’s manor. To achieve this, the upper floor area is divided into “wings” which branch out from the manor lobby.

The player starts the level inside of a room within the manor’s west wing. In the west wing, players will run into their first overworld enemy, which has been placed in a narrow corridor to make it very difficult to avoid the encounter. Following the fight, they are guided to the east wing by both dialogue and additional enemy placement in the lower section of the lobby and the north wing. Since players do not have a healer in their party at this point, they will be discouraged from taking any additional engagements that aren’t required to progress towards their goal. Once Kira joins their party, they are given the tools they need to comfortably engage the additional enemies patrolling the lower floors. Once in the lower floors, players will have to engage in at least one fight before they reach Puppy and trigger the final cutscene/boss battle. This is to make sure that even players who successfully dodged every other encounter still have some experience outside of the tutorial with the game’s combat systems.

Co-developed by Kseniia Syromiatova and Matt Grainger.