OVERVIEW
Dungeon Defenders Awakened is an innovative fusion of strategic tower defense gameplay and white-knuckled action RPG combat. Team up cooperatively with up to four other players as you vanquish hordes of enemies, earn legendary loot, and level up your strength. Travel back in time to battle fearsome enemies both familiar and new in a reimagining of the classic Dungeon Defenders. Build your own unique strategies and watch your creativity be celebrated as you decimate armies of foes and unravel the dark secrets behind your unexpected arrival to the Etheria of days past.
CONTRIBUTIONS
OVERVIEW
The design team was tasked with reimagining the original Dungeon Defenders (DD1) in Unreal 4. DD1 was developed in Unreal 3 and heavily utilized Kismet. Technical limitations made a remaster impossible, thus the development team was tasked creating a complete remake.
Goals I LED
Reverse-Engineer DD1's systems
Design a foundation that could efficiently recreate dd1
ensure the foundation could create brand new content
target cost effective big impact improvements To dd1
modernize the ux design
craft 6 brand new campaign levels
Laying The Foundation
I personally designed
EneMy Scheduling system
Difficulty Scaling
Tower Defense Resource Distribution system
Currency distribution / balance
Player / Enemy Stat Progression curves
Item acquistion / loot tables
procedural loot generation
Reverse-Engineering
The DD1 development team did not document any of the core features, and community documentation proved unreliable. Despite this, I and the rest of the design team successfully reverse engineered a series of complex features. To do this, I deciphered the game's original source code (Unreal script) and Kismet scripts in collaboration with the engineering team. Once everything was understood, I set out to redesign these systems so that they were more intuitive, flexible, and scalable. Listed to the LEFT are some of my biggest contributions to the project.
BRAND NEW CONTENT
SIX NEW LEVELS
We replaced 50% of DD1's levels with brand new levels in DDA. I worked closely with a level designer, who built the levels, to bring these new levels to fruition. My goal as lead designer was to ensure that these new levels were both functionally and contextually successful.
To ensure functional success, I brought the engineering and art teams together to define best implementation practices. I created a detailed breakdown of the key metrics that could be measured to define a level's degree of challenge.
To ensure contextual success, I made certain that the level's overall difficulty followed the difficulty curve of the game at large. I also collaborated with other designers to create playspaces that fit within the game's narrative.
NEW ENEMY & Difficulty
I teamed up with two other designers to develop a brand new enemy: The Siren. The Siren, brought a completely original twist to DDA's gameplay! Not only does she have a devastating magic attack, but she also corrupts nearby enemies with an elemental resistance. To combat the Siren, players need to diversify the towers they build. Over-reliance on one element will earn a swift defeat. The Siren spawns in a brand new difficulty mode, Massacre. I helped balance this difficulty.
