SBT Dev Log - Character Skillsets
Long time no see!
We’ve seen some people in the group asking about how we designed characters, especially in relates to character skillsets. Thought it’d be a good topic so here it is! We’ll take a look at the ability designs and share some basic knowledge when it comes to designing characters.
Sports Game vs Real Sports
Sports game has always been a niche genre in gaming and people often relate it to real-life sports due to the popularity of games like FIFA and NBA 2K. As for real football (soccer), there are different positions including forward, midfielder, defender and goalkeeper. It’s a common knowledge that different rules were assigned based on their positions, and it seems like this rule have passed onto many sports games as well and people would’ve assumed that character abilities should naturally tight with their positions, so if you’re a defender, your skillset should then only focus on defending.
Things were a little bit different in Super Buckyball Tournament however, we quickly abandoned the idea of linking character abilities with their positions as we found very few people in our studio are willing to play goalie due to its inability to show off in-game and scoring goals, needless to say that in our game character don’t even have a pre-set positions. Therefore, instead of giving characters stereotypical skillsets, we offer each character abilities that are versatile and can be used for both attack & defense.
For instance, Pink‘s ultimate ‘Point Ray’ and right-click ability ‘Color Cannon’ can be useful for both scoring goals and interrupt other’s control over the ball, the same for character R47’s ultimate. As for Lang, although being a striker but he did have a tackling ability, with his ultimate ‘eye of the storm’ being quite supportive rather than attacking-based. Or more generally speaking, we designed all our characters with the mindset of having at least some level of attacking abilities, since players can feel the excitements when scoring goals, even if they play as a goalkeeper. This does not only makes the game more fun but also creates more possibilities in the field.
Characters need versatile skillsets
Balancing The Skillsets
When it comes to ability designs, balancing is something that developers cannot get away with, especially in multiplayer games. In SBT, each character has 2-4 abilities so it took us a lot of time just to balance the game so that each character is not too overpowered and there’s always counter play between characters.
Character Pai is arguably the most popular character among new players, he’s fast, can dash while being very agile. Most importantly, he has the ultimate that can blast the ball into the net without the need to aim. Is he too powerful? Probably yes, but for new players only. Once new players got used to the game and played enough of Pai, they’ll gradually start to realize the advantages of other characters. With the arrival of Gridiron one month after the release, Pai’s effectiveness was further reduced as he was directed countered by him.
Pai's ability can also be useful for defense and counter
Overall, as our first multiplayer project, we still need to learn how to balance characters along the way and there’re a lot more to be done once more characters added in.
The use of basic elements in character abilities
When designing character abilities, it’s worth adding some personalities into it. In SBT we paired each character with some basic elements such as air, fire, energy, lighting and water before we even started to design their skillsets.
Air/Wind: The design of character Lang was inspired by Japanese ninja. Since ninjas are often very fast and disappear without a trace, therefore we believe air/wind should be the most suited element for Lang, and then designed skillsets based on it.
Fire: Both Gridiron and R47’s ultimate has some forms of fire elements, in which you can see from Gridiron’s engine and R47’s girder when blasting out the ultimate. The fire element makes their abilities more alive and vivid.
Energy: Energy usually comes with bright colors and high contrasts, which in line with the designs of Pink.
Electricity/Lighting: Pai is by far the fastest player in SBT, we believe it would be a great fit if his skillsets can be paired with lighting, therefore his entire skillsets are based on lighting and electricity.
Water: It’s pretty obvious that Eriel’s ability sets were based on water, her animations are mostly blue and watery.
Best Ultimate Design
If anyone asked for the best ability we ever designed in SBT, its probably the ultimate from R47. As a character, he not only has excellent defending stats, which you can see from his bulky appearances but also showed amazing talents on both ball control and shot power. As one of our first few designed abilities, R47’s ultimate ‘Batter Up’ uses a girder to hammer up a high-speed fire strike. Unlike the ultimate from Pai which will aim the goal automatically, ‘Batter Up’ completely relies on players' precise control. Sometimes you can score a stunning two-pointer, but in some occasions, it might go completely wide or even ended up scoring an own goal through deflections. It’s an ultimate that’s simple, easy to use but hard to master, which basically sums up the core ideology of the game and sets a cornerstone of our ability designs.
Ever since the start of open development, we have been actively collecting player feedbacks while making the game better. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to discuss with us!
[h3]Join our socials for cool news, updates and contests:[/h3]
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We’ve seen some people in the group asking about how we designed characters, especially in relates to character skillsets. Thought it’d be a good topic so here it is! We’ll take a look at the ability designs and share some basic knowledge when it comes to designing characters.
Sports Game vs Real Sports
Sports game has always been a niche genre in gaming and people often relate it to real-life sports due to the popularity of games like FIFA and NBA 2K. As for real football (soccer), there are different positions including forward, midfielder, defender and goalkeeper. It’s a common knowledge that different rules were assigned based on their positions, and it seems like this rule have passed onto many sports games as well and people would’ve assumed that character abilities should naturally tight with their positions, so if you’re a defender, your skillset should then only focus on defending.
Things were a little bit different in Super Buckyball Tournament however, we quickly abandoned the idea of linking character abilities with their positions as we found very few people in our studio are willing to play goalie due to its inability to show off in-game and scoring goals, needless to say that in our game character don’t even have a pre-set positions. Therefore, instead of giving characters stereotypical skillsets, we offer each character abilities that are versatile and can be used for both attack & defense.
For instance, Pink‘s ultimate ‘Point Ray’ and right-click ability ‘Color Cannon’ can be useful for both scoring goals and interrupt other’s control over the ball, the same for character R47’s ultimate. As for Lang, although being a striker but he did have a tackling ability, with his ultimate ‘eye of the storm’ being quite supportive rather than attacking-based. Or more generally speaking, we designed all our characters with the mindset of having at least some level of attacking abilities, since players can feel the excitements when scoring goals, even if they play as a goalkeeper. This does not only makes the game more fun but also creates more possibilities in the field.
Characters need versatile skillsets
Balancing The Skillsets
When it comes to ability designs, balancing is something that developers cannot get away with, especially in multiplayer games. In SBT, each character has 2-4 abilities so it took us a lot of time just to balance the game so that each character is not too overpowered and there’s always counter play between characters.
Character Pai is arguably the most popular character among new players, he’s fast, can dash while being very agile. Most importantly, he has the ultimate that can blast the ball into the net without the need to aim. Is he too powerful? Probably yes, but for new players only. Once new players got used to the game and played enough of Pai, they’ll gradually start to realize the advantages of other characters. With the arrival of Gridiron one month after the release, Pai’s effectiveness was further reduced as he was directed countered by him.
Pai's ability can also be useful for defense and counter
Overall, as our first multiplayer project, we still need to learn how to balance characters along the way and there’re a lot more to be done once more characters added in.
The use of basic elements in character abilities
When designing character abilities, it’s worth adding some personalities into it. In SBT we paired each character with some basic elements such as air, fire, energy, lighting and water before we even started to design their skillsets.
Air/Wind: The design of character Lang was inspired by Japanese ninja. Since ninjas are often very fast and disappear without a trace, therefore we believe air/wind should be the most suited element for Lang, and then designed skillsets based on it.
Fire: Both Gridiron and R47’s ultimate has some forms of fire elements, in which you can see from Gridiron’s engine and R47’s girder when blasting out the ultimate. The fire element makes their abilities more alive and vivid.
Energy: Energy usually comes with bright colors and high contrasts, which in line with the designs of Pink.
Electricity/Lighting: Pai is by far the fastest player in SBT, we believe it would be a great fit if his skillsets can be paired with lighting, therefore his entire skillsets are based on lighting and electricity.
Water: It’s pretty obvious that Eriel’s ability sets were based on water, her animations are mostly blue and watery.
Best Ultimate Design
If anyone asked for the best ability we ever designed in SBT, its probably the ultimate from R47. As a character, he not only has excellent defending stats, which you can see from his bulky appearances but also showed amazing talents on both ball control and shot power. As one of our first few designed abilities, R47’s ultimate ‘Batter Up’ uses a girder to hammer up a high-speed fire strike. Unlike the ultimate from Pai which will aim the goal automatically, ‘Batter Up’ completely relies on players' precise control. Sometimes you can score a stunning two-pointer, but in some occasions, it might go completely wide or even ended up scoring an own goal through deflections. It’s an ultimate that’s simple, easy to use but hard to master, which basically sums up the core ideology of the game and sets a cornerstone of our ability designs.
Ever since the start of open development, we have been actively collecting player feedbacks while making the game better. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to discuss with us!
[h3]Join our socials for cool news, updates and contests:[/h3]
Discord Facebook Twitter Instagram