The Game Design of Starweave
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[/p][p][/p][p]Today's devlog features our creative director, Rachel, once again! In this edition, she dives into the game design of Starweave. Peep our full launch devlog schedule on our main Steam page:
[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]What inspired the game design of Starweave?[/p][p][/p][p]Some properties that inspire me as a creator, and thus are consciously and subconsciously present in the fundamental fibre of STARWEAVE, are: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Tales of Symphonia, Bastion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Penguindrum, Undertale, and Arknights.
[/p][p]These are stories about disparate people with unique struggles clashing in great conflicts, where the viewer is clued in through narrative structure, consequential exposition, and the repetition of a central theme to think deeply about why such misunderstandings and tragedies arise.
[/p][p]While I’d rather create stories that invite discussion and do not preach one lesson in particular, and certainly don’t believe any of these titles to be fully didactic fiction either, I consider the structure and execution of their central themes my guiding lights.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]What is your process for game design? Where do you start on a new project?[/p][p][/p][p]STARWEAVE’s game design begins by defining a ‘north star’ for its ludonarrative design. It’s a design process that anchors each directorial choice around an ultimate design goal—the ‘thesis’ of the game—and works backwards from there. Every minute decision, from the levels, the character design, and environmental color scripting must prioritize what best serves and supports this goal.
[/p][p]For STARWEAVE, that guiding light was “Teach the player empathy”, but that is a vastly broad goal, so in finer detail, it’s, “Through the framing of tragically destined roles, teach players to see others’ differing motivations and beliefs, yet work together towards a common goal”. The gameplay loop presents emotional puzzles as tactical command ‘refusals’ in the face of stifling circumstances, asking the player to see where they’re coming from and meet them in the middle. The textual narrative reinforces this by depicting characters reacting negatively to cruel circumstances and asking Dreamer to consider what can be done about the system they inhabit.
[/p][p]Over and over, every facet of the game seeks to work in symphony to emphasize the north star, and results in an experience with a focused vision. Or well, that’s the hope anyway![/p][p]
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[/p][p]How did you decide on the game’s genre? Was there another direction you almost went?[/p][p][/p][p]Being an avid player of games that focus on narrative and strategy mechanics certainly led me to adopt the same genres and mechanics for STARWEAVE.
[/p][p]During the prototyping phase of pre-production, I explored other mechanics that leaned more into social sims or a procedural role-playing narrative game, but landed on the affordances of roles, and how a player easily leans into their labelling and the common expectations of a tactical game, to explore the symbolism I desired for the experience.
[/p][p]In the allegory of STARWEAVE, the assigned roles each character is given are meant to index to real-world expectations: gender roles, racial stereotypes, and societal limitations. By having players enact uncritical cruelties against their party members based on the baseline presentation of their RPG roles, they are naturally introduced to conflict when their teammates act erratically. From this pain point, a deeper understanding can bloom.
[/p][p]Different non-tactical RPG mechanics could definitely have achieved this core loop, and it does raise the question of what else we could have tried.[/p][p][/p][p]What was your own personal goal for Starweave? Did you achieve it?[/p][p][/p][p]Beyond talk of north stars and my hopes for STARWEAVE as an emotionally affecting work, I simply thought this was my moment in time to seize my education-oriented circumstances and create a deeply self-indulgent work.
[/p][p]It is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (and to fully acknowledge it: privilege) to be surrounded by a swath of willing creative collaborators and academic advisors, a bit of savings, and a ten-month chunk of time to freely dedicate to my creative vision about something I am utterly, earnestly passionate about.
[/p][p]I stumbled, struggled, and learned hard lessons along the way. If you ask anyone involved with STARWEAVE, especially three years down the line as we are now, if we thought it was perfect, you’d certainly rack up a laundry list of this-and-thats that we thought could have been better if we did it all again today. Still, yesterday informs the lessons of tomorrow.
[/p][p]They say that every game production that reaches release day is nothing short of a miracle, and I’m happy to say that despite every roadblock and regret, I’m overjoyed we reached this day.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]Did you face any challenges you had to overcome on this project?[/p][p][/p][p]The game faced a very short development timeline of under a year. A lot of passionate collaborators were brought on to help, and a saying about a quantity of cooks in the kitchen may lend some insight into the logistical, organizational, and cohesional challenges various disciplines faced along the way. Communication, planning, and resources on direction were very crucial to ensuring we were all on the same page![/p][p][/p][p]Tactics games can vary in depth and complexity. What did you want to achieve with Starweave with its combat, and what steps did you take to get there?[/p][p][/p][p]I’ll be the first to admit the tactical layers of STARWEAVE are perhaps not all too deep if one is expecting a stat micromanager as expected of the other genre-defining strategy games. In fact, to lend more credence to really trying to examine what characters are thinking and how they’re acting, at no point are stat blocks even revealed to the player (because, why would Dreamer have insight into those specificities anyway?), so that numbers are not relied upon over other forms of information.[/p][p]
Instead, I’d describe STARWEAVE’s tactics as more of a vehicle for an empathy puzzle than necessarily a fulfilling strategy experience. One must examine levels from the perspective of a leader trying to rout the enemy, but more importantly, figure out why all these pesky party members won’t just listen to them. Each tactical level begins with an examination of what that instance of combat is achieving emotionally and didactically within the broad arc of the narrative, before being assessed as a challenging piece of ‘empathetic strategy’ gameplay and playtested to see whether players understand and adapt to the learning process the mechanics require.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][p]As this was a student project, how did this reflect what you’d learned up to this point?[/p][p][/p][p]As far as my personal journey as a student goes, I find STARWEAVE to be a culmination of the schools of learning I gained from the NYU Game Center and the USC Interactive Media & Games Division. I’d say my learning at NYU largely revolved around how to make artistically engaging, theoretically fascinating games that push the envelope of interactive experiences. [/p][p][/p][p]Meanwhile, my time at USC honed my skills as a collaborator within my disciplines of Art and Design, as well as in team leadership, which equipped me with the processes and tools I needed to effectively execute my creative ideas. One institution provided the ‘why’, the soul of the artistic endeavor, and the other provided the ‘how’, the spine and ligaments that acted as the vessel for the vision. No half is complete without the other, and I’m grateful I was able to learn under both schools of game design thought before applying them to the development of STARWEAVE.[/p][p][/p][p]What have you been working on since Starweave?[/p][p][/p][p]I personally stepped away from developing STARWEAVE back in 2023 after starting full-time employment in games, which is where I still am now! A lot of exciting projects have come my way professionally, but I haven’t dipped my toes back into indie games yet.[/p][p]
While I may be the Creative Director behind the game, every collaborative project is more than its creator, and I’d encourage you, dear viewer, to seek out the work of each other developer that made STARWEAVE possible.[/p][p][/p][p]![]()
[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][c]Rachel Geng (@koloquials) is a UI/UX and Game Systems Designer currently based in Seattle, WA working at Wizards of the Coast on Magic the Gathering: Arena.[/c][/p][p][c]Previously, she worked on Teamfight Tactics and Marvel Snap, and studied at the NYU Game Center for her BFA and the USC Interactive Media & Games Division for her MFA, where STARWEAVE was developed as her thesis project. |
Beyond crafting mechanics and interfaces that compel life into the games she has the honor to work on, Rachel thrives in collaborative settings where she and her teammates can come together to create something greater than the sum of their individual skills. More than anything, she believes in the power of stories and lived experiences—be they grand inspirations that alter the course of one’s life or humble lights in times of great darkness—and hopes her personal work can serve as those kinds of stories for her players. When not engaging in game development, Rachel enjoys all things related to sampling and collecting tea, exploring the world of ceramics and building up her own drinkware throwing skills, and taking afternoon walks to find all the most interesting nooks and crannies around the city.[/c][/p][p]![]()
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[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]What inspired the game design of Starweave?[/p][p][/p][p]Some properties that inspire me as a creator, and thus are consciously and subconsciously present in the fundamental fibre of STARWEAVE, are: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Tales of Symphonia, Bastion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Penguindrum, Undertale, and Arknights.
[/p][p]These are stories about disparate people with unique struggles clashing in great conflicts, where the viewer is clued in through narrative structure, consequential exposition, and the repetition of a central theme to think deeply about why such misunderstandings and tragedies arise.
[/p][p]While I’d rather create stories that invite discussion and do not preach one lesson in particular, and certainly don’t believe any of these titles to be fully didactic fiction either, I consider the structure and execution of their central themes my guiding lights.[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]For STARWEAVE, that guiding light was “Teach the player empathy”, but that is a vastly broad goal, so in finer detail, it’s, “Through the framing of tragically destined roles, teach players to see others’ differing motivations and beliefs, yet work together towards a common goal”. The gameplay loop presents emotional puzzles as tactical command ‘refusals’ in the face of stifling circumstances, asking the player to see where they’re coming from and meet them in the middle. The textual narrative reinforces this by depicting characters reacting negatively to cruel circumstances and asking Dreamer to consider what can be done about the system they inhabit.
[/p][p]Over and over, every facet of the game seeks to work in symphony to emphasize the north star, and results in an experience with a focused vision. Or well, that’s the hope anyway![/p][p]
[/p][p]During the prototyping phase of pre-production, I explored other mechanics that leaned more into social sims or a procedural role-playing narrative game, but landed on the affordances of roles, and how a player easily leans into their labelling and the common expectations of a tactical game, to explore the symbolism I desired for the experience.
[/p][p]In the allegory of STARWEAVE, the assigned roles each character is given are meant to index to real-world expectations: gender roles, racial stereotypes, and societal limitations. By having players enact uncritical cruelties against their party members based on the baseline presentation of their RPG roles, they are naturally introduced to conflict when their teammates act erratically. From this pain point, a deeper understanding can bloom.
[/p][p]Different non-tactical RPG mechanics could definitely have achieved this core loop, and it does raise the question of what else we could have tried.[/p][p][/p][p]What was your own personal goal for Starweave? Did you achieve it?[/p][p][/p][p]Beyond talk of north stars and my hopes for STARWEAVE as an emotionally affecting work, I simply thought this was my moment in time to seize my education-oriented circumstances and create a deeply self-indulgent work.
[/p][p]It is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (and to fully acknowledge it: privilege) to be surrounded by a swath of willing creative collaborators and academic advisors, a bit of savings, and a ten-month chunk of time to freely dedicate to my creative vision about something I am utterly, earnestly passionate about.
[/p][p]I stumbled, struggled, and learned hard lessons along the way. If you ask anyone involved with STARWEAVE, especially three years down the line as we are now, if we thought it was perfect, you’d certainly rack up a laundry list of this-and-thats that we thought could have been better if we did it all again today. Still, yesterday informs the lessons of tomorrow.
[/p][p]They say that every game production that reaches release day is nothing short of a miracle, and I’m happy to say that despite every roadblock and regret, I’m overjoyed we reached this day.[/p][p][/p][p]
Instead, I’d describe STARWEAVE’s tactics as more of a vehicle for an empathy puzzle than necessarily a fulfilling strategy experience. One must examine levels from the perspective of a leader trying to rout the enemy, but more importantly, figure out why all these pesky party members won’t just listen to them. Each tactical level begins with an examination of what that instance of combat is achieving emotionally and didactically within the broad arc of the narrative, before being assessed as a challenging piece of ‘empathetic strategy’ gameplay and playtested to see whether players understand and adapt to the learning process the mechanics require.[/p][p][/p][p]
While I may be the Creative Director behind the game, every collaborative project is more than its creator, and I’d encourage you, dear viewer, to seek out the work of each other developer that made STARWEAVE possible.[/p][p][/p][p]
Beyond crafting mechanics and interfaces that compel life into the games she has the honor to work on, Rachel thrives in collaborative settings where she and her teammates can come together to create something greater than the sum of their individual skills. More than anything, she believes in the power of stories and lived experiences—be they grand inspirations that alter the course of one’s life or humble lights in times of great darkness—and hopes her personal work can serve as those kinds of stories for her players. When not engaging in game development, Rachel enjoys all things related to sampling and collecting tea, exploring the world of ceramics and building up her own drinkware throwing skills, and taking afternoon walks to find all the most interesting nooks and crannies around the city.[/c][/p][p]