Currency

In The Arena, players progress by buying new armor, weapons and utilities with credits.  Credits are earned by playing in ranked matches.  Credits are earned based off of individual performance.  This motivates players to actually participate in the match.  Rank improves based off of whether your team wins or loses.  This is to motivate team cooperation.

The amount of credits are earned on a high risk, high reward, team supportive and skill based system.  Lets me give a few examples of how to earn some big money.  It's all about give the crowd a good show.

1.  Killing and incapacitated player with standard attacks will earn  you approximately 100 credits.

2.  Killing and incapacitated player with an execution you will earn approximately 500 credits.

3.  Dodging an attack that would otherwise kill you will earn approximately 50 credits.

4.  Blocking an attack that would otherwise kill you will earn approximately 50 credits.

5.  Blocking/mitigating damage for a teammate will earn you approximately 100 credits.

6.  Reviving a downed teammate will earn you approximately 200 credits.

7.  Healing an injured teammate will earn you approximately 50 credits.

8.  Buffing your team/teammate will earn you approximately 50 credits.

9.  Incapacitating an enemy will earn you approximately 100 credits.

10.  Incapacitating two enemies in a row will earn you approximately 200 credits.

11.  Incapacitating three enemies in a row will earn you approximately 400 credits.

12.  Incapacitating four enemies in a row will earn you approximately 800 credits.

13.  Incapacitating five enemies in a row will earn you approximately 1600 credits.

14.  Incapacitating six enemies in a row will earn you approximately 3200 credits.

15.  Winning the match will earn you approximately 1000 credits.

These are just a few ways players will earn credits in The Arena.  The actual value amounts may vary once testing commences and depending or the cost of gear etc.  This gives you the general idea of how higher risk, team supportive and skilled players can earn more credits.

Progression part 2

In my last progression post I failed to talk about how to actually progress.  Disclaimer: A lot of my ideas stem from one of my favorite games, Star War Galaxies.  Eventually I would like to implement a skill system similar to The Elder Scrolls.  For now though, lets focus on the fundamental.  Players will progress by accumulating credits.  Credits are like money.  In order to buy new armor, weapon or utilities you must purchase them from a vendor.  I like the idea of "buying" progression, I feel it adds a sense of immersion and realism.  A character is made up of two parts; one part player and one part gear.  The player should provide the skill and the gear should assists the player fulfilling his/her self-defined role.  As you play, you may find think to yourself, "I need a way to finish someone off when I need to reload".  The player can then look at all available utilities and decide which utilities will best assist them.  Having credits be the primary form of progression, it also allows the player to progress how they want.  No longer do players have to wait till level 25 to get a helmet or wait to level 80 to get a much needed ability.  Instead, its more realistic.  The player realizes what you need or want most, then save up for it.  Just as we do in real life.

Customization

Customization is probably the single most important aspect of a game for me.  Nothing irks me more than being told how to play the game.  I personally find it insulting when a game assumes I don't know how to make a tank character.  Therefore they take it upon themselves to say, "here are three tank classes you can choose from, have fun".  I am then consigned to heavy armor wearing, shield wielding generic tank.  There is no room left for creativity.  There is nothing that fascinates me more than when a player alters the utility of an ability or item and does something totally unique with it.  Similarly, nothing upsets me more when the game does a hotfix because an item/ability was being used for unintended purposes.

I generally believe player want more customization and I believe they can be trusted with it.  Most players, before they even start playing the game, have an idea of who they want to be.  Then, with most games, you look at the classes and try to determine which is closest to what you want to do.  The counter argument for more customization is that players will find a way to break the game.  (I generally find people who argue this point are more upset about the fact that I don't love their favorite game rather than actually being opposed to the idea of greater customization).  I get satisfaction from a game when there is depth to it, when there is theory to be crafted.  I personally have never found a "best build" but I am satisfied when I strategize and see everything come together.

Here are my ideas on customization.

Armor is armor.  There is heavy, medium and light.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.  Any player can wear any armor they want.  Its a play style choice.  Heavy offers the most protection, allowing you to live longer.  However it slows you down, making you less mobile.  Light provides the greatest mobility but leaves the player exposed and is more easily killed.  The player picks what appeals to them.  There isn't better or worst armor, only different.  There are different kinds of heavy armor, you can choose armor that sacrifices a little protection for and increase in mobility, that sort of thing.  This eliminates the problem with being under geared (the most stupid concept, in my opinion).  Players no longer have to grind hour on end just to get the needed gear to actually participate.

Weapons will help to define the players role.  Currently, there are 5 weapons: automatic rifle, marksman rifle, shotgun, pistol, and heavy weapon.  A player can have any combination on these weapons (In another post I will discuss equipment slots and how they'll work).  There are no class restriction to say what weapons you can and can't use.  Players will simply choose weapons they are most comfortable with.  Similar to armor, there aren't better or worst weapons.  Just depends on how you want to play the game.  Weapons with high attack power will naturally have a slower rate of fire or weapons with a high rate of fire will have less accuracy, etc.  There would be a wide array of different weapons which can be obtained at any time (I will also soon discuss obtaining new gear).  This helps resolve the issue of being under geared.  New player will be using the same weapons as veteran players allowing them to deal just as much damage as the veterans.

Utilities are like abilities.  Utilities are also the greatest means for customization.  Utilities are equipped to an equipment slot (again I'll talk about this system soon).  Some examples of utilities would be: wrist mounted flame thrower, jet pack, stealth generator, sentry turret, thermal vision, shield generator, deploy-able barriers, grappling hook, flare, etc.  A player can choose any combination of the plethora of different utilities.  There is no order in which these can be obtained.  That way players can progress in a manner that is most rewarding to them.  These utilities are the primary mean by which veteran players gain an advantage over new players.

Progression

I believe progression is the key to creating longevity for any game.  Progression keeps people playing, they want to improve and become stronger.  Progression gets player invested in there character and in the game.  A good progression system is one of the most important aspects if any game.  With that said I have a big problem with how games have been doing progression.  Here is my take on the good, the bad and the ugly of progression.

The Good: The role of progression is two fold.  First, is that players progress to make their characters stronger.  As players progresses they will unlock new abilities, collect better gear and unlock powerful talents.  These are to facilitate a sense of achievement for the player.  This keeps the game fresh and interesting.  It motivates the player to continue playing, the desire to unlock a new ability or get new gear.  However, there is a balancing act involved.  Give the player too much, and you diminish the sense of achievement.  Give the player too little and the game quickly become stale and boring.  

The Bad:  The worst thing about progression, by far, is what I call the division.  Progression is a system to improve and strengthen a character, to set him/her apart.  This creates a divide between the player and those he plays with.  It makes it extremely difficult to play with other, especially real life friends.  Here is an example:

A buddy of mine was really into World of Warcraft.  He started playing a little over a year before me.  He invited me to play one day and I accepted.  I was excited at the prospect of exploring dungeons and fighting the Alliance with my friend.  However, I was level 1 and my friend was level 60.  (Ignoring mechanics of decreasing experience and what not when grouped with a higher level player; lets focus on some philosophy).  I soon realized it was not fun to play with my level 60 friend!  He was too strong, I felt useless.  My being there contributed nothing.  Astonishingly, it was not fun for my friend to babysit me either.  The content was too easy, everything we did was trivial for him.  We quickly came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to level up solo as quickly as I could.  This lead to me and running through content as quick as humanly possible.  The game soon became a chore.  

Games need to be centered around the concept of always being able to play with friends in a fun and meaningful way.  

The Ugly:  I don't know why I chose this saying, but I am sticking with it.  The ugly is my ideas on how progression could be handled.  First I will state the objective of my system of progression, then try to articulate a system to accomplish it.  Progression should 1. give the player a sense of achievement and improvement while 2. allowing him to play with anyone at anytime.  Without getting into the topic of customization (a whole other can of worms for me) players should be free to progress in any way they please.  The main ways a player progresses is through utilities (this is what I call abilities, I'll explain more).  Weapons and armor should be customization choices.  By that I mean that no such thing as better gear, only different.  Same with weapons.  It isn't about finding the best weapon, rather it's about choosing a weapon that fits your play style.  As a new player should be free to go buy the highest damage dealing sniper rifle in the game, go shot a veteran player in the head and kill him.  Well what about the veteran player you ask?  This is were I want to talk about progression.  

As a player progresses he doesn't become stronger in the sense that he/she has more life or inherently deals more damage.  Just thinking about it, logically that doesn't make sense.  The difference between a Navy SEAL and I is not that a Navy SEAL can get shot in the face more times than me and not die.  The difference is that a Navy SEAL has the tech and the experience.  Therefore as a player progresses he can start to acquire more utilities.  These are obtained at the players discretion.  A few potential examples: stealth generator, jet pack, wrist mounted flame thrower, thermal vision, sentry turret, grappling hook ect.  None of these utilities give the player more life or allow him to one shot a lowbie.  Rather they offer him/her an advantage; you could say they make the game easier for him/her.

  

Lets revisit our example of a newbie with a powerful rifle, trying to kill a veteran player.  The veteran play can use the stealth generator to avoid getting shot from long range.  The new player doesn't have thermal vision so at long range can't see the veteran.  The veteran player can use a grappling hook to pull the newbie off balance, preventing the newbie from getting a clear shot.  Also the veteran can plant a sentry turret, which will attack the newbie, leaving the veteran free to dodge and avoid damage. 

This I believe is a more fair approach to progression.  The players regularly get cool new utilities that help him/her in combat.  The veteran can expect to win most fights against newbies.  But at the same time the newbie has a legitimate opportunity to win.  Not like in WoW where no matter what you do you will constantly miss and the veteran can kill you with an auto attack.

Welcome to 'The Arena'

I am really excited about the people who have joined in to work on this project so far.  I've always knew I wanted to get into game development.  I never felt there was a ton of opportunities to gain experience or get involved though.  I am hoping that this project can be a positive experience for everyone involved.

I am really excited about what lies ahead.  Having talked with a few of the people who signed up I can tell we have a passionate and talented group.  I want nothing more to make games fun games that people will enjoy.  However my number one priority is that I want this to be a great learning experience for anyone and everyone who is interested in a career in the gaming industry.

With that all said I want to take a moment to talk about my vision for "The Arena".  First and foremost I want this project to be reasonable.  I want to be able to finish it.  I want to finish it and show people a completed game.  That is why I want to keep this game simple.  Basic concept, You team up with some buddies and enter into a, Romanesque sci-fi, arena and fight other players to the death.  Obviously I have a lot of ideas i'd like to explore and i'd like to expand the game but we need to start basic.  A few weeks ago Blizzard's Jonny Ebbert came to BYU and spoke to a bunch of students about making games.  (That was the kick in the butt I needed to decided I really was going to do this).  He said something that I thought was quite profound.  He said that in order to make a great game, you need to figure out what the player will spend most of his/her time doing.  Once you know what it is, you need to make that feature awesome.  That is what I am trying to do with "The Arena".  I want to make the most fun combat of any game.  Once we are sure that we have accomplished that goal, we can start thinking about expanding.

Best case scenario for "The Arena" is that is becomes massively popular, it becomes the next League of Legends.  If that happened, I would immediately start to find money, or look for a publishing deal to make this into a real company.  Of course I would continue to support and improve "The Arena", but I would love to more ideas and concepts.  I have always been fascinated and drawn to open world games.  If "The Arena" succeeds, I would love to make it into an open world game.  A game were friends can explore a vibrant and rich world together.  Then, bringing it full circle, having the players return to the arena to test their skills against other players.

Worst case scenario for "The Arena" is that we make a game that doesn't get much attention.  However, we still made a game.  We can slap that onto a resume and show employers.  When Jonny came and spoke, I asked him what would be more valuable from a hiring stand point, straight A's or having made a game.  He laughed a little and responded, "If you make a well polished game, we won't even look to see if you graduated college".  So I think worst case scenario, we get a good job out of it.