My recent efforts to develop a more complex game concept have led to me realising how prevalent the influences that I draw from other games are in my work. They both allow me to theoretically construct the idea of the game on paper based on tried and testable practices, and supplement areas of development I am not as experienced with in my design work. With that short introduction, I have somehow gotten myself re-obsessed with TFT, Riot’s attempt at the Dota II mod turned breakout hit AutoChess. I have inevitably noticed elements of this game that I find worth exploring, and attempting to apply it to a singleplayer setting. Well this is an attempt to explore some of my favourite elements of TFT to my own design, and hopefully not look like a dolt while doing it.
Given, however that my skillset tends to mostly derive from MOBA design and online game design, I would like to explore how to adapt game concepts derived from community META development as well as base game systems.
TFT Breakdown
First I guess I have to explain TFT for anyone reading this that hasn’t played it and isn’t familiar with AutoChess.
Teamfight Tactics is a round based strategy game that pits 8 players against each other in a free for all, the objective being to be the last person standing. The rounds are grouped into stages with each stage having 3 pvp rounds where players are pitted against each other, a carousel round where players select free units with items from a pool with first to select being the lowest HP player and last the Highest (a comeback mechanic the game provides as having strong items is key to winning a match), 2 more pvp rounds, and one PVE round where you earn free items for killing enemies, and have a turn of respite from taking damage. Each round also has 30 seconds down time before it begins to allow players to make use of the game’s primary systems to strengthen their team. To clarify, each round is played out automatically and characters follow simple and predictable AI behaviours that you can position around.
These systems are a shop that shows 5 characters a round randomly drawn from a global pool of characters, and can be rerolled to show 5 new characters, and an option to pay 4 gold to gain 4 exp, a valuable option to consider as reaching a higher level provides earlier access to higher tier characters and an extra unit available to your team.
The way the game plays out is to construct a strong board using unit synergies (more detail later), and looking for strong characters to place items on that will act as your primary “carry” characters in that game. Lategame play is generally focused on optimising your board by finding 3 copies of characters to upgrade them to a 2 Star character with better stats, and positioning your characters on the hexagonal chess board provided to counter your opponents positioning. With this explanation out of the way I will now focus on what mechanics and meta strategies I think are worth repurposing for singleplayer experiences.
Core Concept Focuses
The core concepts that I would like to focus on are Pivoting, Direct + Indirect Synergies, and Turn Based Resource Management:
- Turn Based Resource Management: Each turn you are given an amount of gold based on the Stage Group you are on, how much gold you have (Interest: 1 gold per 10 in bang up to 5 max) and your winstreak/losestreak. You are also provided a fresh shop of units to select from, and spend gold on units or exp and the rest is saved for the next round. The downtime between rounds provides players with an opportunity to decide whether to save gold to generate more interest, buy units in the shop to increase their board’s power and sell units to exchange them for better ones or level up to increase your board capacity and find better units in future shop refreshes. These decisions are also made on the basis of the round and stage you are on, for example when near the PBE round, you may save gold to sell your units during that round for a chance to find better ones in a low pressure environment as you do not need to face a player.
- Direct + Indirect Synergies: Each unit has 2 traits, an Origin and a Class, some special cases having 2 Origins or Classes. These synergies then combine on your board to grant your team special effects e.g. The Duellist trait provides all Duellists with “On hit gain X attack speed” scaling with the number of Duellists on your board (2 -> 4 -> 6 ->8). Less direct synergies are items, which are given to the players in the form of components, 2 components combining to create unique items with special effects. Players can choose components from the carousel rounds, and gain semi-random items from PBE rounds. Certain items function better on certain champions or traits based on implicit synergies. Finally synergies between certain characters exist where their combinations of abilities creates strong “combos”, an example of this is Sejuani and Aatrox, both characters are Vanguards which means having both in game gives 2 vanguard synergy, providing 100 physical armour to both. More importantly however, Sejuani’s AOE Stun ability combines well with Aatrox’s ability to pull furthest enemy champions to him when he casts, grouping them for Sejuani’s stun.
- Pivoting: Pivoting refers to the practice of going from one composition to another one, involving selling your units, finding new ones that fit the composition your are transitioning to and switching out units through rounds while not detracting from your economy. The difficulty of this is the limited space on your board and bench (where non played units are kept) and limited economy to find new units through round, where fights will occur and you can take damage. Pivoting usually occurs when you find a key unit for a composition, and you have items that fit that unit.
Break Down and Adaptation
Finally I want to break down these 3 concepts and apply them to a singleplayer experience, as well as identify what they add and restrict in the design of a game. I’ll divide these into hopefully small sections to make them easier for myself and any reader to digest
Turn Based Resource Management
This concept is prevalent in many singleplayer games. The likes of Darkest Dungeon, The Swindle, and Hades. The core of the concept is two phases, a downtime phase where available resources are communicated to the player and they are provided a range of ways to use these resources to increase their overall “power”, and an uptime phase where the effects of the used resources are felt through the primary active gameplay of the game. This is usually done through a base building/management phase, and a combat or stealth oriented phase.
This gameplay cycle not only allows players periods of downtime in which to collect themselves and plan for the subsequent phases, but also a sense of home and rest that allows the player to relax from more intense sections of gameplay, and a suitable exit point from the game that the player can then pick up next session.
Furthermore these two phases correlate pretty directly to a simple narrative structure used by many narrative designers to varying effects, The Heroes Journey.
The core phases of the game fit neatly into the Known and Unknown worlds of the Heroes Journey, and within this cycle are also phases that translate directly to standard video game concepts. Starting from the top:
- The Call to Adventure and Meeting a Mentor can be grouped into a phase where the player is given information and potential objectives for the next phase, this information can be scouting that determines what enemies will be present, a McGuffin to collect and advice from the game or NPCs for how to achieve these objectives as well as provide access to gear/abilities that assist them in this goal. An example of this is the Weapons and Trinkets in Hades and once the escape attempt commences, the first boon given before the start of the dungeon
- The Trials and Failure and Growth and New Skills sections can be seen as the early stages of each uptime phase where the player clears their first few areas (if this is a part of the game) and tests the loadout/build/abilities that they have chosen to bring into that phase as well as new upgrades acquired/created in the previous downtime phase.
- The Death and Rebirth through Get Gift sections can be seen as the true challenge of each uptime phase, where the player must achieve the most difficult challenges of the phase, learn from those challenges and obtain a reward in the form of resources to use in the next downtime phase. In Darkest Dungeon, this would be the part of each run where your party are already low, going insane, and you must clear a few more rooms to finally return home and pool your pillaged earnings.
- Finally Return Changed, a section which in the heroes journey can also be described as the hero changing their regular circumstances, or bringing the change that occurred within back to their status quo. This section can be seen as the phase where resources are pooled and using what they learned in the previous run and their knowledge of the game, the player plans ahead for the subsequent phases and uses the resources to improve their gear and base. If the player has met a new enemy in a previous phase, they may choose to purchase equipment to better deal with that enemy in future.
Whew! I guess I won’t be making these sections that short.
Direct + Indirect Synergies
In order to properly grapple with the many synergies in TFT, I would first like to categorise them into 3 types:
- Explicit Synergies: Synergies communicated directly to the player by the game.
- Discrete Synergies: Synergies that are made clear through descriptions. (i.e. Magic Items go on Mages)
- Implicit Synergies: Synergies that the player can discover themselves.
Some of these synergies including the implicit synergies are in one way or another designed into the game by the design team and only found by the players, where as others are found by players. TFT’s system can be divided into units, items and traits. Units have two traits, stats and one ability that they cast when they get enough charge for it, these abilities interact with the items and traits in simple ways that provide complex emergent strategies.
I propose that an approach for designing this kind of emergent strategy making is to design Explicit and Discrete synergies directly, and through playtesting emphasise Implicit synergies. This approach allows you to design a series of systems and mechanics that interact as planned by the designer and can be balanced theoretically, which then enable new emergent interactions to be found through play. Learning and designing from META strategies is standard for these kind of online games, where new synergies found tend to enable niche playstyles which are then emphasised to be more accessible by the developers, and add new forms of skill and player expression to the game and it’s community.
Pivoting
The concept of “Pivoting” I believe can be summarised in a few points to better adapt it to another gaming experience. I believe that the value of adapting this META strategy is that it allows a player to plan a difficult transition from one state to another stronger state, and reaching that state allows a release of tension and a feeling of power once the new state is reached. This example can be seen in the introduction of Scrappers and increased spawn rate of printers in Risk of Rain 2. Scrappers allow you to convert collected items into scrap, which can then be used in a 3D printer to print different items. While you have scrap in your inventory, you lose power that you could have by using the items that were scrapped, but finding a printer with an item that fits your build provides a large power spike to the player and a fresh feeling of “overpoweredness” (I’ll coin the term).
Firstly in order to “Pivot” you have to have a way to lock players into their current state, either through limited options for changing out equipment and items, costs associated with changing out items, or limited access to resources forcing players to focus more on gaining resources for their current build.
Secondly the game needs to provide key elements that indicate that a pivot is possible. I like to call these Enablers in TFT, basically items/characters that enable a particular composition or are key to it’s strongest version or hard to find.
In designing the game’s base systems, this requires the designer to build their primary systems such as weapons, abilities, and special items, to have certain members in each type that act as Enablers or indicators that a player could potentially pivot to a new playstyle within that playthrough with a bit of work, allowing them to evaluate whether or not that change would put them in a better position than they are currently in, and if the downside of transitioning would put them at a significant short term disadvantage.
What was the point of all that then?
I don’t know.