From dungeons to quests and achievements, the Dofus Game Designers have the difficult task of offering you gameplay on the MMO. Today we come back with Kewl on the Temporis experience and in particular its latest edition, Osatopia.
Interview with Kewl, Game Designer for Dofus and Temporis
Before getting to the heart of the matter, let’s already answer a first question: who is Kewl? The oldest will remember his passage on Krosmaga, already as a Game Designer, before joining the Dofus project. He has since worked on several themes, including the development of Temporis. To be more precise, the role of a “GD” involves creating, integrating and developing game systems and Dofus as such. Its action can range from the development of a quest, a dungeon to the design of a convention boss.
The Temporis: a new way of designing Dofus
Kewl has been able to start working on the Temporis concept since the third edition. Originally it was in the form of a GD duo with Starbender and now, Yaula. If the processes have evolved with new challenges in the face of the success of the servers, they still keep a certain format internally. The choice of theme in particular is made from a base of proposals from each Game Designer, retaining the most significant ones over the course of the batch.
” For Temporis 5 for example, the idea was really to offer a new progression on the game. Basically, it was with level orbs. It was only gradually that we turned to the card game. By extension, Ecaflip. »
Once the main idea has been retained, it will be a question of embroidering around it to develop an experience and retain the player. An important point that stems from this will be to find a good gameplay loop. It was good to have a quantity (especially in terms of altered) but the content also had to follow and allow the player to stay on the servers, with a reproducible system.
” It was also a good exercise to bring something new to Dofus and potentially findable elsewhere in another form.. »
Of course, each edition is not entirely independent of the others. In addition to snippets of history for teasing, it is possible to recover, for example, old Parchomancy spells to apply them in other contexts, on Altered people in particular. This duplication, both from classic servers and Temporis, allows “ to more easily design and complete holes“. There is also a form of best-of by retaining certain elements over others.
Osatopia as if Osamodas made it
Kewl details that Altered’s choice of number 3 spells was more or less self-imposed. Basically, the team was planning only 100 altered with 300 spells. However, a push for the 151 was quickly made, both for reference and gameplay. The quantity had to take precedence without compromising the quality.
” It was cool to have 100 altered “super” but it would have been repetitive and less impactful. For the choice of Altered, once the types are found, I try to make a list of names and ideas. I had access to the entire bestiary for appearances, with all the same Lorko, artistic director, to authorize or not some (especially the oldest and no longer corresponding to the artistic direction). »
In all, the graphic budget also allows 300-400 spells and depending on the number of Altered (besides those of the classes). After the list of 151 Altered determined, there is then a lot of work of distribution and categorization. For example, which ones will be legendary, and in which elements. Beyond a stupid selection, it is a search for balance by level, by type, by element in order to arrive at a more or less coherent whole.
» It is a challenge to upgrade weak branches according to the levels, in particular the Earth often lagging behind, and distribute to balance. It’s frustrating to see your stuff wither away more easily with the absence of altered good ones. We also had a preshot by not blocking players from accessing legendaries on the element sides. »
The balance between pleasing and playing fun
Besides the spells, the balancing of Temporis 7 was done through constant reflections on the game itself and the impacts of the new gameplay. We should not lose sight of the possibilities offered by Osatopia and its situation vis-à-vis a well-known license. Kewl thus explains to us that the choice of the 6 Altered per team is “half-GD, half-reference”.
” Our biggest fear for the server was above all the playing time and the length of the fights. We wanted something dynamic and at all costs to avoid the problem of summoning classes like the Sadida. »
At the beginning, the team thus reflected on fights with 3 Altered per player at the same time before reducing to 2. The limitation to 4 characters is on the other hand a decision taken almost from the beginning by anticipation.
” The problem of Altered too strong is ultimately not a problem for us. On the contrary, it fell within the specifications of the Temporis experience with better dynamism. There will always be side and unforeseen effects. »
Trade secrets
According to Kewl, designing a Temporis is a bit like “Creating a different game while already having a set of assets. We are at the limit of the mod while having the right tools.». It is a very specific framework, with its own constraints, dealing with both the existing (dungeons, quests) and a large part of unknowns at all stages.
Temporis otherwise allow modifications to be made to other systems or game pans that are less of a priority. The new game has direct repercussions with the contribution or revisions of interfaces, mechanics or gameplays. The daily bonuses with Sophrie Lout, for example, allowed him to rework the blessings in Alterations. We can also mention the visualization of summoning spells outside of their turns. From the Ankama Live presentation, the members of the Ankama team had specified the difficulty of justifying such a change in terms of time or development budget.
» The collection interface is there to reinforce this. It was originally planned to be implemented for Temporis 6 companions but became a priority for Temporis 7 providing strictly necessary features. »
The calm between the storms
Apart from Temporis, Kewl does not remain inactive for all that and presents a coordinated management of subjects within the GD team. Everyone is free to choose their objectives, but since the latter lets the others take what they want first, they in turn have control over the temporary servers.
” Recently, I was able to work on the names and descriptions of items in the shop and the system of alterations requiring a little more dev. It’s a more substantial feature that we used for Osatopia and which opens up new possibilities in terms of game design for us. »
Quest battles are also up his alley. The DGs carrying out the narration do not necessarily have the time to complete them and give guidelines for implementing them. It can be the atmosphere, the characters involved or other elements to better appreciate the gameplay.
” I know that some people like it a lot, but for example I made the fight against Bavdur. »
Dofus 2 Unity: What impact for you as a GD?
To conclude, Kewl tells us that he does not work on Unity. However, this is not the case for other trades with a more direct impact on their methods and tools.
” There won’t be too many changes for me, with some tools remaining the same after 15 years. If they are old, they remain complete with enormous possibilities. New ones will no doubt be added by Unity (just in case: rain). In any case, this will go through an addition to the tool and then, possibly, in game according to the needs of the GD/Level designer. ”
You can find all of our Ankama interviews by clicking here.