Windfolk: Sky is just the beginning
In Windfolk I focused mainly on level design and combat design including enemies, bosses and weapons.
In the final stages of development, I was in charge of:
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Design core mechanics
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Weapons and enemies design
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Polishing the mechanics
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Level Design
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Balancing and difficulty
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Create base animation system
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Wwise sounds implementation
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Fixing bugs and polishing for ps4 release.
Level design
How to build a world that works in sky and ground
One of the great challenges of windfolk was to create a fun world to fly and explore. One of the main problems was the size of the character and enemies in a huge world of floating islands. Playing with the distances and the feeling of speed in flight we got functional and fun environments both to fly at high speeds and to fight in the sky and on the ground. fighting in the sky and on the ground
With this level design we create levels for story missions and race mode, re-using levels for multiple propurses
Important keys in the level design
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Windfolk is flying game, so it always prioritizes the gameplay and feeling in flying movement and air combat
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Fly throung arcs, waterfalls, caves is always fun. Use those elements to show the player the path in a world with total movement freedom
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Combat should be always in open space, including top and down to be totally free in the combat
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Use interesting landmarks to invite the player to explore and have fun flying towards them
Combat
How to design a flying third person shooter
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Windfolk combat was never designed as a realistic shooter. We wanted to give a sense of flight control while shooting fluidly. To achieve that, we adopted auto-aiming.
To make it fun and challenging, we introduced different ways of shooting with each weapon and special abilities with a unique way of activation.
Another very important point is the defense. A cover system is completely unfeasible in a flying game, so the way to defend yourself is through aerial pirouettes. The most dangerous enemies will have very powerful attacks with an anticipation that you will be able to dodge in the time window.
Important keys in combat
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Combat must be fun while you fly and don't search realism.
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Create fun mechanics for weapons and abilities to compensate the player doesn't have to aim accurately
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The challenging of the game is search the weak points of the enemies and dodge their attacks while you master your weapons and abilities
Enemies and Bosses
Design enemies for a sky fight
To be able to distinguish them in the distance, since it was very difficult, we chose to mark them with an icon in the distance. This way, the player could see at a glance what he was facing.
Each enemy were designed with a purpose, create the feeling of one-man against an army. So each enemy has his rol in the fight from simple enemies to snipers, melee enemies or turrets
Bosses, however, are much larger enemies with unique mechanics such as weak points, bullet hell or player positioning.
Important keys in enemies and combat:
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​The player needs to feel powerfull. It is important to create the feeling that you can defeat a small army or an enemy much more powerful than you.​​
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Each enemy has his rol with their strengths and weaknesses
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Bosses must be unique, Use the mechanics to generate fun dynamics to beat them
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