Werewolf : The Apocalypse
Retaliation
'Flyos Games' announced role-playing board game, currently in production. This project blends deep, strategic combat mechanics with rich narrative elements, offering players both a compelling tactical experience and an immersive story-driven adventure where choices shape the world.
My Role
As a Combat Designer, I worked on various mechanics that directly impact combat. My responsibilities included designing combat cards, enemy encounters, allies, summons, and weapon cards, ensuring that each element contributed to a cohesive and engaging tactical experience. I also focused on balancing to enhance strategic depth and player agency.
Enemies
I contributed to the design and balancing of every enemy in the game. To make each encounter unique, we implemented a system called Affixes, which grant enemies passive abilities. These affixes introduce dynamic combat scenarios, forcing players to adapt their strategies as they learn to counter different enemy abilities. This system enhances the game's strategic depth and fosters player mastery over time.
I was responsible for designing the enemies and their affixes, as well as orchestrating enemy encounters to create diverse and engaging combat challenges.
Combat Cards
In this game, the player can take on three different forms: Human, Wolf, and Werewolf. As a designer, I contributed to the design and balancing of the attack cards for each form. The challenge was to make all three forms interesting and useful in combat. We achieved this by ensuring that each form had unique strengths and strategic value:
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Human Form (Homid): Utilizes weapons and provides support to allies.
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Wolf Form (Lupus): Has high mobility and deals damage over time.
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Werewolf Form (Crinos): Highly resistant and excels in dealing heavy damage.
To further enhance player progression and strategy over the course of the campaign, we introduced a system called Auspices, in which I played a key role. Auspices allow players to upgrade their existing combat cards into more powerful versions as the campaign progresses. This system introduced unique gameplay archetypes, adding depth and new mechanics to each card.
Challenges
I encountered multiple challenges during this production.
First, since this is a campaign-based game, ensuring longevity and creating a large amount of content was crucial. As a designer, I had to ensure that mechanics and systems remained viable throughout the entire campaign, balance gameplay across different player counts (from 1 to 4), maintain player engagement with unexpected combat twists, and creatively adapt combat mechanics to new gameplay scenarios.
Additionally, working on a role-playing game meant that the story played a crucial role. It was essential to keep this narrative aspect in mind to avoid any dissonance between the game's lore and its mechanics.
Lastly, this game is based on an existing license. We worked closely with Paradox to validate each design decision, ensuring an experience that stayed true to the Werewolf universe while offering fresh and innovative gameplay.
What I have learned?
Working on this project has been an extremely rewarding experience, allowing me to refine my skills as a game designer both technically and interpersonally. I strengthened my communication and teamwork skills by collaborating closely with narrators, artists, and developers. This experience taught me how to defend my ideas while remaining open to feedback and adjusting my designs based on technical and creative constraints.
Designing combat mechanics that are both strategic and accessible, while seamlessly integrating into a rich narrative universe, was a major challenge. It pushed me to think in terms of interconnected systems, where each element not only functions individually but also complements and enhances the others to provide a cohesive and immersive experience.
Lastly, I learned how to ensure that each mechanic contributes to immersion while remaining engaging. Managing progression, adjusting difficulty curves, and incorporating diverse strategic options enriched my understanding of tactical role-playing game design, particularly in combat design.
