I created this design tool to assist with the balancing and development of my 2D rogue-like game concept. It is a system of interconnected modular data sets that communicate with each other to provide the overall stats and outputs of characters and their abilities.
Game Concept
This personal game project I have begun developing is a 2D rogue-like game similar to Vampire Survivors. The theme involves little plant buddies (shown above) with unique abilities and traits who work together to defend their garden from endless hordes of bugs and pests.
My unique mechanics for this game revolve around real-life plant properties. When obtaining abilities, players would have the choice to equip the ability to themselves or plant it in the level. These planted abilities would grow over time and assist the player autonomously.
Design Tool
Using Microsoft Excel, I used a series of worksheets that represent separate data sets from the game. Each worksheet uses interconnected formulas to take inputs from the designer and immediately calculate player stats and outputs. Its purpose is to assist with the balance of the game to ensure that each run the player experiences feels fair and dynamic.
Character worksheet. This worksheet allows the designer to input the base stats of characters and compare them to each other. The table's last two columns calculate each character's average base output to ensure different playstyles remain balanced.
Ability worksheet. Allows the designer to rapidly experiment with abilities and test their outputs. Each ability has different property input fields, including what stats the scale with, how much they scale, and how often they cast. This provides very useful data to judge how unique each ability's DPS is compared to the others.
DPS Calculator worksheet. This sheet is an overall player build calculator that utilizes the other worksheets found in this tool. By using the Input table, the designer can rapidly choose from the characters and abilities created in the other worksheets. The calculator will then check the outputs and properties of each selected element and combine them into an overall DPS value. I included four build fields to ensure that DPS comparisons can be easily visualized.
