I’ve decided to expand my professional portfolio before I graduate.

So I’m designing and making a game. The design is the important part I feel. Can I take an idea from conception, figure out all the important details, write up a proper design document, and then, follow it?

So here are the basics of the game design so far.

It will likely be a 2d Mecha game, fantasy-environment. Each mecha will have an energy budget, to supply items, armor, and weapons. In addition, mecha frames will have base stats like mobility, etc, modified by the pilot’s skills. The energy budget is provided by power-cores. There are four “kinds” of energy, white, black, red, and blue. There is no “rock-paper-scissors” advantage provided by any one kind of energy, simply that different effects belong to each kind.

I’m still working this out, for the moment. But basically it goes like so: white: slowly increasing damage strength, effects from only matched sets, and repel effects; black: defensive powers, draining, bonuses for only using black stuff; red: deflecting attacks, random disabling of enemy items, and various miscellanous effects; blue: pulses, knockback effects, manipulate power flow.

I decided to keep to within the remit of that stuff, both to limit what I have to decide on, and because this is fairly easy to balance. Each type has some sort of unique schtick, some way of reducing damage, and something that can make good combos with other kinds of energy.

Mechas will have “slots” to put parts of armor on, weapons, and items, which are stuff that would be like amulets or something that provides an additional unique benefit or effect.

The gameplay will be tactical and positional. You have to try to target the damaged parts of the enemy mecha, while defending your own from attack. If your core gets damaged enough, your whole mecha shuts down.

I am currently considering the skill and stat system. I’m thinking of doing a “cap-and-trade-off” system. There will be a max number of skill points you can spend(the cap), while opposite skills(say speed training vs strength training) will have negative effects on each other(and the trade-off). Ie, if you start to bulk up, that affects your mobility. The more you bulk up, the slower you become.

In addition, there will be the normal range of fantasy-type weapons for the mechas to wield, from long swords to long bows, all appropriately giant-sized. You can train in using these as well, and switch between weapons during combat.

So what do you think so far?