Robert Wolf Game Design Notes

 It is important to reflect on your design choices and this helps me not talk out loud and to come back; to reflect on what design choices I believe/ reinforce or don't enjoy as much, what games are my sources of inspiration or have been an influence on my choices as of recent. An example being inspired by roguelikes to make a roguelike clicker game because well, having no death and only number go up and no challenge to overcome is boring. But besides that reflecting on the ideas and why I enjoy x or y thing and what I could do differently to change my level of enjoyment.

 The difference between the two is, am I introducing a new challenge or am I introducing a bigger challenge but the same as the last one? That's what it boils down to. Think of it like Dark Souls vs Warframe; as much as I love the two, souls games focus on adding new mechanics and systems for you to overcome or deal with. Warframe mostly beefs up and introduces more of the same. Horizontal difficulty forces you to adapt to new challenges and adds more, sometimes the newer difficult content will miss the mark or have some mechanical overlap with older stuff. Vertical difficulty is the bigger number and more XP drop; more of the same which isn't bad. You want to know the most funny thing about this is? Vertical difficulty is fun when you have more tools to use on the same bigger number stuff like Warframe and Runescape. Horizontal difficulty can work with both but works really well with the same move set/ tool set dealing with different challenges. A game with both is going to be...

 So far with designing trapper enemies such as the cannon slug turtle the overall enemy design being used for both movement, shooting and dropping slime that slows down the player. Trapper enemies being used to control space are effective in multiple manners. Well in this case both a trapper and a zoner. The two combined playstyles make it hard to approach and hard to keep your distance depending on the life of the trap, how easy it is to avoid/ damage the trap, etc. This changes many playstyle aspects depending on the trap and how effective the tool is for keeping the player at bay. The distance factor multiplies their effective combat use with non-brute force. It also allows for more smart difficulty which I will go through and talk about later. The pressure put on by more traps and more environmental damage factors means it's harder to play risky, in this case having the slug enemy drop a slime trail behind them you have to be careful about the enemies you took out from behind y...

Things accomplished 1. Buzzsaw turret - 4/17/2026 Archetype; Zoner Buzzsaw fired Buzzsaw gets stuck HP regen Fired distance 2. Athena (player) Energy Reload (charging) - 4/15/2026 Jumping State Machine Running Fast Fall 3. Flying Beetle Bot - 4/18/2026 HP regen Flying Hurt box Melee Hit box 4. Slug Turtle Cannon Bot - 4/24/2026 Archetype; Zoner Trapper HP regen slime trail that slows the player Hurt Box Shooting (might add a shotgun variant) 5. Slug Turtle Shotgun Bot - 5/4/2026 6. Spawner - 5/9/2026 1 - spawn and de-spawn enemies 7. Floating Squid Bot - 5/9/2026 1 - Floating 2 - Turning around 3 - can be hit by the head and less dmg on the limbs 4 - Multi-directional shooting

 How I designed and make games feel like they're changing with my workouts affecting how I make games and how I do analysis. As well as how often I am noting, taking notes or actively studying a game. This could just be a placebo affect however this isn't a sudden, "oh I changed" but a slowly and gradual shift with the focus on the mechanical and other aspects of a game. Even seeing a change to my writings; the active awareness of oneself and what you make leading to other outcomes for the given gameplay elements and even outright taking risk with scrapping entire reload systems just to introduce a new one. Yes it worked out but before more than willing I likely would've just made another product or project with that reload system in mind. I'm wondering how much of it is genuine effects but then again over time you'll change as a person in general but working out has been a big major change to my body and even noting and jotting down my results and noticin...

 Unlike many clone games that didn't learn nor want to learn from the game that I can take away key elements to bring up. Killing enemies should speed up the pace of the gameplay; I know this is incidental from the original with the fact that the less enemies being rendered on screen sped up gameplay but regardless this kept the tempo of the gameplay faster and more interesting to play because of it. This allows for interesting gameplay for the given set up and speed of the game. Limiting the number of shots on the screen at a time; I know again this is the hardware limitation aspect but limiting the number of shots at a time lead to interesting gameplay with the fact the game then forced players to be careful with how many shots they were firing in one given moment of combat. Many of the hardware limitations lead to interesting moments of gameplay; limiting your gameplay with the number of interactivity and actions can lead to interesting ways of playing or gameplay moments instea...

The mechanics and systems that do seem to be the most fun are the ones that allow for the following; making bricks harder to break, randomly generated levels, and random given events and tools. Unlike the Brick Breaker game I got inspired by for random abilities; arrow shooting and other such abilities are tied to breaking bricks in order to gain the ability to break more bricks, also some level elements do make it harder/ more difficult to balance if I don't add other abilities. Speeding up gameplay tied to breaking bricks; the more bricks I break the faster the gameplay goes for the given events and leading up for said actions and interactions. Ice Introducing ice bricks that let out snow when damaged for the 3rd health state forcing the player to 1. dodge, 2. melee hit the frost or 3 tank it. Each tactic has a pro and con. Dodging; pro, avoiding the hit, con might miss the ball Melee; pro, destroy the ice flake and con; loss stamina Tank it; pro, influence ball direction still a...

 A lot of friend slop games fall into this category of having it where the emotional connections mattering more than the gameplay being that the friend aspect or having other people to rely/ hang on being the social hangout point of the game where the strength of the game mattering less and the strength of the social bond mattering more. That is the power of friend slop and other games similar to this idea for the given thing at hand with the emotional bonds mattering more to people; people with weak social bonds will move on very quickly from these kind of games. Social bonds and connections allowing for the stronger moments to shine through for the given group that the encounter for the moment to moment gameplay they feel. This leads to emotional highs and social connections unlike many other gameplay sessions that are a given strength and power for the results at hand for what they feel. In other words; if you enjoy spending time with your friends, the faults of a game, a movie,...

 What makes the bloons games have for the gameplay being repayable and interesting is the fact that the gameplay allows for an insane amount of depth for the given interactions. The different towers synergize together which leads to more interesting mechanical interactions because of this. These changes allow for better interchangeable tactics and strats with different tower placements with how gameplay is changed and even modifications to the challenges. These allow for better tactical gameplay elements and overall combat experience. Yes many enemies have a simple, "hp gets bigger" as I mentioned in the last design notes but that's where a strat revolving around, slowing down the enemies, hitting them with a fragment cannon blast which allows for more bloons to take damage, etc. unironically having it where more HP being a bad thing for the enemies because of the tools and synergy you can use to take down the towers. Even with the factors of other abilities that allow yo...

 The reason why you have this being the issue is that more of the same mechanical challenges/ depth, there isn't a change in tactics with stall in this regard. Now don't get me wrong; tactics and strats revolving around different tools providing higher HP or harder to kill is fine. Not counting things like immortality field. The higher the reward the more risky it should be to keep that tool or reward going. Looking at the Youtuber DapperWafles where he mentioned during a FNAF world challenge run that the gameplay was too easy still with his knowledge still being insanely useful and causing him to beat the game very easily still. This drum I've been beating for the longest time; high HP and high DMG; does not mean you magically need to change strats unless you have different abilities or tools being used at hand. If you bench 200 LBS, your still using the same methods to bench 300 LBS. You're just eating more. So how do you make higher HP and dmg interesting then? Simpl...

 The change of the reload system to more of a ki based reload system like the dragonball games is actually ingenuous I'd just encountered. This is because you're having to find a safe opening to charge back energy and because you don't have passive energy regen but even when you do it often times cost points in those games. You have to choose the best time to charge your ki or in this case for my game energy where you are building up the energy on the given bar before being able to do another attack. This actually makes me think how many other games would've benefited from a gameplay system like dragonball's ki system for charging ki or energy. It still keeps gameplay interesting, however; hiding behind cover and making where the player finds cover to charge. However, however this is simply remedied with health regen and shields getting back charge. Which in turn effects the players ability to hide and charge because in doing so; you are letting the enemy get back t...

 with designing a platformer around dodging I start to see the failures and hiccups that make the dodge style gameplay not as fun with the lack of other directional dodging and only horizontal dodging. The reason I say this even with jumping being a thing is that avoiding a hit is not the same design wise as jumping and the whole mechanical interaction is the usage of interacting with being able to dodge a hit. Other things is the lack of dodge canceling or the ability to turn off the dodge which in turn would reset the dodge timer and allow the player to dodge even better. Notes to add on further now that having a system I need to fix and refine for the fast fall dodge and the dodge thrust which sends the player flying up after dodging for the given gameplay sytems. Finding out that mobility based gameplay is very fun and having gameplay based around those elements is fun as well; however I'm not caring much for the checkpoint system with it feeling like it's breaking the flow...

 Since the combat is mostly based around jumping, punching and throwing but mostly around jumping. You have gameplay systems that have a high level of depth around jumping since it's the main gameplay mechanic. Whatever is your main gameplay mechanic and you have an insane number of interactions for it. You need to or should build around it and enemy designs to challenge that. Enemies you can't jump on like Bowser? Have it where there is an item you can grab or something you can use to force Bowser to fall into lava. You have an enemy that goes into a shell and spins? You have to have moments where you are jumping out of the way, onto the walls, etc. That because of this the combat design is not just the enemies themselves but also the level design itself with the given combat set up with having the point a to point b sometimes added in like Bowser getting big for the fight and him chasing you. You even see this in fan levels with avoiding and jumping out of the way being a maj...

 Kirby has enemies with a wide range of ways of hurting/ damaging and this is because you have a game series where a huge number of different attack types, forms, etc. can or would be used but that's not to say x or y form having a better power over one or another. The end of the day you have it where the abilities and characters are given more power with the limited tools in hand for the given system. This causes a number of design issues for more niche games but Kirby works for a wider audience because of this design.

  Core combat mechanics Charge shots Normal shots Jumping Running Enemy design Enemy design is based around forcing you to jump and shoot; the enemies have limited direction their bullets move just like you but in something like Megaman X8 with homing bullets you have it where they are slower and more restrictive. Free aiming attacks like what Axl can do is nerfed compared to other characters and their given abilities. Someone like Zero is given a smaller time to kill because his playstyle is far more risky for engaging in combat. Megaman or X having the middle of the pack with the middle difficulty path for gameplay aspects. A lack of reloading? These games don't use a reloading system because charging an attack is the reload basically; charging the attack you get a more powerful attack and choosing how strong of an attack to use. Longer charge = longer reload, weaker charge means shorter reload if you really think about it. This is why you see railguns in games often times not ha...

 Keyforge for it's given systems never worked for myself and many other players is because the gameplay is more based around the restrictions of the deck without thinking through your playstyle which would be fine if you could or would find a set box of cards to use instead an RNG generated deck of cards for a given playstyle you don't like. After seeing multiple deck playstyles I don't like; realizing the guy telling me, "oh you're not going to run into a playstyle you don't like" and "net decking an entire deck isn't a thing" even though visiting the Reddit forums I saw people saying otherwise. This isn't to poo poo on the game; the given idea is in most terms a good concept outside of the restrictive deck aspect. Yes you can play your opponents deck but you have to learn and understand your opponents deck because you haven't spent time with it. Even then looking at the power crept decks from 2024 and seeing the complaints players h...

 Combat from Enter the Gungeon does the following correct. Bare in mind I don't like Enter the Gungeon but you can still acknowledge the strengths of something. Reloading Because bullets aren't limited for their travel distance the gun must still be reloaded at the end of firing it. You can reload cancel and because of this you can switch how combat is effecting the gameplay! You can combine reloading and dodging which in turn adds more to the combat for skill expression. Evading Evading is a cost before you can attack again; attacking and evading aren't so seamless in how they flow into one another. You have it costing you an action and having to react rather than it easily helping you avoid damage only. Gun range The bullets do not have a limit how far they travel. Level design The level design lends itself to offensive and defensive gameplay with being able to set up tables and environmental kills. Number of enemies per room The room having a wide range of enemy types th...

 The many issues with biogun besides the optimization issues with it being these commonalities I see among Metroivanias. Level design The weakest part of the game being the level design; that nothing really grabs you for the given gameplay systems for biogun and that is highly important to overcome for the given gameplay systems that are focused around well going from point a to point b. No long level parts, no going vertical a lot or horizontal a lot another section or even a big vast section that feels empty and hollow like Hollow Knight, just feels like you're traveling through a linear section and not a world. Combat Combat is very straight forward and not very interesting unlike a similar game being Axiom verge; the gunplay and movement with having it where the bullets travel further, have further uses outside of combat and is fitting for the style of gameplay, because of no free aiming you have a more balanced gameplay system for gun combat. Where here you're combining da...

 Going over this for the given choices in R6 and the characters I had chosen; not focusing on powerfulness but rather the depth of their toolkits and guns with how fun they are. Doc is fun on smaller maps with his radar being abusable through walls. Yager is fun no matter what map you use and has insane amount of depth. This made me realize why some ops are chosen more than others; the same with other games like Overwatch where in a non-comp environment the chosen characters are for the fun factor; not the power factor. On the other hand what makes said characters fun? The clear answer being the depth of the toolkits, how hard and rewarding is their toolkit for the given output you get for doing things. The constant gun nerfs were dumb and lazy in Siege; the same thing with nerfing abilities via cooldowns in Overwatch. Raising the skill floor for more powerful tools would've been the smarter answer and you see this in custom lobbies where the most OP characters have their toolkits ...

 Many of the problems for the given loot design of Warframe is nothing being consistent or really falling into a territory of, "hey you get x from y place" not even the rarity aspect being an issue or the fact the legendary mods are just more powerful mods, not mechanically changing anything to be interesting other than, "bigger number" no mods that you need nor want of a certain weapon or item dropping for a given area. However, it is a useful design if you're looking for mod trading or more player to player interactions within the gameplay system. Many of these systems are designed to make you grind for longer like a slot machine spin but just killing a bunch of enemies for the given combat encounters. In these instances you are left with a constant cycle of going through the section over and over trying to get what you're looking for. That is quite standard but these practices are to encourage you to keep grinding and avoid skipping the grind as it were. ...

 With studying and playing the MMO I noticed the synergy of abilities and how they work together. You might be thinking, "well duh" but oddly a lot of designers (including myself) run into these issues. The problem that you are facing is the fact the abilities and movement working together or not. After playing other failed MMOs this got me thinking about the gameplay systems and mechanics. The understanding of said systems in the first place. So with this you have a simple combo of abilities; magnetic abilities. With having multiple abilities that push and pull targets; abilities with an absurd amount of depth. Each ability can be used offensively, defensively and for gaining armor. Polarity is used for gaining armor and stripping defensive with being a useful ability support wise. Magnetic pull; used for clumping a bunch of targets into one area like Maya's ability in Borderlands 2 but instead of one enemy it's many. Each ability has depth; a ton of depth. The magne...

 When introducing a reload system into a game I started to understand why 2D platformers didn't really use them, not just because they make it harder to juggle more things but you disrupt the flow of combat. Honestly an energy/ stamina system didn't disrupt too much and added onto the experience. However knowing when to reload during platforming or fighting made things tougher, which in turn slowed down gameplay unless you were keeping up on reloading. That being said; made it where you had to buff the damage behind a singular shot and where higher magazine size weapons were preferable even if they dealt less damage. This is because of more chances to deal damage. A reload system + stamina energy system made things flow a little different. You had to juggle between letting your energy regen back and reloading, so basically waiting for your max ammo to fill back up. For a multi-weapon system however such as two or more did force weapon swapping and bouncing between different wea...