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In this unique RPG, join Embla in her epic fight to stop the end of all worlds and establish her as one of Solgard’s most legendary heroes.
Use strategy to battle hordes of ice enemies, claim bounties on legendary villains, defeat epic Bosses and win the war against evil to become a true legend of Solgard.
This text is found in the description of the all download pages for the game Legend of Solgard
CONTRIBUTIONS
FTUE Rework
What I spent most my time doing at Snowprint was laying the groundwork for a full scale player onboarding rebrand. First time user experience (FTUE) is the process of bring in new players and how they are introduced to all parts of the game. My goal with this work was making the game flow much easier. Everything from improving the information architecture to giving players a designated place for learning.
I made changes to everything the player would interact with for the first 30 minutes of gameplay. Not everything changed, but thanks to the scale of the project I was able to tackle each area and make them all feel cohesive.
The biggest change between my reworked version and the one before it is the introduction of the Training menu. A dedicated place where players can go to learn about the games different mechanics or to remind themselves how they works.
The second biggest improvement goes hand in hand with the introduction of the Training menu. As every level tutorial was moved into the Training menu, the pacing of the game and the rate at which content was introduced drastically decreased. This proved to be a positive things as player often felt overwhelmed when starting the for the first time. Introducing important UI and explaining how the enemy spawning works before the player faces a threat are just two of the other improvements made.
Work description
My goal with this rework was to promote the feeling of freedom. Before, players were forced to follow the directions the game chose for the first 20 minutes of gameplay. There was no player agency or way for them to divert of this set path to explore the game. The FTUE was deliberately designed this way to minimize the amount of players that "got lost" in the game's UI jungle.
I knew that there was a better way to implement this want, a way that would also give players the ability to explore the menus. Instead of forcing the player to do as the game says, I decided we limit the amount of UI that the player has access to. By doing so, players could explore a set amount of menus until they'd progressed in the campaign. Moreover, I changed the frequency that vignettes were utilized. Reserving them to the extra important UI elements and opting for only showing arrows to guide the players or show smaller points of interest.
The video shows the changed version on campaign level 5. Here the big creature threat used to prompt a text bubble which was followed by forcing the player to make two specific moves. Now, instead, the player is just met with a larger enemy and the level design insinuates that they should probably attack the big enemy.
Creature Design
Brynnki is the creature I created. The original concept for the creature was based on a Red Panda. When concepting the creature with the art team, some concerns were arose regarding a Red Panda not fully fitting into the games Norse mythology theme. After some discussion we came to a fitting conclusion and a signature trait of the character, the flaming tail.
Brynnki is a fire melee attacking creature that moves quickly and strengthen the fires around them with every strike. The is of the "rare" ratity, second lowest, which means it's not the strongest but Brynnki fills gap of red rare fire creature.
Creature backstory
Nimble, Nifty, and Flaring, Brynnkis came about from the ashes of tragedy. Originally from Midgard, this cute and fluffy Ailuridae critter lived a clumsy yet peaceful life in the tall woods of Midgard's mountain ranges. Unfortunately, Brynnkis got abducted, as ordered by Surt of Muspelheim, to help create powerful fire critters — used as tools to prepare for Ragnarok. They were subjected to the harsh temperature and flowing lava until their bodies gave in and absorbed it, their spirits still not broken. As soon as their tragic transformation had been finalized, the Brynnkis were set on returning to their prior home. Upon escaping Muspelheim and returning to Midgard, they were shunned by its inhabitants. Brynnkis had lost their heritage and natural look due to this forced conversion and now have to don colored armor around their tails to mimic their past appearance. Because of the exposure to Muspelheim, Brynnkis' tails and ears also became glowing as if there's magma stored inside of them — generating all their firey powers. Nowadays, Brynnkis reside in Niflheim living in isolation or smaller groups, fending off enemies by flinging fireballs from their tails and strengthening their flames with every strike of their paws. They are waiting for the day they're called to help defend against Ragnarok.
Details
The development process started with my concept for Brynnki, me wanting a Red Panda and thinking it fit the critter theme. After the art team had their say, I came up with the attacks for the creature and how they should function. I wanted Brynnki to be quick and while not the strongest creature, one that acted as a great support. This is where the flaring of all fires with every strike came from.
Since Brynnki is a fire creature it needed to be able to produce fire as well which is where the tail comes in. Brynnki uses its tail as a sort of baseball bat, flinging fireballs at the enemy.
After abilities came the naming process which was by far the hardest. Trying to find a clever yet Norse mythology inspired name that suited the creature was difficult, but eventually I landed on Brynnki.
Lastly, most importantly, came the balancing process. To ensure that Brynnki wouldn't stand above all other creatures we went through several iterations of it strengths and overall power.
UI Redesign
Level Design
The levels I created were aimed to provide content for the game's elder players. Since the game is over 4-years-old, most of the new content is tailored the early game players. I wanted to bring some new content to the veteran players. These levels were meant to be a difficult challenge for even the most well equipped player. Not only that, I also forced these players out of their comfort zone. Requiring them to team build with either a limited pool of creatures or use lower rarity creatures for levels of similar difficulty.
The process of creating the levels started with deciding which enemies I wanted to use for the level. To not overwhelm the player and to keep it more balanced I decided to cap-off the unique enemy usage at 3. After choosing, I created a rough blockout of how and where the enemies should be places. As well as where they would spawn and with what frequency.
After the blockout stage, it was more or less a continous iterative process. Balancing the levels until it reached a stage where it was difficult but completable without having to rely on a specific creature.
quest Design
Just like with the level design, I wanted to fill a void that was present in the game — this time in the early game. Players are quickly introduced to one of the games most useful tools for power scaling, they are named Idols.
As it wasn't thoroughly taught or explained to new players what Idols do or how to use them, I decided to make separate questlines them. I split them up into the two parts: How to apply and how to craft. These questlines offered smaller rewards but aimed to provide knowledge that helps players progress, instead of giving massive rewards.
In Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, you bring some of the universe’s most powerful warriors to lightning-fast tactical skirmishes where you are in full control and only superior tactics can deliver victory. Expand your collection across multiple factions to find new tactical possibilities as you bring your troops to battle and sweep the galaxy clear of all resistance!
This text is found in the description of the all download pages for the game Tacticus
Community Events
To further engage the player community, I helped the community manager for Tacticus host seasonal community events. I designed the puzzles for Halloween 2023 and Winter Holidays 2023.
The goal with these events were to bring entertainment to the community and to have them work alongside each other to solve these puzzles. However, something that had stood in the way in previous events was the langue barrier. Because the game has such a wide spread audience, it's impossible for everyone to understand English.
My mission with the events I made was to rely on visuals and other puzzles that didn't require any connection to a language. Whilst the Halloween event was smaller in size, it served as a valuable lesson to on how to achieve the goal I was aiming toward.
I managed to achieve my set goal with the 2023 Winter Holiday Event. What I created was a three part puzzle, two main parts and one optional side part, where I utilized pictures instead of words. By combining in-game level screens and a separated QR-code, there was no tie-in with any language for the core puzzle. The secondary part was binary connected to English but since it was something extra and not mandatory we decided to add it. For those who didn't know English all they needed was to copy the code provided by other community members.
Inner workings
The puzzle's two main parts were: QR-code and a password locked website. Participants would have to assemble the QR-code to access the website that was locked behind a passcode found in the picture hints. Once the website had been opened the participants got to fill out a forum to receive their prize. In the forum, participants could enter the binary code for a chance at extra prizes.
Each visual detail in these hint picture played a part in some way to solving the puzzle. The art banner at the top, alongside the number, signaled which in-game campaign the other assets refer to. The small colored boxes indicate the enemies featured in the level and the color difference not only show there's multiple enemy types but is also what creates the binary code. The small medal featured on 8 out of 12 pictures lead participants to a specific enemy which first letter corresponded to on letter in the password for the website. Lastly, the QR-code which was split up into 12 pieces.
The impact that the 2023 Winter Holiday Event had was large. Over 10000 total participants, circa 1/3 of which were actively involved and didn't just copy a guide to get easy rewards.
The event also brought over 2000 new member into the games discord as they wanted to discuss and solve this new mysterious riddle.
Link to downloadable PDF of my design document for this holiday event