Tiny Lizard People And The
Big Bad Dragon (2022)
Game Design & Balance | UI/UX
Tiny Lizard People And The Big Bad Dragon is a decelerated, 1v1 RTS game for PC set on a tropical island inhabited by a mighty Dragon. In it the players take on the role of two opposing lizard clans that are vying for the dragons attention with all their might.
Be it fighting each other, sacrificing innocent sheep or even weaponizing them, no method is beneath these Tiny Lizards, for only one clan can reach the top of the mountain and win the dragons love and power.
‘TLPATBBD’ has all the systems you’d expect from the genre but is also slower paced, admitting a more casual audience into this style of game.
On top of that the witty and humorous ability & item descriptions, interactions with the custom faith system (that can just as easily help the players as it can turn their Lizards into rampaging zealots), and the charming toy-like visuals make this a unique RTS experience.
Contributions
Game Design
Each aspect of the games systems connects back to the central mechanic and theme: Faith. Resource management, the troops fighting spirit, boons and curses for the players opponent, it all leads back to this.
In doing so, the core theme and mechanics of the game are intertwined in a way that creates interesting gameplay dilemmas and opportunities, as well as an emergent story.
UI & Implementation
From wireframe to final mock ups I iterated UI elements on paper and in Adobe XD to fit the style and systems of the game. Certain custom elements like the ‘sacrifices’ that play into the faith system were especially interesting. One cardinal rule was to keep the center of the screen empty to keep player awareness high.
I then implemented ability icons in Unity and used the dev-tools to adjust the descriptions and in-game mechanical functions.
Play Testing & Balancing
A complex RTS means one thing above all: documentation, formulas and so, so many sheets.
From resource production, to crafting costs, troop acquisition rates, to faith accumulation and effects, etc. etc. everything had to be tracked, tested and balanced.
Since I was in charge of play testing this is what I spent most of my time during production doing: testing system compatibility and relentlessly optimizing and fine-tuning it.
3D Modeling
Utilizing my hard-surface modeling knowledge I contributed two of the gathering & production buildings I had previously designed the function of.
By closely following the provided concept art and carefully UV-unwrapping the models I was able to give them a stylized and seamless look, ready to be textured by the lead 3D artist.