Mighty Action Heroes (2022-2023)
https://www.mightyactionheroes.com/
Mighty Action Heroes is a third-person battle royale game being developed by Mighty Bear Games as the studio’s first foray into the Web3 space. The theme of the game is centered around action movies and heroes from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, from Hollywood, Bollywood, Hong Kong cinema and beyond.
Players can collect action heroes in the form of NFTs, each with their own visual and non-visual traits. These will be interoperable between MAH and future supported MBG games.
As a designer on this project, I was heavily involved in early brainstorming and concepting of both the initial core gameplay features and the surrounding meta game. I was also the principal designer on many of the fundamental gameplay systems and mechanics, like the 3Cs, weapon and shooting mechanics, health and armor systems, hero abilities and more.
Below you’ll find some highlights of the work I’ve done on this project, as well as some screenshots (at the bottom).
Game Design
- Brainstormed and concepted initial core gameplay systems, mechanics and surrounding meta-game features along with another designer, before wider team was brought on board.
- Co-wrote the early roadmap for prototyping and early access phases up until launch of the game, which later helped form the basis of the actual production roadmap.
- Designed framework/core principles of the 3Cs – Character, Controls, Camera.
- Designed the overall framework and fundamental rules and mechanics for weapons (collecting, swapping, shooting and reloading)
- Designed a noise profile system for weapons, which displayed noise indicators based on “loudness” of nearby action at edge of player’s screen, a valuable feature in a top-down third-person game with limited visibility beyond what’s immediately visible on the screen.
- Designed 16 unique Hero abilities usable by players in matches, based on the type of class their selected Hero belongs to. Each such Hero gets an ability assigned the moment they are created, chosen at random from a pool of abilities unique to their class. Examples of such abilities: Dodge Roll, Charge, Dash, Flying Kick.
- Designed ~35 unique gadgets usable by players in matches. These gadgets could be crafted by players as part of the meta-game, or traded with other players, to then be equipped on the player’s selected Hero. Example of such gadget: a grenade that players could throw over obstacles on the map to flush out their opponents.
- Designed (and prototyped) a system for enterable buildings, and what rules would apply to players who entered those during a match.
- Designed specs for health, armor and ammo systems.
- Designed system and flow for choosing where to spawn on the map while on the matchmaking screen, and the follow-up mechanic that let players fine-tune that spawn-location once the proper match started.
- Assisted with design and initial setup of AI for the game’s bots, and for the support helicopter.
- Updated bot AI to make use of concept behind Utility Theory, which let the bots make more natural decision based on needs, desires and situations.
- Designed quest system with daily and weekly objectives to complete, for overall player account progression and/or season pass progression.
- Designed season pass system and balanced pace of progression in this system to fit feature requirements.
Other
- Mentored a design-intern for several months, and gave them guidance on design workflows and process, feedback on design work, had regular follow-up sessions to check on their progress and well-being.
- Participated in task-triaging after internal play sessions, to help assess the exact nature and importance of each bug filed.
- Helped run and monitor playtest sessions with external testers brought in to the office to test the game.
Screenshots
