Progression
I started in progression very early on, becoming the first of what would become a two-man department where I was both the technical half of our team and also in charge of such elements like Skills, Experience Curves, Mission and Job Rewards, Attributes, and an in-house tool called the Demo Jump Point system. While quite junior at the time, a great deal of trust and responsibilities were given to me because of my passion and apparent knack for this kind of systems development.
Many of these systems were cut or severely downsized before I took ownership and restored them. I created and maintained their foundations until my departure from the studio so that others could quickly and simply iterate on the framework I left behind.
Skills & Attributes
It was skills that were the impetus for experience, a mechanic that was removed shortly before my arrival, being reintroduced. The open world of Days Gone was always intended to present players with a plethora of opportunities to approach and handle any situation; I was able to convince the leadership that skills would be able to hammer that point home. It was never the intention for players to be able to get each skill in a single playthrough; rather, it was for players to play with their version of Deacon St. John.
From the formatting of three distinct skill trees to what each skill actually entails, I had complete ownership of the this aspect of gameplay and even personally implemented more of them than not.
Experience Curves
Experience collection and a concept of leveling up was a notion that was actually dropped from Days Gone not long before my arrival. It was under my recommendation that these aspects of the game were reintroduced in an effort to allow for various methods of the player to improve the way they tackle the various challenges in game. From the curve itself, to experience rewards across all sources, I alone managed and maintained the rate of leveling at SIE Bend Studio.
Of particular note is the curve itself. Most games with leveling curves traditionally have exponential increases in the amount needed to achieve each level. Days Gone, however, features a logarithmic curve. This is because, counter to games like World of Warcraft or Pokémon, the enemies don’t get stronger and don’t reward more experience as time goes on. While the player will always need to gather more experience for later levels, the difference between the levels approaches a flat line and allows the player to feel a relatively consistent growth.
Content Consultation
My role in the Progression Department often intertwined with nearly every other facet of the game. From Missions and Jobs to Ambient Events to Player and Bike controls to Combat and Weapons design, I was a point of contact for many designers in an attempt to make our game scale as consistently as possible. Difficulty needed to steadily rise as the player and their equipment improved in a delicate balance. In a development cycle where designers were not able to wrap their heads around the big picture, I was there to help them understand where things should stand. The stats of the enemies, the weapons, the bike parts, the number of enemies in missions or jobs, and so much more were all carefully choreographed by me until I left SIE Bend Studio.
Demo Jump Points & Progression Bible
At 40+ hours, Days Gone, was a beast of a game to wrap one’s head around. Our role, in the Progression Department was to see the big picture of the game; encounter difficulties, camp economies, open world population, weapon and bike part availability, skills, attributes, enemy frequency and stats, everything. We used two tools in the pursuit of everyone on the project being familiar with where the player starts and where they end up.
The Demo Jump Points system allowed for people to jump immediately to a certain point in the game with a variety of load outs to test out. More about this can be read here.
The Progression Bible was a more conceptual document, allowing us to clearly define every aspect of progression in the game and outline their meaning, intent and execution. Few read it, save the higher ups and ourselves, but the creation was instrumental in shaping our understanding of the game, its world, and the rules therein. We used a variety of methods for a variety of subjects, such as balancing a global economy by evaluating them against freakers- whose ears can be turned in for camp credits. More about this can be read here.