Tightrope Is Hard For A Reason.

We started thinking about our game and what we wanted it to be like. We already decided that it was going be a board game set on a grid of some sort, in which a player moves based on a number relevant to the class they're playing, however the combat system was something we had to get our heads round. After much discussion, we started talking about the way games are balanced in the MOBA genre. Now some of you may be wondering what MOBA is? Well it stands for "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena", something I consider relatively new in the gaming world, with only 3 major named games out there (DotA- Defence of the Ancients, LoL- League of Legends, and HoN- Heroes of Newerth). I only discovered the MOBA genre early this year, and soon became addicted to the competitive, versatile, and balanced game play. 

I only play LoL out of the 3 listed earlier, so it's the only one I can give real insight into, however the idea of the game is to battle it out over a period of time and eventually destroy the other teams base. The game consists of 2 teams of 5, each player has control over a single champion, that is then used to generate money though enemy minion and champion kills (champions controlled by other players). The gold is then spent to buy items to increase the stats of your character and grow stronger to specific situations. The idea is to take objectives to gain the upper hand, and eventually destroy the enemy Nexus for victory.

So let's get into the champions.

Each champion is equipped with 5 major skills that define them as a character. First of all they have something referred to as a 'Passive'. This is a unique trait that your champion has from the get go, that will provide you with a perk relevant to your characters skill set. Aside from this they also come with 4 different skills suited to your character, 3 of which can be unlocked as you start the game, and a 4th that can only be unlocked every 6 levels, this is referred to as your "Ultimate Ability", this is like your bread and butter ability that completely defines your champion.

You're now probably wondering what this has to do with anything? Well the main thing we want to give our player is choice. Choice provides more variation in how a player can play a game, as well as a player to think about what is best used in a situation. The way we wanted to do this was to take the skill set aspects of the MOBA games we play, and try and incorporate them into our own game.