Designing the Monsters
Hiya Fateful Fellows!
With Halloween just around the corner, we decided to focus this game design highlight on the monsters featured in Wheel of Fate!
Here’s an in depth look at how we planned and designed some of the many dungeon dwellers that you find in the World of Providence! Please note that the Overlord, Otto and Towenn will be excluded in our dungeon monster discussion since some questions would be too unbalanced if they were included.
What’s your favourite dungeon monster from Wheel of Fate?
This was a difficult one to choose because I really wanted to say either the Overlord, Otto or Towenn as my favourites… In regards to the looks of the monster, I have to say the goblins or spiders because their elemental skins look great! Although, another personal favourite are the fateless monsters. They look amazing without their armor because you can see more details of the ‘fateless’ skin. Overall, I have to list the goblins as my favourite.
How did you decide which monsters to include in Wheel of Fate?
This was a collaborative process with the art team and game dev team. Basically, we took a list of about 100 monsters that we were considering to include into the game. Sort of like a giant brainstorming process. Based on team preferences, we chose 40 monsters to include. We wanted to ensure that there was both a certain range of monster types but also a level of design quality so 40 monsters was an optimal number.
Are there any monsters that you were unable to implement? Why?
‘Tree guys’ like the ones from Lord of the Rings. We wanted to implement a tree type monster since the concept art was incredible and well done! Unfortunately, the model didn’t meet our expectations and we had a lot of difficulties trying to make the different elemental skins for this monster. How do you make an ‘air’ looking tree?
What was the design process for each monster?
The artwork and graphics were left to the art team. Based on the choice of 40 monsters from the list, the art term would design them, make the base models then modified for elemental skins.
In regards to the monsters’ attack arsenal, the game design team defined a set of attacks all monsters would have and collaborated with the art team to ensure the model design was logical to the animation and attack.
Some attacks had to be changed because they didn’t make sense. For example, the animation would be too flashy or would look weird with the type of weapon. Like a triple jump somersault air flip with a giant axe for one whack at the opponent.
I understand that the monsters change with each spin of the wheel. Were there any monsters that you had difficulty adjusting to their different elemental skins? Why?
Yes, there was one monster that we had immense difficulty creating elemental skins for. As mentioned earlier, the tree guys.
For the implemented monsters, no. Most of the monsters that were implemented were chosen based on design and in game model prototypes which include their elemental skins, so if their elemental skins didn’t look good then they were not chosen.
Which monster did you dislike fighting the most?
100% that would be the Ogres. Before an update, they would take up to 30 minutes to beat because they had incredible regeneration abilities and were heavy hitting. The regeneration was a % based health regeneration. However, when they already have a lot of health, it would result in the ogre basically regenerating almost all of your attack damage. We decided to fix this.
Did you draw inspiration from anywhere when designing the monsters? If so, where?
Yes, a lot of our inspiration for the list of monsters came from the classic medieval fantasy genre as well as games like World of Warcraft and DnD.
Out of the existing monsters, which one do you feel was unsatisfactory that you would want to take an revise or improve upon?
Honestly, I love the dragon model but I also feel the most unsatisfactory about it. The model outside of the game looks great but it doesn’t look as nice in the game battle scenes. For instance, the animations would seem ‘off’ during attacks or the textures and face looked underwhelming from the battle scene angle.
Aside from the Overlord, which monster would win in a battle royale amongst the monsters in the dungeons?
In my opinion, I think the dragon would most likely win in a battle royale. It hits the hardest out of all of the dungeon monsters so I feel that would win over endless snake spawns or high healing ogres.
In the spirit of Halloween… Personally, what monster do you find the most terrifying?
Personally, I guess I would say ghosts are the most terrifying, so the Liches in Wheel of Fate. Realistically, I think the Ratmen would be the most terrifying of a monster to exist from our game.
Got any more questions for us regarding the game design for Wheel of Fate? Feel free to post in the forums or comment on this blog post and we’ll be happy to answer your questions!
We’re also active daily on our official discord so come join us for a chat!
Cheers!
UDX Team