THE Signature mechanic

FEAR

Let it build up, and it could end you…

Let’s talk game design.

IT’S THE MOST ELEGANT DESIGN DECISIONS THAT CREATE THE ‘MAGIC.’

Fear is the elegant mechanic that elevates this particular design. Let me explain…

Like any battle game, you’ve got health (hit points) to manage. In Wastelandia, you’ve also got to manage your ‘Fear’ that will be building up.

Here’s how ‘fear’ works

If you are dealt 1 damage, but your character has 10 fear, then you’ll take 11 damage instead!

You won’t last long taking that kind of damage. Good news is that you can spend resources on your turn to reduce your fear.

SO WHY NOT ALWAYS REDUCE FEAR JUST TO BE SAFE? Well, the bosses effect you in a variety of ways, and there will be turns when bosses won’t deal any damage at all. If you’re not taking damage, then you can use your limited resources on other things than removing fear, right?

BUT HOW LONG CAN YOU IGNORE THE FEAR THAT’S BUILDING? You’re going to take damage eventually, but when? How long are you willing to push your luck?

DID I MENTION THAT EACH BATTLE HAS A TIMER? With time running out, can you afford to worry about your fear? You need to spend precious resources to finish the battle!

Surprisingly Thematic

FEAR IS THE SIGNATURE MECHANIC BECAUSE IT’S SURPRISINGLY THEMATIC. As in real life, you can ignore your fears, but the longer you ignore it the more it builds up. The more it builds up, the more difficult it is to handle when you’re finally forced to deal with it. With a long list of pressures and demands, do you even have the time to deal with it?

I hope you can get a picture of compelling tension this mechanic provides, but I haven’t even gotten to the best part...

ONE MECHANIC, MULTIPLE EFFECTS

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS IN GAMES IS WHEN A SINGLE MECHANIC HAS A WILDLY UNIQUE FEEL IN A DIFFERENT CONTEXT.

You’ll also be dealing fear to the bosses, and boy does it feel different when you’re the one dishing it out!

You’ll feel immensely powerful if you can stack up tons of fear on a boss, making every attack against it do tons of damage.

You might even have a party member specialize in dealing fear early on in battle that will help the entire team deal massive blows later on.

Awesome, yeah?! You should focus on stacking tons of fear, right? Well, maybe.

Each battle has multiple bosses to finish off. If you spend too much time stacking fear on one boss to the point of overkill, then you’ll likely run out of time finishing off the other bosses!

If you can’t tell, there’s a wonderful tension and balance to everything. It’s an elusive search for the optimal strategy!

I think that’s enough design talk for now. I hope you’ve found it interesting.

Enjoy playing,

- DREW