Game Design & Systems Design

Starfield:

The player accepts a request to investigate a sudden security lockdown at a mineral research lab on the frozen planet of Toliman II.
Eventually, they discover that the lockdown was caused by “Tymelium”, a recently discovered compound. Tymelium is poisonous to humans and plant life while also causing mining robots to act violently.
Branch: Near the end of the quest, the player must choose to either…
- A.) Stop the violet attacks from the robots but sacrifice the environment surrounding the lab and town.
- B.) Save the environment by resuming the mining operation but allow the robot attacks on the townspeople to continue.

Neither choice is “correct” - both have consequences the player must consider and weigh against another.
Both choices have unique, significant impacts on the world:
- Choice A results in many townspeople leaving, as the surrounding environment will soon become uninhabitable.
- Choice B leads to the death of multiple NPCs due to the robot attacks.

All gameplay elements scale with player level (enemy difficulty, loot quality, etc.)
Opportunities for different playstyles/builds are incorporated, like lockpicking and jetpacking.

Implementation of choice impact: My scripting architecture that controls how the world changes after the narrative branch was built modularly such that it was easy to add/remove gameplay based on the player’s choice. This resulted in a higher quality of visible impact.
Narrative design: NPC dialogue felt organic and engaging, which created digestible narrative beats.
Exterior decoration: The outside portion of the level took advantage of the snowy environment to create a strong visual identity for the town.

Conveyance for mechanics: The turret-hacking mechanic lacks conveyance to decern which turrets are actually being hacked by the player. Props, colored lights, and reinforcing SFX are an ideal solution.
Interior decoration: The interior section of the quest (the lab) could benefit from a few more aesthetic passes. More props, texture variation, and VFX would make a significant difference.

Accommodate for more playstyles: A few player archetypes lack opportunities to use their skills in the quest; Social and Science perk builds especially.