Game Design/Development
Documents for Team Fortress 2
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Team Fortress 2 is a class based shooter where each glass has a role in either offense, defense or support. Beyond their role, they are limited to a selection of (usually) 3 weapons. For example, the Soldier has access to a Rocket Launcher, a Shotgun, and a Shovel (primary, secondary and melee weapon slots respectively). Each slot allows customization by switching one type of weapon for another. (Soldier can only get rocket launchers in his primary slot.) The game's weapon balancing strategy is to allow sidegrades of weapons - new weapons may be better in particular situations, but have a drawback to keep the stock weapon the best choice overall.
I have over 700 logged hours in the game, and have been drawn to analyze its balancing system. More importantly, I've been drawn to explaining the systems in a way that players can easily understant and visualize.
Other Projects
(Video) Game Ideas Wiki
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About 6 years ago, I joined a community on Wikia where users could post their ideas for video games. I added a couple of my own, but I soon became distracted with improving the website's appearance and usibility.
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Improved the Game Idea Wiki's Search Engine Optimization rating so it appeared in front of the less popular Video Game Ideas wiki
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Created numerous pages describing how to use the website
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Created a number of templates to communicate common information in articles more efficiently
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Updated the front page to have seperated sections for new users and returning users so each can find what they need more quickly
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Used CSS to make templates that look good in all browsers
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Created a cohesive appearance by adding custom background, logo, favicon
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Added Javascript based Konami code
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Community management (banning disruptive users, facilitating arguments/discussions)
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Context
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TF2 weapons are based around side-grades and situational upgrades. E.g. A weapon may do less damage overall but deal triple damage against enemies who are on fire
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The TF2 wiki lists weapons on the related class page.
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Too much space given to non-pertinent info (e.g. kill icons, ammo capacity​)
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Important weapon aspects are in long bulleted lists along with unimportant weapon aspects (e.g. corpses disintegrate)
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​Implementation
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Weapon list broken down by class, weapon slot, type of weapon, aspects. Types are then compared by usage (damage ranking, situational benefit) on type specific points (e.g. items that only grand passive boosts are not ranked on damage output)
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Boasts a column explaining the situation where that weapon would be most effective
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Sniper - 125 hp
Sniper with DDS - 150 hp
Uncharged headshot damage - 150 hp
Uncharged headshot damage with DDS - 158 hp
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Purpose: DDS is for surviving sniper duels
Rocket Launcher - 4 rockets, 100 damage ea.
Black Box - 3 rockets, 100 damage ea.
Heavy Weapons Guy - 300 health
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Explanation: A soldier fighting a Heavy in a standard fight will die during his reload. Thus, a Black Box-wielding soldier has to hit every rocket perfectly or will die.
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Context
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TF2 weapons are based around side-grades and situational upgrades. E.g. A weapon may do less damage overall but deal triple damage against enemies who are on fire
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Weapon descriptions usually only feature a difference of 15% damage from the stock
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​Implementation
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A massive chart measuring damage dealt per mouse click, against almost every health-altering item in game
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Also shows at what point a player would have to reload, as the slowing of damage output can be fatal
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This is a graph of the data that I had in a spreadsheet.
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Class health is in the first bar (e.g. 125, 175, 450)
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Each one after is the stock primary weapon, where the colors represent the cumulative damage of each shot. E.g. the Rocket Launcher holds 4 rockets. No class dies in one rocket (matching the line against the first column.) However, 2 rockets will kill anyone with 175 health or less.
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A player may be healed for more than their max health. The class will the most health has 300 normally, and 450 at max over-heal. A fully charged headshot does exactly 450 damage.
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