Druid's Haven

The most important design question for Druid's Haven was what biodiversity even looks like in a game. I designed the initial system for it. Here is the full document, but to summarize part of it:

There are three different types of plants (support, engineer, and deterrent), which provide something within the ecosystem (e.g. support provides resources). Planting diverse plants next to each other gives both a buff to show that species diversity is important.

Each individual plant has randomized stats within a range (e.g. an oak has between 100-150 HP). Harsh conditions like heat or disease travel along the map and affect the plants. The random stats for plants are to show that not every plant will die under the same conditions, which is why we need genetic diversity.

Towards the end of a level we would have cataclysmic events that heavily target one stat (which would kill a monoculture or specific plant), followed by a final wave to test the resilience of the ecosystem you've built.

When Druid's Haven moved from distinct levels to an endless mode, the big problem became how seeds for new plants should spawn.

One problem was that if one plant was wiped out, you couldn't restore it. Another was at what rate and which conditions because now we had to balance the difficulty. If plants spawned seeds then it became an exponential function of more plants = more seeds = more plants.

The core problem was this: since seeds are our only resource, they are the primary medium for rewarding player behavior. Our goal was to teach the importance of biodiversity, but if every plant only provided its own seed, then we were constrained by our main reward system.

In the design document, I describe a couple solutions, but my main proposal was to split the seed into both a resource for new plants and a currency to buy upgrades in a shop. This serves to provide choices for the player and an opportunity for us to reward increasing biodiversity.

As part of the first sprint, we had to create a Design Document (which you can check out here). The game changed a lot, of course, because we had to create this document even before starting to prototype, but the original loop of "plant, survive, grow" remains in the game.

This was the first time that I wrote a design document that would be the source for a whole team (instead of personal use), and it was a very educational experience trying to bring everyone on the same page.

The core problem was this: since seeds are our only resource, they are the primary medium for rewarding player behavior. Our goal was to teach the importance of biodiversity, but if every plant only provided its own seed, then we were constrained by our main reward system.

In the design document, I describe a couple solutions, but my main proposal was to split the seed into both a resource for new plants and a currency to buy upgrades in a shop. This serves to provide choices for the player and an opportunity for us to reward increasing biodiversity.

While researching tower defense games for Druid's Haven, I was also reading IGDA's Environmental Game Design Playbook to learn more about communicating pro-environmental messages through games. The first part is about psychology, so I was familiar with most of the theories, but it was very useful to see them presented in a games context. Especially the game examples listed for every tactic.

The book, for me personally, became a cornerstone for the design, i.e. how we could teach something about our environment while also empowering the player to act on it.

Specifically, basing it on the real world (creating environmental knowledge) and giving the player real world analogues to deal with it (creating environmental self-efficacy). For example, an apartment building is generating heat that hurts the plants around it, so giving the player the ability to put green walls on them which reduce heat in and around the building.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time before implementing that idea, but doing a lot of research helped me form a strong vision for the game and stay passionate throughout development.

Since I had only played a few tower defense games before starting Druid's Haven, it seemed useful to get to know the genre by playing a few games and sharing the most important takeaways with the team. You can check the document by clicking here.

It was definitely useful to get a breadth of ideas and get out of our preconceived ideas of what tower defense was. We started off with The Last Spire's stationary tower and ended up with an ecosystem growing outward from a starting point.

While researching tower defense games for Druid's Haven, I was also reading IGDA's Environmental Game Design Playbook to learn more about communicating pro-environmental messages through games. The first part is about psychology, so I was familiar with most of the theories, but it was very useful to see them presented in a games context. Especially the game examples listed for every tactic.

The book, for me personally, became a cornerstone for the design, i.e. how we could teach something about our environment while also empowering the player to act on it.

Specifically, basing it on the real world (creating environmental knowledge) and giving the player real world analogues to deal with it (creating environmental self-efficacy). For example, an apartment building is generating heat that hurts the plants around it, so giving the player the ability to put green walls on them which reduce heat in and around the building.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time before implementing that idea, but doing a lot of research helped me form a strong vision for the game and stay passionate throughout development.

As part of the first sprint, we had to create a Design Document (which you can check out here). The game changed a lot, of course, because we had to create this document even before starting to prototype, but the original loop of "plant, survive, grow" remains in the game.

This was the first time that I wrote a design document that would be the source for a whole team (instead of personal use), and it was a very educational experience trying to bring everyone on the same page.

Since I had only played a few tower defense games before starting Druid's Haven, it seemed useful to get to know the genre by playing a few games and sharing the most important takeaways with the team. You can check the document by clicking here.

It was definitely useful to get a breadth of ideas and get out of our preconceived ideas of what tower defense was. We started off with The Last Spire's stationary tower and ended up with an ecosystem growing outward from a starting point.