Section I - Game Description

Name of the game : One Step From Eden

Background information of the game :

Section II - Gameplay and Mechanics

Gameplay

Game Progression

The main character is a military scientist called Saffron. She wants to reach Eden. In her journey, she collects spells and artifacts to power up herself while beating the enemies. She also meets other characters who also want to reach Eden and conflict happens, resulting in a boss fight.

Mission/Challenge Structure

There are nine different levels. Each level contains seven sublevels. The sublevels are randomly assigned and the player can pick the favorite route. The last sublevel will be a boss fight. After winning a boss fight, the player can hop to the favorite assigned level. The enemies get stronger after each completed level.

After beating all levels and seeing the ending scene, the Challenge mode option is unlocked (Known as “Hell Pass”). The player can challenge himself/herself by enabling the hell passes.

Puzzle Structure

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Objectives

The Objective of the game is to beat through all the levels to reach Eden. In the meantime, collect spells and artifacts to power up.

Play Flow

You need to pass all the levels to reach Eden. You collect artifacts and spells to power yourself up. You will meet other characters who also want to reach Eden. You fight with her and after you beat her down, you can choose to kill her or spare her life. If you kill her, you get a decent reward. If you spare her life, she will give you a helping hand in future fights. Your “Kill or Spare” option will alter the game-ending.

Mechanics

Physics

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Movement

General Movement

The player can only move on the blue tiles vertically or horizontally. Arrow keys are the default keys to move up, left, right, and down.

Other Movement

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Objects - Picking Up Objects and Moving Objects

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Actions

Switches and Buttons

The spells are shuffled then queued in the loader. The “Q” button uses the spell in the first slot and the “W” button uses the spell in the second slot. The “E” button uses the weapon of the player. The “Space” button manually shuffle all Spells in the Deck.

Picking Up, Carrying and Dropping

After each sublevel, the player is given a spell or artifact. The player can pick one of the three items or even skip the reward for a strategic purpose. The player is also rewarded with an artifact when leveling up via experience gained from defeating enemies. Spells can be removed from the deck using removal items, which can be purchased from the shopkeeper.

Talking and Reading

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Combat

Spells, Artifacts and Weapons

Spells are the main way to deal damage to enemies. They spawn from the deck in random order. Each spell has a different effect and they are categorized into ten different brands. Artifacts are passive upgrades for your character that can provide a variety of effects, both positive and negative. Weapons are the second way to deal damage to enemies. Each character has a unique weapon.

Deck Building and Upgrades

The core mechanic of the game is real-time deck building. The player can design their own’s strategy and construct the unique deck build.

Economy

The currency unit in this game is called Sera. Sera is dropped from the enemies and Serapile. In each level, there are chances of encountering the Shopkeeper. Sera can be used to buy artifacts, spell cards, and some useful items.

The Six successful elements of One Step From Eden

Preparation

Before taking up the challenge, the player needs to choose the character and a loadout. Each character has different loadouts and a unique playstyle. Before reaching Eden, the player needs to build a deck of spells and pass through 7 generated worlds, to fight the final boss.

The final boss (in the neutral run) is the gate of Eden. It has massive health points and heavy weapons.

A sense of space

In neutral cases, the player can move freely in the 4 by 4 blue grids. While the enemies can move in 4 by 4 red grids. Such narrow space makes the player feel like fighting closely with the enemies, giving a feel of intense fight.

In the final boss fight (genocide run), all the grids will become grey. Both the final boss and player can freely move in the 8 by 4 grids. The boss is the hardest one and it has a very large attack area, therefore, the player needs more space to run around to dodge the attacks. This special design makes the boss fight more memorable.

A solid core mechanic

The player needs to cost mana to drive the spells to attack enemies. Mana regenerates very slowly, so the player needs to pick the spells carefully. Different spells have a different focus and the spells in the same focus usually could make a better combo. Some spells have some special effect such as a burn or freeze the enemy.

Artifacts are passive upgrades for the player that can provide a variety of both positive and negative effects, such as increasing max mana, spell attack damage. The player needs to choose the artifacts carefully because the player can only carry a limited number of artifacts. Since the player will get a different combination of spells and artifacts in each game, the player will not get bored easily.

A range of challenges

In each world, the route is randomly generated. There is a variation of monsters and they have different abilities. the last level of each world is a boss fight. The Bosses will grow stronger progressively after each world completion. The route also changes according to the player’s decision (e.g. kill a boss or space a boss’s life).

After the player beats the game each time, a new challenge modifier will be unlocked. Modifiers include: Stronger enemies, more obstacles, lower player defense, player max HP reduced, stronger bosses, shops cost more, enemies regenerate health, etc. The player can enable multiple modifiers at once to adjust the difficulties, for a better gaming experience.

A range of abilities required to solve the encounter

Since different spells have different usage, the player needs to get familiarized with the deck just built and perform combo to strike the enemies. There are more than a hundred spells in the game and each spell has a unique effect. The player needs to perform a combo to beat the enemies while staying survive in the game.

Skill required in using the abilities

As mentioned, resource management is very important in the game. The player must carefully pick the cards to perform an efficient attack. Timing and reaction are also important because the bosses attack fast. Most of the time the player needs skills to dodge the boss attacks.

References