Platform:  PS4, PS3, XBox One, XBox 360, WiiU, PC, Apple TV

Tools: Proprietary (avatar) - visual scripting tool, content creation and management tool, animation and ticker editing tools;                           Universal - Excel, Visio, Lua

Duration: 11 months

Team Size: Characters - 20 internal / 20 external; IN 3.0 Team - 400+

Role: Lead Designer - Character Mechanics

Metacritic/Gamerankings: 80

Disney Infinity 3.0 was a major learning experience for me. I directed and worked with Ninja Theory as they made improvements to the combat system in preparation for Star Wars coming to Disney Infinity. This was an exciting and humbling development cycle working alongside a team with over 15 years experience in combat systems, many of whom's games I had played and appreciated over the years. 

High Level     

For Infinity 3.0 at the High level, there were four major areas of improvement:

• Expression between combat mechanics
• Improved Kinesthetics
• Enemy functionality
• Ranged Combat Improvements

To facilitate expression between mechanics, at the low-level we expanded our splits system (the system that allows the player to go from one attack into another) to allow smooth segues between more mechanics; melee, ranged, force, special abilities, block, dodge, ground and air combos. In doing this, each character was designed with the following questions:

• How would mechanic X play with mechanic Y?
• How do these mechanics complement on another?
• How can this avatar's limitations be mitigated via this mechanic?

Some examples of how we addressed these questions are: Developing air combos along with the Launcher to give the player air play possibilities, rendering the enemy defenseless; Pause Combos were implemented as a means of dissuading spamming but also giving the player options for more powerful attacks on the melee attack button; Juggling by launching then shooting became a fun way to play with your enemy; Force Pull allowed the player to continue a combo string if performed at the right time; Dash combos allowed the player to dash toward a target then time melee attacks to get different results. As the lead, I felt that these improvements (and others) not only contributed to a more robust combat system that was true to the core experience, but also gave the player more means of expression. 

In regards to improved kinesthetics, animation and gameplay tuning philosophy changed a little to facilitate responsiveness and readability. Forward motion in an attack animation was prioritized along with footwork to sell weight. We developed a keener eye for time spent in animation after the button is pressed, and tuned splits timing to keep players feeling connected to their attacks. 

For enemy functionality, we improved AI with a host of defensive abilities like "Pop-Outs", "Super Armored" states, Weak Spots and the ability to utilize cover in ranged combat. This resulted in enemies that kept the player from spamming as much as they had in previous versions of Infinity, asking them to dodge, block, counter and perform launchers, pause combos, etc. This also allowed us as designers to develop more tricks to defeating particular enemies.

Ranged Combat was improved with the addition of benefits for shooting Weak Spots, improved reactions and feedback, an Aim Mode that mimics core shooters, AI Cover, precision settings on ranged weapons and a Critical Shot system that allowed weapons to deal more damage and elicit different reactions. 

Finally, Tech Terminals, Lightsaber Doors, Force Interactibles, Ranged Targets and Mynocks were all added to play sets to push on gameplay differences between certain characters. This was an effort to reinforce the differences between particular avatars through world interactions that were tied to archetypes, thus pushing the player to swap out characters. I designed each interactible and handed production off to other team members.

Mid Level

At the mid level, I developed character cards to communicate character move sets, progression and archetypes. Because we had a relatively small team for how many characters we needed to get done, this was the best way to convey design in a concise manner that would be read, with further information being delivered on an individual avatar's OneNote page as needed. Throughout production, we held kick-off meetings, brainstorms and standing reviews at desks as needed.  

Low Level

Infinity 3.0 saw our avatar tool set take major strides forward, which allowed us to iterate more quickly and to reach a level of polish we didn't have in Infinity 2.0. The one major drawback to these tools is that they were separate. A unified tool that does it all (attack authoring, animation previewing, VFX, SFX, munitions hookup, etc.) would have helped us be even more efficient. I spent much time throughout production in our tool set as well as teaching others how to use it. 

Takeaways

Ultimately, I feel our readability, kinesthetics, expression and enemy AI all took great leaps forward over Infinity 2.0. We could have used more time to do more with ranged combat improvements. In learning from the lesson of taking on too much (see Infinity 2.0), I was more conservative in our approach with ranged combat with Infinity 3.0. Therefore, certain improvements were made in the aim mode and weak spots, but much was left on the floor.

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