Blagmoz
Blagmoz is a chaotic, lightning-fast PvP precision platformer action game about spell-slinging wizards battling their way to the top of a tower. Along the way, players chug potions and sacrifice their fallen enemies for powerful buffs, and generally try their best to screw each other over. Unlike other titles in the genre, players keep their buffs and weapons between rounds until they die in Blagmoz. This makes the game heavily momentum-based and creates an addictive push and pull as each match unfolds.
I developed this game along with three of my closest friends; another developer, an artist, and a musician. Leading a small indie team is hectic at the best of times, but it gave me experience wearing lots of hats and ensuring that every team member is free to contribute ideas and work together effectively. We started with a game jam in May 2023, throwing together a minimal local-multiplayer prototype in a weekend. We ended up liking the concept enough to continue development for 6 months to a commercial release in December 2023, and later delivered a number of updates that added more content.
On this project, my responsibilities included:
Designing and implementing core gameplay systems
Building our online multiplayer system, which works through the Steamworks API
Creating our in-game level editor and integrating it with Steam Workshop, as players were asking for one
Recording and synthesizing most of the SFX for the game
Creating VFX and drawing some of the game art when needed
Continually testing the game and making consistent improvements to gameplay as issues arose and new ideas were discussed
Below is our trailer for the game, along with a series of devlogs that document our thought processes on the design of the game.
Game feel and player interactions
In this devlog, I dive into the key principles of game feel that we followed when designing Blagmoz. Specifically, I discuss how I created an ultra-smooth and responsive character controller. In summary, we discovered that ensuring that our character controller follows the intention of the player, rather than their true inputs, was key to achieving great game feel. This was achieved in a variety of ways, but mostly depends upon giving grace periods for the timing of input actions and strategically anticipating where the player intends to move and making sure they don’t get caught on terrain when they don’t want to.
Level design and difficulty curves
This video, written and narrated by my teammate Finn Phayer, discusses our level design philosophies and how they pertain to the design of the game. He breaks down three main factors that influence how difficult a level is to play — openness, hazardousness, and challenge under time pressure. Since Blagmoz contains three worlds (which each have their own difficulty, hazards, and pool of levels), we must evaluate each of these factors during playtesting to make sure they are in line with the difficulty of the world that we want to achieve.
Game balance - consumables
One of Blagmoz’s core mechanics is drinking and throwing potions, which have a variety of effects. Some grant new movement options, like wings or the ability to crawl along walls, while others grant a major hinderance like transforming the user into a frog! In this video, my teammate Finn Phayer discusses how we ensured that these consumables provided a noticeable effect that impacted gameplay significantly without them feeling over or underpowered.
Our Team
This project would not have been possible without the amazing team behind it. Here are the links to their socials.
Jack Adamo - Artist and Animator, Designer
Finn Phayer - Developer, Video editor, Designer
Camden Dyer - Music