The Maddening Mercy
by: Derpy Doggo Digital

Gameplay Trailer

Game Summary

The Maddening Mercy is a muder mystery visual novel with a bullet hell combat system when confronting suspects. Gather evicence, find the culprit, and confront their arguments to win.

Key Contributions

As the sole combat designer, I was tasked to increase the engagement and polish of the combat. When I first joined halfway into development, I pitched and created all the "Themed Attacks" in combat. I also created and balanced the bullet patterns in both encounters.

Early Development

Early during production, the only boss relied exclusive on randomly selected generic attacks. My goal after I joined was to make the fights more memorable, which is in part the inspiration behind the Themed Attacks.

The Themed Attacks took inspiration from other Bullet Hells such as Enter the Gungeon or Undertale. In those games, they are often considered to be the highlight of their respective games.

Wireframe concept art of various attacks created by me

I drew inspiration from their design methodology and had the attacks double as metaphors for the characters that use them. I also created concept art and documentation of the mechanics to eliminate possible miscommunication with the programming team.

Below is examples of the game's combat, with the dialogue segment cut.

Gameplay from before I joined the team

Gameplay two weeks after joining the team

Release gameplay of Bill

Release gameplay of Lorelei, added later in development

Pacing Balance

After a mechanic was implemented, I iterated the exact variables through continuous repeat testing. I was responsible for ensuring the attacks:

The editor I would use to customize the Notes themed attack

Screenshot of the test scene I would use to simulate attacks

Phases were also implemented to control the flow of combat and the rate of new attacks. I also used probability here to best showcase all the unique attacks the fight offered while avoiding repetition.

The editor I would use to customize the phases

Playtesting Feedback

While solo testing caught most problems early, playtesing ensured any problems I overlooked were quickly corrected. Early testing showed players were noticeably split between feeling like the only boss was too weak or too challenging.

This was rectified later when I nerfed the boss and created the second one to serve as the challenge. However, playtesting revealed that I accidentally made the second boss's attacks too powerful.

Anonymous Google Forms user feedback from live playtesting

Key Takeaways

Working on this project has primarily taught me two things.

The first is how to work around and with limitations.
While I had more creative freedom in other projects, I had to work within the constraints that the narrative team set as the story was already completed before I arrived. I worked aroud it by translating the pre-existing pacing into phases.

The second is how to properly account for the player skill level. Playtesting has shown how I over or undercorrected various bosses. I have since learned how to better account for this by challenging and restriciting myself when testing.

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