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Using the power of the Chrono Kicks, players can pick which abilities to use to help their current situation. Fallen through a pipe? Launch will get you back up. Van about to catch up? Boost out of there! And of course, warping through hazards negates their effects entirely!

This wasn’t always the case when the first renegade Svetlana, nicknamed Svet, was created. She could barely even jump without slamming straight into a pipe and losing all momentum. As well as a slew of assistive mechanics running behind the scenes, Svet’s abilities grew and changed over our first year of development.

The boost

The Boost ability was the first to be brought in. Simple enough, it allowed renegades to gain a quick burst of speed instantly when a boost tank was acquired. Quickly this was adapted to allow boost tanks to be stored and then used when the player felt the time was right. The next addition was an energy meter that filled over time so boost could be used even if there were no tanks around. This gave players a good amount of speed to get through a level even if they missed a lot of tanks.

Temporal shift

After AVCon 2018, I started to realise that the renegade move set was a bit limited and only worked for specific playstyles. I wanted to encourage players to find different ways to get through the levels. Over the next few months of design testing, this came in the form of the temporal shards. These shards could be collected through the level; filling up a second meter that would activate a new ability, Temporal Shift. The Temporal Shift allowed renegades to warp through hazards, avoiding their effects completely. Now the player could not only move quickly through a level, but occasionally completely avoid situations that would have caused them to fail a level.

Overwhelming the player

While the new ability was working as intended, it was being underutilised. After a long period of testing I concluded the two meters created confusion and unnecessarily complicated management. Players would often try to boost when the shift meter was full or vice versa. Sometimes the shift would be completely forgotten. Not only this, but the various types of collectables & meters were creating too many things to manage while trying to focus on making a fast run.

During an overhaul of the levels, the boost tanks were removed from gameplay. I used this opportunity to test a theory. I completely removed one of the meters and had both abilities using the same energy source. Suddenly players have much less to keep track of in a level, knowing that shards would fill the meter and that would let them use powers. My intent was to create a dynamic where the player would have to decide what power to use in what situation, adding light strategic elements to gameplay. This new system worked great at our next playtest.

Moving up

Now that the player had a streamlined system for activating abilities, I prototyped some new powers. This eventually led to Launch, a new power that throws the renegade up into the air, like a jump pad. Situations like falling through destroyed platforms, getting that extra height to reach a rail, or seeing that one collectable that was just too far up, were made much more achievable. The player now had complete freedom when deciding how to use their temporal energy.

Balancing powers

Adding and changing a character’s core abilities can be a very challenging and iterative process, minor changes that feel like they shouldn’t cause issues can sometimes break the flow of a game entirely. It can be a long process to achieve, but when a new ability feels natural, like it’s always been there, the payoff is really satisfying.

It’s an understatement to say our first Renegade has changed over the last year. From not having any special abilities, to having far too much to keep track of, to finally having streamlined strategic variety; players are now free to work out their preferred playstyle. I can’t wait to see what combinations are used next to beat our high scores!