Beminioned is a fast-paced real time strategy game designed to appeal to video game streaming spectators. This two-week prototype was made as part of a course in UC Santa Cruz's Games and Playable Media masters program. I was responsible for design, programming, and implementation of some of the visual effects. Joe Huang was responsible for design, finding concept art, sound design, and the initial concept. Jax Wu was responsible for the UI design and implementation, as well as visual effects and environment building.
Play involves guiding minions around a play arena by right-clicking on them and dragging them to a new location. Left-clicking while dragging will cause the currently selected minion to join with nearby minions, increasing in size, health, and strength, but also unlocking new abilities and behaviors when minions of different colors are combined. The game ends when all of a player's minions have been destroyed.
It is head-to-head multiplayer, with each player initially starting with twelve randomly generated minions that are red (fire), green (grass) and blue (water). These primitive minions serve as DPS units, with a rock-paper-scissors mechanic where fire is strong against grass, water is strong against fire, and grass is strong against water. Combining red and blue creates a purple Fury minion that strengthens nearby minions, making them act as if they were larger. Combining red and green creates a yellow Protection minion that reduces nearby minion's damage taken. Combining green and blue creates a teal Renewal minion that heals nearby minions. Combining equal amounts of red, blue, and green yields a white Creation minion that periodically spawns new minions. Each minion has its own AI and moves about randomly until an enemy (or ally, in the case of support minions) enters its aggro radius. It will then approach and follow that minion, attacking or supporting depending on role.
Although the prototype is currently PvE, with an additional AI guiding the enemy team's minions and deciding how to join them together, the concept is to support head to head PvP, which, based on Twitch's top streams, appeals to stream spectators. Another conceptual feature meant to appeal to spectators is the ability to occasionally take control of minions that are not currently under the streamer's direct control, determining where to go and when to attack. Spectators would also have the option to view the battle in first or third person, from the perspective of a minion.
