Making Mechionic: Liberation
Mechionic: Liberation, in its infancy, was nothing more than an expansion to another story in my NDD. It was supposed to be the story I told after I'd made another game from this world. However, when it came down to the final project for the class I was creating this in, I realized making that first story the experience I wanted it to be, was not feasible in my current educational state.
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So, I opted for the expansion. Of which I began the idea for a choose your own adventure novel first, then later became an escape room style board game. The game in its earliest phase, had key "chapters" that worked as checkpoints in the story, as well as a combat system inspired by the game Inscryption.
The battle system was the hardest to implement by far. At first, I went for a basic turn-based "damage to enemy, damage to player" system. If you've played Inscryption, it was essentially that.
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In playtesting, though, it didn't ever feel high stakes or risky. So from there, we tried out ability cards and character-based abilities. This addition raised the stakes in specific battles, however the players still felt these were too easy. So we added a "randomized targeting system" where each time an enemy attacks, a dice is rolled to determine the player it hits and if the ability activates.
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This was the best route I found in the time I had and I was pretty happy with it!
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As the demo stood by the end of the class, I was proud of it! The artwork I created for it was the first I'd made of its kind. But it didn't come without it's challenges!
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That being said, Liberation Version 1 was an intense learning curve with a pretty solid outcome. Now, I am taking what I learned from this experience and applying it to a new and even more improved story experience! And thus we get into Version 2!
Mechionic: Liberation Reimagined!
This project is still in the process of being finalized! Release is set for Spring 2025!
After the first version Liberation, I wanted to rethink my method of storytelling and do a complete overhaul of the artstyle and combat mechanics. Thus, back to the drawing board!
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In the newest version of Liberation, I landed on keeping the "Chapter" system, but rather than things being a clear "If choice A, turn to #. If choice B, turn to ##", it became a more randomized experience via a dice roll and a board!
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Players will move their minifigures around a board with ten Boss Tiles and five spaces in between. They roll a d6 to move and draw an event card when they land! The event cards work similar to Monopoly Chance cards and guide the players through a variety of things.
With this new overhaul of the game came a new artstyle, of course, but also a new combat system! While the previous combat system was... fine. It didn't have the natural "roguelike" feel that I enjoyed so much from other games. With that in mind, I created a "Yahtzee and Inscryption" child system.
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The way the new system works is each enemy has a set health, ability and "Target Score" - a set of 2-5 dice values that are required to meet when attacking. Players will roll five Attack Dice with the goal of rolling high enough to meet the requirements.
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Damage to the enemy or the player is determined by what is rolled. Should a player not meet the minimum requirements to hit (Target Score), damage is dealt back to the player!
The before and after of the Animech Designs!
The new method of storytelling:
New Cover Art for the Storybook!
The last part of this overhaul was the update to Ability cards, which are now known as Equipment Cards.
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In Version 1, the ability cards were aimed at having a "Resource" cost. Now, "Fatigue" has become Fear. The higher your Fear value, the worse a character performs under stress. Therefore, dealing less damage, failing rolls more often, etc. Ways to decrease Fear, improve rolls, heal your character and more, is through Equipment!
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Equipment cards work very similar to the original ability cards, but with a slight twist. In order for one to successfully be used, each one has a Target Score of their own! A single dice value! Players roll a single d6 once and if the roll is high enough, the ability of the Equipment activates!​​
Mechionic: Liberation in it's completed version now tells the entire story I always wanted to. It's an experience that not only is repeatable, but enjoyable. It maintained a lot of the dark themes, character bonds and thrills that I wanted to have in the original, but couldn't have.
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The updated artwork for it, updated and improved mechanics, improved storytelling and improved overall experience make the game what I'd dreamed it to be from the very start.
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I'm so incredibly proud of it and I learned a lot from its development. I can't wait to showcase its release very very soon! In the meantime, this teaser trailer (Featuring our main character Iliar!) is the latest and greatest part of this project!