SHADOWVERSE
ROLE
Designer, QA Lead, Localization
DESCRIPTION
Shadowverse is one of my longest projects to date. I wore a few different hats that evolved as I became more involved with new set releases.
On my first set I worked mostly with the QA team to become comfortable with the new cards, their design systems, how they fit in the current meta, and best practices in balancing them.
Once comfortable, I started pitching ideas, playstyles, and stories to match our amazing card art and characters. In-between set releases, I focused on developing the expansive story mode associated with each set. I helped compose and edit narrative dialogue, story arcs, and character development. For pieces that were already written in Japanese, I helped translate and localize.
When it was time to start planning out a new set, I shifted more toward designing card mechanics, character abilities, and deck structures. Most of my design impact was on two sets in particular - Storm Over Rivayle and Darkness Over Vellsar. The latter being my personal favorite.
As a side project, we were also developing a sister game targeted for a younger demographic - Shadowverse: Champions Battle. This game uses all the same cards from the original sets but had AI controlled boss duels, a 3D overworld, and a customizable character avatar. I helped with porting all original cards to the new game and testing their interactions for debugging as well as boss duel mechanics, balancing, and tweaking.
Below are some of my favorite cards, characters, moments, and pieces from Asia's most competitive card battler.
YEAR
2019
GENRE
Live Service CCG
PLATFORM
Steam, Mobile, Console
(Click on images for more info)
CARD DESIGN
Abilities, mechanics, QA, lore, card text, flavor text, and story mode dialogue
Urias, Final Vampire
Urias wasn't in any of the new sets I worked on, but he did receive a revamp that really inspired me to give it my all and make amazing cards.
Myself and a few other designers were brainstorming new ideas on how to give Urias more of an impact. We knew we were going to be releasing some cool new vampire cards soon and wanted this long-standing icon to stay unique and relevant.
As the last of his kind (or is he?...), we wanted him to hold onto some of that painful sorrow and show it in his gameplay. By enhancing the class passive and calling his new card, A Horrible Night, he stayed relevant, unique, and continued to use his playstyle to define his character as a never-dying, never-relenting artist of life, death, and dance.
Odin, Twilight's Bane
I love Norse mythology and have always been an avid reader of anything related to Norwegian folklore. I can even speak Norwegian! Vel... bare litt.
Getting to work on cards from the growingly popular Norse folktales was a dream come true for me. Even if it was only for a few cards!
Odin was never really known for being the strongest battler, or toughest dueler (hence his not so impressive stats). Something he is known for though, his horse, Sleipnir!
Eris, Atoned Priestess
Eris is one of the first cards I had to rebalance. She was being played in nearly every relevant deck, had an incredibly high win rate, and needed to be nerfed. Issue was, she has so many moving parts that simply adjusting numbers wasn't going to be enough.
The team all got together and found a great solution that allowed her to keep her place in decks, while minimizing the overall impact she had on the game.
Her lore was also a highlight for me. I really enjoyed her use of language and speaking style. She became one of those rare characters you can hear read out her lines even without knowing what her voice actually sounds like.
Kagero, Swordbound Soul
I have a soft spot for Kagero as he was one of the last characters I worked on with this project. He's an amnesiac equipped with a strange sword, mysteriously wandering around the city. It's almost as if you could hear his sword speak if you listened closely.
Kagero dances along the border of life and death and is a pain to keep in the opponent's graveyard.
Kagero's narrative was my number one favorite out of all the narratives in the game. Ironing out his dreamlike cantor was a blast and the fight scenes were some of the best I got to work on. I always recommend playing through his story to all newcomers to the game just to see how amazing a simple character on a card can be. Kagero continues to inspire me to create amazing characters to this day.
Sekka, Fatebound Fox
Sekka has an interesting place in the Vellsar set. Without spoiling much, her origin story is much darker than she appears. Writing and editing her narrative was one of my all-time favorites full of cool twists and turns.
She's a fresh take on the classic Japanese folklore of the Kitsune. Modernizing the story and finding it's place in Vellsar was a teamwide challenge. I really love where we took the story and our goal with Sekka's card mechanics was to match this feeling.
The forestcraft deck (the deck Sekka is in) is usually full of happy-go-lucky fairy-like creatures. Sekka, on the surface, matches that theme perfectly. If you knew her backstory however, you would know there's more than meets the eye. We wanted that darkness to be showcased in her gameplay and made her an attacking board clearer - something that is not common in forest decks.
Bunny & Baron, Specter Duo
A duo card! This was the first card that I worked on with two characters - Bunny & Baron. These two thieves are the protagonists of the Rivayle set. They're like Bonny & Clyde... if Clyde had a supersonic missile-equipped motorcar. The duo is constantly on the run from the law so they've learned to move quick.
Once played, they can attack immediately and can be called from your hand for an even swifter execution. Even if you manage to catch them, they'll jump in their getaway car before you can watch them take the last laugh.
The card is fairly simple, but it was really fun finding a way to have a card with two characters actually feel like a duo.
Vincent, the Peacekeeper
These next two cards go hand-in-hand. The two have been butting heads since their birth and are two key characters in the Rivayle narrative. Vincent, the older, just brother, serves as the hammer of justice from wherever he is.
He can flip from gentle and welcoming, to aggressive and intimidating with just a wrong look. Finding the right mechanics to match his hot and cold personality was a highlight of this set for me.
He uses the strength of his allies to increase his own. If he gains too many Words of Judgements however, the enemies will feel the full weight of the law. Though he seems just and righteous at first, the only thing stronger than the reach of his gavel, is his hatred for his brother, Ice.
Iceschillendrig, Gilded Autocrat
Ice is the brother that comes home too late, misses his exams, or wears his sunglasses inside. He turns a cold shoulder to his siblings because he just can't be bothered with their tedious quarrels. He has more important things to do.
While Vincent rules over the public, Ice rules the streets. His corruption spreads further than just Rivayle, and if he locks sights on you, there's nowhere to run.
I love this card because of how well we were able to capture his cool, lax personality within his gameplay. If you're not careful of how many of his lackey's you take out, his invocation will catch you off guard. And with him, his train full of mercenaries will come to collect what he's owed.
A set exclusive story mode would feature 10+ individual story lines, each with their own line of unique duels, encounters, and even boss battles.
I really enjoyed coming up with cool new directions for characters and helping them grow and develop into memorable icons of the franchise.
One of the biggest challenges for the story mode was collaborating with the sound team and getting the English dub, the text display, and character animations nailed.
CHARACTERS
Shadowverse: Champions Battle
(Click on images for more info)
