Legally Blonde: The Game
Responsibilities:
-
Creating, playtesting and iterating over 600 Match-3 Levels.
-
Guiding narrative design with a team of writers to create an engaging storyline.
-
Monitor and work with live game data to measure KPIs and deliver satisfying live-ops content.
-
Balance and maintain the in-game economy and store.
-
Working closely with external clients to maintain brand consistency and audience expectations.
Case Study: Creating new Match-3 mechanics
During Legally Blonde's development I set myself the task of trying to create new level designs and obstacle types that would mechanically surprise and challenge players familiar with the oversaturated match-3 genre to create a more dynamic and varied pacing when played back-to-back in succession. During development I successfully pitched, iterated and produced several unique mechanics that elevate the levels they appear in to stand out among the 600+ levels I created:
Gravity Swapper
The gravity swapper is inspired by the flowing gravity effects of other match-3 games, by allowing the player control over when gravity is shifted this tile creates a unique twist that can dramatically alter a level's pacing. The tile provides a useful design tool to both impede and benefit players, forcing them to either create matches away from or near to it in order to maintain a gravitational direction that is advantageous. The gravity swapper also creates a mid-level goal, by requiring a change in gravity to reach the level's true objective, players must first work their way to the swapper itself.
After a series of levels combining gravity swappers with other obstacle types, I discovered an inspired combination of mechanics that I utilised in a number of stages. In these, players need to carefully change the gravitational direction in order to drop tiles on a separate board through a maze. By splitting players attention between two boards, these stages recontextualise how these levels are approached in a unique and challenging way.
By making a match next to it, the Gravity Swap tile allows a player to change the flow of tiles in the direction it dictates.
Walls prevent the evidence tiles from dropping, instead requiring the player to guide them using gravity swappers.
Each Bomb displays a descending number which drops with each turn. When the displayed number reaches 0 the bomb explodes, taking an additional turn from those remaining.
.png)
The original mock-up of the turn bomb used to illustrate the mechanic when pitching it to the team.
Turn Bomb
This tile is wholly unique and was designed with the purpose of elevating stage tension and shaking up the core systems of the match-3 gameplay.
The turn bomb appears at level 585, puzzling late-game players who have grown accustomed to how turns usually count-down by causing a devastating domino effect. When left unchecked, multiple turn bombs may go off at once and cause a loss in an instant.
Once players learn the function of the turn bomb the tension of any level can be easily increased with its inclusion, suddenly a straight forward match may need to be reprioritised in order to clear out any wayward turn bombs first.