Titanfall - Black Market

 


Platform:
Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

Tools Used:
Squirrel,
Custom Level Editor & Tools

Duration:
3 months

Team Size:
70+

Role:
Game Designer

 

Overview


The Black Market is a system I conceived of, designed, and built to address problems we had with the live game after Titanfall launched. Too many players were leaving matches early, not playing the game mode objective, and not returning daily. In addition, they felt that discarding excess Burn Cards was a waste because they got nothing in return. The Black Market thematically addressed all of these issues by creating an economy where players are rewarded for all of these actions with bonus currency called Credits.

To make it worth their while, I created the Black Market shop where players could buy Burn Card packs, Titan Insignias, and Titan OS Voices. The Burn Card packs are themed so players can choose the kind of Burn Cards they like to use and then get several random cards to fit that play style.

Players were very receptive to the Black Market feature and our stats showed that it successfully improved all of the issues it was built to address.

Here is the article I wrote explaining the feature in detail for our players: http://www.titanfall.com/titanfall/news/titanfall-the-black-market

I was quoted many times in gaming press articles which was exciting!


Detailed Info

My detailed task list for Black Market:

  • Took the initiative to identify the player retention and behavior problems then conceive of a system to address them.
  • Wrote the design doc with UI mockups and successfully pitched it to the team.
  • Co-Designed the Black Market UI with our UI artist.
  • Scripted all of the Black Market menus.
  • Scripted the client and server communication script to handle un-exploitable transactions in the Black Market.
  • Designed and scripted the random loot generation for Burn Card packs.
  • Hooked up all of the game modes to reward bonus Credits.
  • Scripted the Last Game Summary page for Credits Earned.
  • Created a spreadsheet to ensure proper distribution of Burn Cards using various probability formulas.
  • Created a spreadsheet with formulas to balance the Credits earn rate and item prices.
  • Created a test plan for QA and scripted dev commands to speed up testing.
  • Rebalanced Credits earn rate and shop prices based on live statistics.