Emari Overview
Emari is a lethal tank who is fiercely protective of her team. With a chaingun and several defensive abilities she is ready to hold down a point and protect her team from harms way. She’s equipped with a Projectile Shield that allows her to block incoming enemy fire as well as an Armor Generator that grants nearby allies Shields. Emari’s melee is a powerful stomp that does massive damage to any enemy in front of her. Her damage output and tanky exterior make her a target in a fight. Emari is challenged to protect herself from swarming enemies, protect her friends in the heat of battle, and lay down oppressive fire that makes it hard for enemies to advance.
My Responsibilites for this Character:
Emari’s kit was handed to me with a first pass at her gun and abilities already in place. I was up to me to iron out any design problems with the kit
Update her playable prototype with any design changes
Translate player feedback into actionable iteration steps
Drive playtest feedback around specific kit questions trying to be answered
Come up with a plan for what gameplay feedback is needed to properly surface kit mechanics
Collberated with supporting content teams to ensure clear gameplay that supports fantasy goals
Balance kit
Polish game feel
Create kit Variants used for monetization
Kit Breakdown
Rotary Scrap Cannon
Emari’s Chaingun has a large magazine and works best at medium range. The recoil is strong, but if controlled it can be extremely effective against her opponents. As Emari fires the chaingun it has a spin up that increases its rate of fire over time. This allows us to moderate damage output and feed into a feeling of a building chaotic energy. When Emari stops firing we slowly diminish the rate of fire back to its base line. This allows Emari to tactfully use her other abilities for a short time before losing the lethality of her spun up weapon.
Gameplay Goals
Allow Emari to hold oppressive fire that will hinder the enemy team from pushing forward.
High recoil weapon that is hard to control but is deadly once mastered.
Chaingun game feel that resonates with the player.
Implementation Challenges
Low Slung weapons conflicting with how we spawn bullets from the player camera
In Concord all weapon bullets are spawned from the players camera instead of the end of their weapon. This caused complications with some of the fantasy goals we had for the chaingun. Chainguns are heavy weapon, traditionally carried down by the players waist instead of their chest. Committing to this meant dealing with some nasty head glitching issues that were exacerbated by Emari’s large size. Head glitching refers to when you only see the players head peaking up from above cover but they are still able to shoot you because bullets are being spawned from the head and not the muzzle. To solve for this we opted to change how Emari is holding her chaingun when she is shooting at someone who cannot see her weapon. She lifts the chaingun up towards her chest. This allows for the gun and large muzzle flash to be seen by enemy players.
Projectile Shield
Emari’s Projectile Shield is an essential tool for protecting herself and teammates during combat. Like all shields in Concord, it blocks both enemy and friendly projectiles. It has a large health pool, allowing Emari to block damage from an entire team without it being immediately depleted. Emari can also strategically choose when to destroy her shield in order to receive an Armor buff that allows her to use her weapon and abilities while being protected for a short time.
Gameplay Goals
Give Emari a reliable way to protect herself from being targeted by enemies.
Allow Emari to safely lead her team into combat.
Implementation Challenges
How to deal with players being left with a nearly depleted shield when entering combat
When Emari’s kit was first given to me there was no ability to destroy your shield to gain an Armor buff. This was a solution I proposed due a cumbersome problem Emari was experiencing during playtest. After her shield came close to depletion, she was running into an issue where players wouldn’t be able to effectively use it in their next combat. Essentially you were stuck with a nearly broken shield and had to purposefully find ways to destroy it in order to get a fresh charge. Breaking the shield to gain a buff resonated with me as a solution because it also helped with one of the worst feeling moments of the kit. It is common that enemies will try to pincer Emari when she has her shield up, especially if she is low on health. If Emari recognizes that she is about to get overrun, the shield break is a great way to take a last stand and buff yourself for the inevitable onslaught. Players can feel the pinch of battle and have to make a last ditch effort to save themselves.
Armor Generator
Emari’s Armor Generator gives any ally standing within it AOE an Armor Buff. Allies can stand in the AOE over several seconds to get continually stacking Armor Buffs. Armor buffs have a 20 seconds lifetime, giving Emari plenty of wiggle room to find a good time to buff her team before combat.
Gameplay Goals
Allow Emari to strengthen her teammates in a way that will help her hold a point.
Give Emari an ability that is solely for the benefit of her teammates. This is to drive home the characterization of her wanting to be protective over her teammates.
Implemtation Challenges
Getting allies to stay close to Emari so she can fully buff them
As Emari is one of the slowest moving characters in Concord, it is very easy for her teammates to run off while she is trying to apply their Armor buffs. We wanted to keep the dynamic of the team making an intentional choice to stick by Emari to gain the buff at the cost of speed. So we needed to figure out a way to help surface that she is trying to buff them. We relied on a combination of VO and UI indicators. Emari’s VO directly asks players not to run off while she is trying to buff them. When the Armor Generator is offscreen for nearby allies, we create a UI indicator in the player's periphery that points towards the generator.
Stomp
Instead of a traditional melee, Emari has a Stomp that does massive AOE damage in front of her. Its extremely effective at dealing with rushing enemies.
Gameplay Goals
Give Emari a offensive tool to deal with enemies trying to swarm her
Ensure Emari’s melee conveys the strength of her size and stature
Implemtation Challenges
Allow space for enemies to try and successfully overtake Emari in close quarter combat.
To open up counter play we put the AOE in front of Emari instead of centered perfectly around her. Meaning she had to aim her stomp by facing the enemy, leaving her backside unprotected. This allows enemies to navigate behind her to safely counter attack.
Tough as Nails Passive
Emari’s Tough as Nails passive reduces incoming body damage. Despite Emari’s defensive abilities she was still having a hard time with survivability. This passive allows her to absorb a large amount of damage while still leaving her vulnerable to headshots.
Gameplay Goals
Ensure Emari has strong survivability given that she is a natural target in team fights.
Give her a means of absorbing damage that won't create long drawn out TTKs.
Implementation Challenges
How to handle counterplay for opponents with non-precision weapons and abilities
The Tough as Nails passive puts pressure on opponents to land headshots as an effective way to take down Emari. However this creates an issue for characters with AOE based weapons and abilities. These types of abilities are not meant to be aimed at a character's head and we don't want to incentivize the player to do so. So we made it so the Tough as Nail passive mainly reduces the damage of traditional guns and precision-based abilities. There is still a slight reduction on AOEs to give her a fighting chance against a barrage of explosives, but it is small enough to not push the player into thinking they need to aim for her head.