Champions Online Meet the Team Q&A

The newest meet the team Q&A on the official Champions Online website features combat systems designer Geoff Tuffli.

Q: What do you do as a combat systems designer on Champions Online?
A: The combat systems team is responsible for most aspects of player character development as well as the vast majority of abilities, effects or powers that affect any character or critter in the game. We are responsible for the moment-to-moment gameplay feel of the game.

We adjust overall balance tables, build player and critter powers, design and implement the mechanics for customizing players and their powers, set up critters and put together environment effects. On top of all this, we design PvP mechanics and handle all the generic combat mechanics.

A great deal of our work crosses over to other areas of development our balance work causes us to work with QA, setting up powers requires that we coordinate with art to hook up the correct assets with the correct timing, linking AI to critters means cooperating with the Software and Content teams, and so on.

At the moment, most of my time is divided between removing any roadblocks for my team, maintaining lines of communication between the combat systems team and the other teams, and designing and building player powers.