This game was showcased at the 2025 USC Games Expo and received the Award in Experimental Design
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Coming soon to Steam and Epic Games!
What is Unchained?
Unchained is a tactical role-playing game in which players can achieve victory without resorting to violence. The Player has the choice to fight their enemies or negotiate and spare their lives.
Major points of inspiration:
The core idea of this project combines the tactical strategy of Fire Emblem franchise and the non-violent RPG combat of Undertale.
What did I do?
What did I do?
I worked as a combat and level designer on this game. I responsible for documenting and the maintenance of the combat balance as well as the system for the negotiation mechanic.
Combat
Combat
There are two approaches to fighting in this game: Combat and Negotiation. The player can chose to either fight traditionally a la Fire Emblem or choose to open a dialogue with their opponent and talk their way out of the altercation. This way the game can embrace the core design principle that peaceful resolution is always possible.
Solution: Rebalancing
Solution: Rebalancing
Once both systems of combat were implemented it was a struggle to keep one approach from providing more of a tactical advantage than the other.
By measuring the amount of turns it takes to clear combat encounters and adjusting unit stats accordingly I made sure both approaches had a similar action economy.
Negotiation
Negotiation
The main draw of the game is the negotiation system. By selecting the correct response to the enemy's statement the player can convince them to bury the hatchet.
The player has a lot of autonomy over how the conversation unfolds without the dialogue from either party feeling stiff or unnatural.
Solution: Continuous Iteration
Solution: Continuous Iteration
This mechanic underwent the most changes out of everything in our design process. There were several previous iterations that were too complex or scope intensive and we had to return to the drawing board to streamline the gameplay.
Each time I met with the usability lead, and several members of the design and narrative team to refine the mechanic together. Through a long process of mechanical simplification and NPC stat adjustment we were able to create a version of the mechanic that's easier for new players to understand.
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