On Weapon Design

Note - Didn't mention this at the meeting, since I didn't think of it then. However I did mention a similar approach months ago.

Approach:
The approach is simple. Just define all of the important/relevant properties and considerations (Note - this should be a list that is built up overtime. And ask others for points/things that you may have missed). Then use them when designing something specific, so that you can hit all of the points you've listed.

Example for Weapon Design (for our game):
(Note - if I'm missing something, then consider mentioning it by commenting)

(Weapon/Projectile) Properties:
(Note - remember to consider what I'm calling as meta-properties, such as the static/dynamic nature of each of the following properties.)

• Entity Damage (i.e., damage to an entity/robot)
• Status Effect (e.g., stun)
  
• Projectile Damage (i.e., damage applied to colliding projectiles)
• Size/Volume
• Speed
• Health
• Multitude (i.e., # of projectiles)
• Life Duration
• Flight Path
  
• Other Special Conditional Effects (e.g., splitting up an opposing projectile into multiple projectiles, where the # depends on the size of the opposing projectile)
• Momentum imparted upon killing a robot
  

Considerations:

• What role/stereotype does the weapon make the person feel that he's playing? (e.g., the turtle, tricker, damage dealer, phantom, etc.) (Note - a list of possible roles/stereotypes should probably be written out and kept tracked of)
  
• What does the weapon feel like? What will generally be people's perception of the weapon itself? (e.g., a weapon may feel powerful due to the explosive impact, or unwieldy, slow, floaty, etc.)
• Is the design relatively unique (compared to other games)?
• Is it deeply designed? What are the possible pros/cons of using this weapon in each possible scenario/situation/condition?

Specific Example Weapon:

Consider a phantom bullet that phases in and out on certain time intervals. (Note - during the initial conception, it's not always necessary to define specific values for each "property". And the design approach listed above is intended more for thinking rather than writing out everything with each item designed, because it would be too tedious otherwise; but it's important to mention at least a couple of considerations and to mention the non-obvious considerations.).

• I can't think of the vocabularies to exactly describe what role/stereotype the player will feel like they're in when using this weapon, but it's certainly considered (and I hope it's obvious, given the "phantom" name).
  
• The projectile will give off an aura of phantasm/ghostliness to emphasize the type of role/stereotype that the player should sense.
• An example case when this would be useful is that it can bypass a single dominating projectile.
• A case when this would not be so useful is going against a head-on beam (or rapid series of head-on projectiles) that can dominate it.