Soldier In Duty

Soldier In Duty is A fast-paced FPS that delivers responsive gunplay, fluid movement, and immersive feedback—built for players who crave moment-to-moment intensity.

Genre: Tactical First Person Shooting Game

Role: Game Designer

Duration: 4 weeks

Tool used: Unity, C#

User Experience Goal

In the game, players are expected to experience the role of an elite marksman capable of taking on multiple enemies alone.

As an elite marksman, the player must eliminate heavily armed enemies using intel from drone cameras. Though outnumbered, the player picks off targets one by one. Randomized AI behavior ensures each playthrough feels unique.

Immersion: Realistic shooting feedback and damage reactions heighten intensity, keeping players fully engaged and adrenaline high.

Empowerment: Using drone intel, players overcome multiple enemies alone, gaining a strong sense of control and tactical mastery through information advantage and satisfying progression.

Tension: Unpredictable AI and powerful foes create constant suspense, keeping players alert and reactive.

Targeting Audience

The game is targeted at a wide range of players, including anyone interested in shooting games. Therefore, the design of the game caters to most players by ensuring playability and a reasonable level of challenge, while also speeding up the pace of the game and increasing randomness to enhance replayability.

Design Process

  • As a designer, my goal is for players to embody an elite soldier capable of taking on multiple enemies single-handedly. However, I don't want players to easily eliminate enemies as if they were mowing down grass. Players need to strategically use tactics and technology to demonstrate their combat prowess against multiple adversaries. The game's clever design and various mechanisms allow players to achieve this with a reasonable level of difficulty while still presenting a challenge.

    • Learning from Other Games: I referenced several shooters with similar elements, such as Warface, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Call of Duty series, by playing them extensively to identify key gameplay experiences.

    • Player Perspective & Designer Insight: I analyzed these games from both a player's perspective and a designer's viewpoint to understand the rationale behind certain design elements and extracted features suitable for my game.

    • Game Build: I started by creating a system diagram outlining all major elements in the game, followed by game development in an engine, overcoming technical barriers through continuous learning and practice until a game prototype was completed.

  • Players need to aim down sights to improve shooting accuracy with their firearms. Hip shooting will result in unpredictable bullet trajectories, making accurate shooting difficult.

  • Despite the game's design, which allows for stealth to avoid direct confrontations, some playtesters consistently engage in open combat, ignoring stealth options.

    • Reward Imbalance: Direct combat might provide more immediate or apparent rewards compared to stealth, incentivizing the more direct approach.

    • Perceived Difficulty of Stealth: If stealth is too hard to execute or is perceived as less effective, players may default to combat as it feels more reliable.

    • Lack of Stealth Tutorial: Players may not fully understand how to use stealth effectively due to insufficient guidance or tutorials.

    • AI Detection Too Sensitive: If the AI detects players too easily, it makes stealth seem futile, so players opt for combat as the seemingly only viable strategy.

    1. Better Rewards for Stealth: Increase the rewards for using stealth, such as providing bonus experience points, unique items, or narrative insights that can only be accessed when avoiding detection.

    2. Adjust Stealth Mechanics: Make stealth a more forgiving and viable strategy by adjusting AI perception or the noise generated by player actions.

    3. Improve Tutorials and Guidance: Implement a better tutorial system that encourages players to try stealth and demonstrates its effectiveness.

    4. Tweak AI Detection: Balance the AI's detection mechanics to allow players a fair chance to navigate stealthily without being detected too easily.

  • 1. Better Rewards for Stealth:

    • Verification: Monitored player behavior and feedback after introducing unique stealth achievements and collectibles that are not accessible through combat.

    • Result: Based on the post-playtest questionnaire, it was found that this effect is not particularly good. Players don't particularly care about stealth achievements. In terms of game outcomes, players are more concerned about how to pass the game on their first playthrough.

    2. Adjust Stealth Mechanics:

    • Verification: Conducted side-by-side playtesting sessions where one group played the original version and another played the adjusted version with more forgiving stealth mechanics.

    • Result: The group with adjusted mechanics reported a better gameplay experience and were more successful at maintaining stealth. The rate of stealth gameplay adoption increased by 40% in this group, demonstrating that the mechanic adjustments made stealth a more approachable and effective strategy.

    3. Improve Tutorials and Guidance:

    • Verification: Implemented a new tutorial that provided players with clear instructions and practice opportunities for stealth. Tracked how many players successfully completed stealth sections post-tutorial.

    • Result: From the observation of playtest, players are more willing to play in stealth when players read the tutorial. Players expressed that the tutorials made them feel more competent and confident in using stealth, and as a result, they were more likely to use it during actual gameplay.

Design Problem Solving

mY Unique iNPUT

Integrating Drone Reconnaissance to Break Conventional FPS Combat Flow

While most FPS prototypes focus on fast reflexes and gunplay, I introduced a combat loop centered around information gathering, route planning, and calculated takedowns. The drone system became a core mechanic that shifted the game's rhythm toward tactical stealth. Each encounter became a decision-based engagement, driven by foresight and risk assessment rather than immediate reaction.

Designing Diverse Enemy Behaviors to Add Strategic Depth

Instead of using static or preset enemy patterns, I implemented awareness systems, response tiers, and varied behaviors. Players must adapt their approach based on enemy types and positions, transforming the game from linear progression into a dynamic tactical puzzle.

Refining Combat Feedback and Enemy Response to Add Weight to Each Kill

Through careful tuning of enemy reactions, weapon accuracy, recoil, and hit registration, I aimed to make each shot feel deliberate and consequential. This approach heightened the sense of immersion and made kills feel like earned outcomes, not routine actions.

System Diagram

The various components in the game complement each other and together constitute a complete game interaction. Each part of the game prompts the player to respond, and similarly, the game as a whole adapts to the player's responses.

Mechanic Features

Enemy AI

The game's enemies exhibit four states of behavior: patrolling, investigating, pursuing, and fleeing. Patrolling enemies appear relaxed, occasionally pausing to "daydream." Upon witnessing a comrade's death, they enter the investigation state, increasing their speed and search radius until they find the culprit. Once players are spotted, enemies enter a pursuit state, unleashing relentless firepower. If heavily wounded, they attempt to escape to safer locations.

Recoil & Accuracy

Hip Fire & Scope Fire

Players must aim down sights for precise control over their firearms, as hip firing results in unpredictable bullet trajectories and harder recoil management. Running and gunning allow players to evade while suppressing enemies with firepower. Stealth kills are possible by sneaking up on distracted enemies.