Scroll of Doom is an isometric magic combat game built around a rune-based magic system. The game was made over the course of 4 months for Traditional Game Development at the University of Utah.
The combat system was developed in a very modular way where every attack could be defined in a structure to determine speed, damage, and magic type. The system enabled enemy attacks to be modified simply and combine any combination of attack and magic type — to the point where the level designer created a whole puzzle based on a spell combo I hadn't even realized was possible.
I designed a rune language for the magic system that has 3 main magic types that get paired with an attack type to create every attack. The magic system has a rock-paper-scissors style system where every type has a counter type. The runes were also used for onboarding using diegetic signage to teach mechanics, as well as telegraphing attacks. Countering spells would even regain some resources — health, stamina, and mana.
