Credits : All images in this document, including the cover above, belong to either Fatshark (Warhammer: Vermintide 2) or Creative Assembly (Total War: Warhammer III). I took a lot of inspiration from Creative Assembly's work on their warriors of Kislev during my working process. Credits appear if you hover your mouse over an image.
Team & Roles
Game Designer
Software and tools
Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Adobe Suite (Illustrator)
Context
Personnal project to create a fanmade hero and its first career for Vermintide 2 (Fatshark)
Duration
4 months as a side project
My work
As a game designer :
- Analyze existing factions in Vermintide 2.
- Decide of the core experience for the new hero.
- Create the mechanics for the new hero, including its passive and active unique abilities and traits.
- Create over 10 new weapons to fit with the intended gamestyle and balance them (theorically) with already existing weapons.
- Look for further careers to fit Vermintide's heroes with 3 careers each.
About Vermintide 2
Vermintide 2 is a cooperative first person shooter developed by Fatshark, where you play as heroes from the Old World of Warhammer fighting hordes of skavens and chaos warriors with challenging, fast-paced and brutal gameplay. With 5 heroes to choose from (each with 4 careers), you can adapt your style to whatever you want to be: From powerful sword wielder to deadly fire mage, you have plenty of weapons and abilities to kill hundreds of enemies throughout your games.
Genre : Cooperative first person shooter
Players : Up to 4 players, cooperative, online
Camera : First person
Character : A hero from the Ubersreik 5, able to wield and use weapons, and use unique abilities
Controller and support : PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4
Target : Players who enjoy the power fantasy of slashing through hundreds of enemies in intense and immersive gameplay
My process
Before diving into the hero I created, I'd like to focus more on my process. This was my first time adding content to an already existing game, so my process changed from my previous productions. My process included :
- Analyzing the existing heroes and place them in a 2D matrix to find which archetypes were already saturated and which ones were missing.
- Define what makes a hero and a career : a name of course, unique weapons, abilities and traits (passive and active skills), and a skill tree.
- Look for documentation on Warhammer's universe to find which hero could be added and fit the narrative of both Warhammer and Vermintide 2.
- Define and iterate on the core mechanics for my new hero.
- Find documentation of the different weapons and enemies in Vermintide 2 and make balancing tables to create new weapons for my hero.
Yuri Solov
My new hero is Yuri Solov, a soldier from Kislev. To summary it, Kislev is a kingdom located in the far north, above the Empire. It takes huge inspirations from Eastern European cultures, with snowy environments and tough climates. Kislev is on the front lines of demonic incursions that frequently occur. Due to both the harsh climates and the presence of demons, the Kislevites are generally very resilient and faithful to their god, Ursun the Bear God. Some of them even master the ice magic.
For all these reasons, I found it pretty natural to make my hero, Yuri Solov, a central character in a composition, being resilient as the rock and strong as the bear. My three design pillars were :
- Pillar: Yuri must be a pillar of his team. Versatile, inflexible, he plays both the DPS and support roles, can tank, and help his teammates from afar. He truly plays a central role although he's not an expert in any particular task.
- Reliable: Due to his versatility, Yuri is always a good asset to the team. Although he does not excel in any one area, he is not useless anywhere. Whether it's dealing with a horde of enemies, killing elites, defeating a boss, supporting an ally, or holding a position alone, he is always reliable.
- Bear's Fury: Like his god Ursun, Yuri embodies the fury of the Bear, both powerful in his attacks and extremely resistant. His mere presence should make even the bravest enemies falter, as he is a rock difficult to bring down.
The Streltsi
Yuri's first career is the Streltsi, a regular soldier from the Kislevite army specialized in powder weapons. He comes with a career skill, Fury of the Great Bear, and a passive ability, Ursun's Blessing. He also starts with three traits: Unbilded Rage, Resilience of the Far North, and Merciless Assault.
- Fury of the Great Bear (Career Skill): Yuri creates a snowstorm around him, reducing the movement speed and armor of enemies caught inside by 30% and blocking projectiles from the outside. The storm lasts 8 seconds and does not move with Yuri.
- Ursun's Blessing (Passive ability): After killing an enemy, Yuri increases his attack speed and the sweeping power of his weapon by 10% for 3 seconds. This effect can only apply once every 15 seconds. If Yuri assists a teammate, he and his teammate receive Ursun’s Blessing.
- Unbridled Rage (Trait): Charged attacks cannot be interrupted by taking damage.
- Resilience of the Far North (Trait): Stamina regenerates 100% faster.
- Merciless Assault (Trait): Consecutive attacks on the same enemy deal an additional 5% damage, up to a maximum of 15%.
Yuri's kit is designed to be versatile, finding his place both in melee and at a distance. His passive ability, Ursun's Blessing, helps him with handling multiple enemies at once, while also rewarding him for helping his teammates. His career skill, Fury of the Great Bear, reinforces his role as a pillar of the group, by creating a temporary safer zone for his team.
Equipement
Yuri's weapons are also designed to offer multiple playstyles, both offensive and defensive. He can use a wide variety of melee weapons, from powerful two-handed swords, to more defensive axe and shields. His iconic weapon is the gun-axe, allowing him to fire quick shots to help his teammates in a difficult situation. He also has access to good distance weapons, from muskets to blunderbusses or pistols that give him short or mid range control.
Talents
I am not gonna dive into each of the 18 talents here, as it would be a bit too big. If you're curious, you can read the full document following this link. For now, I just want to pinpoint some particular talents that shape how Yuri can be played:
- Ursun's Terror (level 20): When Ursun's Blessing applies, all enemies around Yuri or his ally are pushed back. This talent grants Yuri a large buff for helping his teammates, as everytime he frees one of his mates from a special enemy for example, he gives his mate and himself some space to recover.
- Last Stand (level 25): Blocking cost is halved when Yuri has less than 50% of his max health. As Yuri is designed to be tough as a rock, it feels natural for him to be able to withstand uninterrupted attacks by himself. This helps him in his survavibility but also helps him protecting his team.
- Roaring Wrath, Icy Healer, Eternal Zeal (level 30): These three talents all buff the career skill Fury of the Great Bear. Roaring Wrath grants more power, Icy Healer grants Yuri and his allies some passive healing, and Eternal Zeal revives all allies. These three talents allow Yuri to change his playstyle from something more aggressive, to something defensive or to something supportive, pushing even more his versatility.
More careers
Should Yuri be added to Vermintide 2, he would certainly not come with only his first career. That's why I've looked into other careers that could fit for a new Kislevite hero. The Kislev army lists are limited, yet I think some ideas could be interesting to dig:
- Kossars or Tzar Guards are important soldiers in a Kislev army. However, they are melee warriors and might risk having gameplay very similar to the Streltsi or to Markus Kruber.
- Ice Guards would be fantastic, but since they are women only, it is impossible (or would require to modify Yuri to make it a feminine character).
- Akshina Ambushers could be a great addition to the game. These secret agents, specialized in long-range assassinations, could be a nice twist to the more brutal, melee gameplay of the Streltsi. I would see them somewhat similar to what Markus Kruber's Huntsman offers.
- Patriarchs, keepers of the Kislevite faiths, could also be a fun career. I would see them as a support-oriented, buff and debuff maker career, providing temporaray healing or damage buffs.