This will be a bit unusual, as I'm going to be doing some design work for a game which is already in large part implemented, but bear with me. The bones of the RPG combat prototype are complete, but it's not exactly playable yet; it needs to be filled with playable characters, enemies, items, abilities, and other content so it provides a (hopefully) engaging experience for the player. In addition, the scenario needs to be designed in such a way as to provide a good opportunity to introduce the player to the game's core mechanics and test out how well they can learn how things work and overcome challenges in a satisfying way. Hence, we need to design a demo.

I'm planning on splitting up the demo into three steps:

1. A very simple, easy fight where the player can play around with each character's abilities enough to see how everything works and what each party member is capable of. The enemies shouldn't be too intimidating, but should be durable enough to give the player at least 2 turns on each party member so they can get a feel for the whole team's capabilities.
2. An easy but slightly more complicated fight where the player needs to use some strategy in order to succeed. To keep things low-stakes, this should probably be some sort of enemy that has a weakness that the player must exploit (e.g. for skeletons, a unit with a shield that needs to be knocked aside before it can be hit).
3. A challenging fight that will punish the player if they don't use effective tactics. This combines everything the player has learned so far in an opportunity for them to demonstrate their ability to solve problems with good strategy. This includes getting through enemy weaknesses and mitigating enemy strengths (e.g. protecting fragile characters from enemy attacks). It should be tough but manageable if the player makes good choices.

There will also be a brief exploration scene in between each combat in order to give the player some breathing room and an opportunity to heal up before the next encounter. The interface for this will be implemented in as basic a fashion as possible.

With this structure in mind, it will be easier to determine how to build party members, enemies, and encounters. Next time, we'll start going over the party's capabilities.