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Z'Wonder Battle

Z_Wonder_Battle_Logo.png

Z'Wonder Battle is an interactive Minecraft Tower Defense game with an Alice in Wonderland theme and specifically created for the 2025 ZEVENT.
It opposes streamers defending a castle against their community, who can increase the intensity of troop waves with their donations. The game can be played solo or in multiplayer, up to five players.
Project realized within the Skytale association.

Genre

Tower Defense

Support

PC / Minecraft

Date

May 2025 - September 2025

Roles

Lead Game Designer,
Level Designer,
Script .yml,
Game Tester

Context

This project was originally a Minecraft game requested from Skytale by a ZEVENT ambassador streamer for his first participation in the event.
The design team had total freedom as long as the game was interesting to watch and could encourage donations, so we immediately decided to make it interactive for donors.
The game had an initial version with 4 teams of 6 streamers along with the donor team competing against each other using troops, but this format required too many people and too much time to be playable during the event.
A second, simpler and faster version in a Streamers vs. Donors format was therefore developed, and it was this version that was ultimately played during ZEVENT by eight different streamers, alone or in teams. During ZEVENT 2025, the game raised over 26 000€ for healthcare workers and patients!

Trailer

You can find Z'Wonder Battle's trailer video right below!

Game Design

Having been on this project from its beginnings to its end, I had the honor of being able to create numerous concepts, balance and test the game in collaboration with project managers Corentin Bouchain and Rémi Scibona.

General Rules

Before diving into the details, the design team and I started by setting up a list of rules for our tower defense project, always prioritizing the donation incentive:

  • ​Two game modes influence the game's balance: 1 player or 5 players.
     
  • The game alternates between wave defense phases and purchase phases, where players can purchase and upgrade their equipment before the next wave.
     
  • The purchase phases begin when the last troop of the previous wave is eliminated.
     
  • There are 10 different waves, each with an increase in intensity and troop count.
     
  • There are 5 possible intensities per wave, determined by the total donations made during the previous wave, further increasing the wave's intensity. (Wave 1 has 2 minutes of preparation time.)
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  • A new wave appears every 3 minutes, regardless of the time taken to complete the previous wave, in order to control the game duration (~30 minutes).
     
  • Each wave should last approximately 2 minutes to allow players enough time to purchase upgrades during the purchase phases.
     
  • The first 3 waves serve as a tutorial and should not cause the most inexperienced players to lose, so that the game lasts a while and allows for donations to be collected.
     
  • The last 3 waves are challenge waves, where players should lose when they are beginning to get to know the game, allowing donors to feel the impact of their donations.
     
  • Players cannot purchase castle upgrades during the defense phases.
     
  • To encourage donations, they are broadcast live in-game, and donor nicknames are displayed on troops.
Troops

There are 9 different types of troops that make up the waves of troops sent to streamers.
Each of them has a defined role in the wave and has several power levels that increase their HP.
The troops cannot directly attack players, but they do deal damage to the Chronosphere upon crossing the lane's finish line.With the exception of Alice, all troops spawn in ground/air pairs, resulting in equal spawn order values ​​in some cases. All troops change color through green, blue, purple, and then black, and become larger to visually indicate their level. Both game modes share the same troops.
Note: All values ​​shown here are those of each troop's level 1.

  • The Minion

Minions are the game's basic troops with no special characteristics, primarily used to keep players busy due to their large numbers during a wave.

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 40

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 2.2

  • Movement: Ground

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 60

  • Order of appearance: 3

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  • The Rook

Rooks are designed to be more resilient than other troops at the expense of their speed. They are the first to appear in a wave to defend the more fragile troops arriving after them.

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 80

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 1.71

  • Movement: Ground

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 300

  • Order of appearance: 1

  • The TeaPot

Teapots are small, fast but fragile troops. They appear late in the wave, when players are already occupied by more resilient troops.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 20

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 3.5

  • Movement: Ground

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 60

  • Order of appearance: 4

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  • The Hatter
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Hatters are flying troops that, like teapots, are fast but fragile. Be careful not to underestimate them; they easily sneak up behind players if they are too distracted by ground troops.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 12

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 2.52

  • Movement: Air

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 60

  • Order of appearance: 3

  • The Airship

Airships are resilient but slow aerial troops, just like rooks. They appear at the same time as rooks to serve as a defensive line.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 60

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 1.62

  • Movement: Air

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 300

  • Order of appearance: 1

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  • The Snail

Snails are support troops that periodically give a speed boost to other troops within a certain radius around them. They are very slow and appear shortly after rooks and airships to push them forward.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 60

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 1.15

  • Movement: Ground

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 100

  • Order of appearance: 2

  • Special Ability: Accelerates troops around them for 5 second

 

  • The Butterfly

Butterflies are support troops that periodically heal other troops around them. They are slow to allow them to heal faster troops that appear after them.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 36

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 1.3

  • Movement: Air

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 100

  • Order of appearance: 2

  • Special Ability: Heals troops around it every 4 seconds

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  • The Card Deck

Card decks are mini-boss troops that can periodically summon minions. The longer they remain alive, the more dangerous they become.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 350

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): 2

  • Movement: Air

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 500

  • Order of appearance: 4

  • Special Ability: Summons 2 minions of their color every 10 seconds

  • Alice

Alice is designed to be an end-of-wave boss which accelerates and shrinks the more damage it takes. It is very durable and can inflict heavy damage to the Chronosphere.

 

Characteristics:

  • HP (1/2 heart): 700

  • Speed ​​(blocks/s): From 2 to 5

  • Movement: Ground

  • Damage to Chronosphere: 1000

  • Order of appearance: 5

  • Special Ability: Shrinks and accelerates at certain percentages of health

H_Troupes_alice_rouge_edited.png
Spells

To defend against troops, players have access to a sword and four spells with different uses. At the start of the game, the player will only have the sword and the Violet Flash to cover their offensive needs in both melee and ranged combat. The other spells can be unlocked with gold from the Spell Merchant.
Once unlocked, all spells have three upgrades that can be purchased from the Spell Merchant.
Note: All values shown here are those for level 1 of each spell for each game mode.

  • Violet Flash
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Violet Flash is a fast ranged attack spell, given right at the start of the game with the sword. Each time it is used, it sends a small magical projectile in a straight line in front of the player. It deals slightly more damage than a sword of the same level to compensate for the lack of critical hits and area effects.

Characteristics:

  • Damage per use (1/2 hearts): 10 (Solo) / 6 (Multiplayer)

  • Cooldown: 0.3 sec

  • Target: Single target

  • Hydroblast

Hydroblast is a support spell that allows players to push back troops while inflicting damage. It fires a large projectile in front of the player, pushing back any troops in its path. It is particularly useful for buying time against tough troops like Alice when she is close to reaching the Chronosphere.

 

Characteristics:

  • Damage per use (1/2 hearts): 21

  • Cooldown: 15 sec

  • Target: Multi-target

  • Knockback: 3 (Solo) / 2 (Multi)

  • Fire Breath

Fire Breath is a duration-based offensive spell that can be used to deal with large groups of ground troops. It ignites the ground in front of the player for 3 seconds, igniting troops walking on it for 10 seconds, and inflicting heavy burning damage over time.

 

Characteristics:

  • Damage per use (1/2 hearts): 45 (Solo) / 20 (Multi)

  • Cooldown: 10 sec (Solo) / 20 sec (Multi)

  • Target: Multi-target Ground

  • Burning effect duration: 10 sec

  • Poison Turret

Poison Turret is a support spell that spawns a turret for 20 seconds that automatically attacks troops within a radius every second. Combined with lane turrets, it allows players to damage troops ahead of their advance and finish them off by other means.

 

Characteristics:

  • Damage per use (1/2 hearts): 260 (Solo) / 140 (Multi)

  • Cooldown: 50 sec (Solo) / 60 sec (Multi)

  • Target: Single target

  • Turret duration: 20 sec

Turrets

In addition to their spells, players can also use automatic turrets to help repel troop waves. Each turret can be purchased for gold from the Turret Merchant and placed in one of the six turret locations around the lane. All turrets can be upgraded twice once purchased by returning to the Turret Merchant. A turret will attack the same troop as long as it is not eliminated or moves out of its range.

Note: All values ​​shown here are those of level 1 turrets for each game mode.

  • The Canon

The cannon is a turret capable of inflicting significant damage to one ground troop at a time.

 

Characteristics:

  • Damage per shot (1/2 hearts): 20

  • Cooldown: 1.5 sec (Solo) / 3 sec (Multi)

  • Target: Single-target Ground

  • Range: 9 blocks

  • the Crossbow

The crossbow is a turret capable of inflicting significant damage to one flying troop at a time. Since flying troops are more fragile than ground troops, it has less power than its ground counterpart.

​

Characteristics:

  • Damage per shot (1/2 hearts): 7 (Solo) / 6 (Multi)

  • Cooldown: 1 sec (Solo) / 2 sec (Multi)

  • Target: Single-target Air

  • Range: 7 blocks

  • the Mortar

The mortar is a turret that can inflict moderate damage to multiple ground troops at once, effectively weakening large groups.

 

Characteristics:

  • Damage per shot (1/2 hearts): 8

  • Cooldown: 3 sec

  • Target: Multi-Target Ground

  • Range: 9 blocks

  • the Catapult

The catapult is a support turret that deals no damage but slows troops within its projectile's area of ​​effect.

 

Characteristics:

  • Slow Rate: 20%

  • Effect Duration: 5 seconds

  • Cooldown: 4 sec

  • Target: Multi-target

  • Range: 9 blocks

Castle

​The castle is the base where the Chronosphere is located, which players must defend. This is where players begin the game by talking with the Queen of Hearts and can access merchants to upgrade their equipment. The castle itself can be upgraded for gold from the dedicated Castle Merchant. Each upgrade doubles the Chronosphere's maximum health, improves the players' sword, grants an additional bonus effect, and improves the castle's appearance.

  • Tier 0

Castle Tier 0 is unlocked at the start of the game. It grants a Level 1 sword to players without bonuses, and contains a fragile Chronosphere.

 

Characteristics:

  • Chronosphere HP: 1000

  • Sword I: 8 (Solo) / 5 (Multiplayer) damage per hit

  • Bonus Effect: None

  • Cost: 0 gold

Tier 0.png
  • Tier I

Castle Tier 1 unlocks a movement speed bonus for players, makes the Chronosphere slightly more durable, and upgrades the sword to Tier 2. This upgrade is recommended for early game comfort.

Characteristics:

  • Chronosphere HP: 2000

  • Sword II: 12 (Solo) / 7 (Multi) damage per hit

  • Bonus Effect: Speed ​​II for players

  • Cost: 350 (Solo) / 600 (Multi) gold

  • Tier II

Castle Tier 2 unlocks a useful attack bonus for players, makes the Chronosphere moderately more durable, and upgrades the sword to Tier 3. This upgrade is recommended for mid-game castle healing and increased damage output.

 

Characteristics:

  • Chronosphere HP: 4000

  • Sword III: 17 (Solo) / 11 (Multi) damage per hit

  • Bonus Effect: +10% damage for players

  • Cost: 500 (Solo) / 700 (Multi) gold

Tier 2.png
  • Tier III

Castle Tier 3 unlocks a general speed debuff for troops, makes the Chronosphere much more durable, and upgrades the sword to level 4. This upgrade is recommended for mid-late to withstand the toughest waves!

 

Characteristics:

  • Chronosphere HP: 8000

  • Sword IV: 23 (Solo) / 18 (Multi) damage per hit

  • Bonus effect: -10% speed for troops

  • Cost: 700 gold

Balancing

With all the troops and upgrades available, balancing the game's stats and economy was necessary. This section will explain in a simplified way the process by which we balanced the game to achieve the final values.
All game balancing was done on Google Sheets.

  • Transitioning to 2.0

For the first version of the game, I participated in balancing troops, spells, and turrets for six players. Since we had decided to create two different game modes  for version 2.0, there was balancing to be done for each of them. To save time, we decided to focus on the multiplayer mode first by reusing the balance for six players from the previous version, and then modify it for single-player mode.

  • Troops rebalancing

Troops were originally intended for competitive PvP gameplay, and moving to cooperative PvE allowed for more freedom in their balancing to add fun to the game without making it unfair. After an initial internal test with 5 players, everything was revised: their health, speed, spawn order, points scored, and special abilities to better match a PvE game. For practical and technical reasons, troops are common to both game modes and served as a reference for balancing the rest of the combat elements.

  • Waves balancing

After some initial balancing on the troops, we composed 5 different intensities per wave in the game, for a total of 50 waves. The balancing of these waves is based on the average of the points scored for the 5 intensities of a wave if all the troops were to arrive at the Chronosphere. Combined with our desire to have a simple start to the game and a very difficult end, we obtained a difficulty progression curve resembling this one:

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Many revisions to these waves were made subsequently with the arrival of new balancing elements, but we made sure to respect the shape of this curve to the end.

  • Battle features balancing

With a first iteration on waves, we focused on balancing other combat features namely spells, turrets, and castle bonuses. The goal was to ensure that several valid strategies for purchasing upgrades were available for players. This balancing process, for 5 players still, also allowed us to identify spell bugs and balancing issues with troop characteristics, which were resolved test after test.

  • Game Economy Balancing

With the first iteration of the full combat system complete, we needed to price the various upgrades players can purchase and adjust the amount of gold players earn per wave. Starting with 1000 gold per wave, the only thing left to do was price upgrades based on the usefulness of each. Attack spells are expensive, so you can only buy or upgrade one or two per wave and progress with the intensity of the waves. Turrets are significantly cheaper and can be upgraded to the maximum with only 500 gold, but only to fill 2 out of 6 slots. The castle is expensive to start with, and the price of its upgrades increases with each level, forcing players to choose between buying an offensive spell or strengthening their defenses.

  • Solo Mode Balancing

Once the multiplayer mode was satisfactorily balanced, we adapted it for single-player. Since troops were common to both modes, we used this as a basis for changing the waves, combat element characteristics, and upgrade prices. We made the waves less massive and the spells more impactful according to their function while reducing their cooldowns. Turrets were strengthened and accelerated to better support a single player, and castle upgrade prices were lowered to access better defenses and bonuses more quickly.

  • Internal and external testing

A complete balance is not yet the end: many tests were necessary throughout, and now in order to refine the values ​​and obtain those used for the final game. These tests took place internally with the development team, but also externally with volunteer testers supervised by myself and a few colleagues. Taking into account each feedback, we carried out several iterations of the final balance by changing the values ​​according to what we felt best suited our target players. The game was well received by the streamers and their community, thus validating this balancing process!

Level Design

Z'Wonder Battle also required Level Design work, carried out in collaboration with Corentin Bouchain and the association's builders.

The Lane

The lane is the main area of ​​the game where battles against troops take place. It forms a straight line from the troop spawn portal to the castle interior where the Chronosphere is located.

LaneTop.png

Top view of the lane

To provide clarity for players fighting while retreating, green, orange, and red lines, each increasingly closer to the Chronosphere, have been added to the lane to mark different levels of troop progression along it. Turret positions have been spaced so that their support is consistent along the entire lane without their ranges overlapping.

Castle interior

The interior of the castle is deliberately less complex than its exterior to not confuse players and includes major points of interest for the game, encouraging players to return regularly.

CastleInsideTop.png

Top view of the castle's interior

Before starting the game, players are locked inside the castle using a large gate so they can familiarize themselves with the game, being given access to merchants and troop portraits. Once the game begins by speaking to the Queen of Hearts, the gate opens and players are teleported to the merchants to prepare the first wave. They can then cross the gate to defend the castle against the troops, or return to the castle at their leisure.

Scripting

In addition to game design, I also participated in the integration via script of certain elements for which I was responsible for the design, in collaboration with Joran Premel and Asma-Chloë Farah.

Mythic Mobs (.yml)

Mythic Mobs is a YAML language plugin for Minecraft servers designed to create entities with customizable characteristics. It was with this plugin that I was able to create the various troops and turrets, and then balance them. Counting each level variation, there are 47 troops, and 12 turrets.
Note: I used Visual Studio Code to facilitate my scripting.

  • Entity scripting
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Troop and turret entities script previews

Mythic Mobs separates entity scripts from their special abilities. Above are entity scripts. Each entity is based on a pre-existing Minecraft entity whose I modified characteristics, such as AI, health, or Minecraft-specific interactions, to make it fit its role in the game.

  • Skill scripting
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Troop and turret skills script previews

Once the entities themselves were created, I created their special abilities separately for each one that needed them. By defining an ability ID, I could tell an entity that it could use a specific ability by giving it instructions in its script to cast that ability with the same ID. Then, in the ability script, I had to list and order all the actions caused by the ability so that it would produce something in-game.

Internal plugin (.json)

The association has its own internal plugin for creating its games, in Java language. This plugin meets many needs, such as cinematics, permissions, commands, etc. Concerning Z'Wonder Battle, I was able to use it to balance spells in scripts created by Asma-Chloë.

Spellbook script preview

My role in creating this script was to indicate the balancing needs based on each spell's abilities in order to expose easily adjustable parameters. I was then able to manually balance each spell for each game mode using these parameters.

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