Project Wicked

Concept

Project Wicked is a solo practice project for learning more about boss combat and AI design. This was a two week challenge for me to build some stealth systems and a boss battle. This project is still in a prototyped stage and shows the core gameplay and how the combat system works.

Role | Combat and Enemy Designer

Genre | Stealth Action

Team Size | 1

Download | Link

Duration | 4 weeks

Engine | Unreal Engine

Responsibilities:

Designed the prototype into two parts : Stealth and Boss combat.
Implemented stealth AI behaviors and Boss behaviors.
Designed and implemented a Melee combat for both player and boss.
Worked on 3Cs for the player which included Camera animations , and player parkour skills.

My Design Workflow

Design Goals

The design goals for this prototype were simple :

Make a stealth area where the player uses different ways to kill enemies without being caught.
AI should be responsive and should detect any danger if their allies get killed or anything happening in the environment.
Make a full fledged boss fight with different attack variations present.
Have the player do both ranged fights and melee fights.
Try out a mix of melee combat techniques as well such as aerial combat and combining those with multi combos.

Player combat:

For the stealth part I wanted the player to have multiple options which included an normal ranged attack using a weapon and having a takedown ability/Sneak attack while behind the enemies.
Adding the weapon was the first task. Made a simple silenced weapon which can instantly kill enemies with headshots but will require some more shots if hit on the body.
This approach meant that even if the player is caught the player can still fight with the enemies till he is in a safe place or all enemies are dead.

Now let's take a look at the Takedown/Sneak attack.

Steps for Takedown/Sneak attack:

Check if the player is crouched and if the distance to attack is within a certain value.
Create a widget or prompt for the player to let them know if the attack is possible or not.
Trigger the attack.

Takedown animation:

Used a sequencer and attached a paired animation while carefully calculating at what exact frames the animation looks good and can be executed.
Added an attack position scene component on the enemy and used motion warp to make the animation adjust dynamically and align to the target.
Additionally added a quick camera animation that makes the takedown a little bit more cinematic.

Prototype

Stealth Combat and Enemy prototypes

Prototype_Final

Enemies:

For the enemies the following behaviors were designed and added:

Idle/Patrol states - The enemy either stays idle at one position and has a fixed sight or they have a customizable patrol points where they can go from one point to another.
Investigating state - If the enemy hears / notices any ally dying or a sound being made they go to the area and search for a bit and return back to normal position. This state also works if the player gets out of sight , the enemies search the last known location of the player.
Frozen/Hit state - When the enemy gets hit or gets damage they freeze or get staggered for x number of seconds.
Aggressive/Chase/Attack state - If the player is fully detected , the enemy will start attacking and chasing until it either loses sight or the player is dead.

The AI uses perception system in unreal for this prototype which means the enemy will react to sight , sense and damage events.

The AI needed to be crisp and responsive to any thing happening around them. As it is still in works , there are a few glitches here and there but overall this is a solid foundation for stealth enemy archetypes.

Prototype

Behaviour Tree snippet

Prototype Final

Melee Combat and Boss prototype

Player Melee Combat

I wanted the player to have raw melee combat skills which meant it needed to have melee combos , good movement and additional attacks for use.
The player would control a mech during the combat scenario so every punch needs to have an impact on hit , it shouldn't be feeble at all , it should scream power at every punch.
The most important thing in melee combat is to make the feel nailed, which meant good animations , timings , hit reactions and feedback.

The combat was then divided into the following:

Ground combat - This was the most basic of the combat implementation which included a 3 move combo attack.

Timing was key so adding the trace for hit at the perfect frame was crucial so I had to iterate it multiple times to get accurate hits on the boss.

After adding trace for hit , it does not stop because you have to add other notifies in the animation such as resetting your combo , saving your attacks and when you can attack again.
In addition with all these , there comes the feedback from enemy and player as well

The feedback to improve the gameplay were:

Visual and audio feedback
Adding slight movement when an impact was made on an enemy. This was done to make the attack look powerful and would make the player continuously try to pin the enemy.
UI and camera shakes
Tried adding hit stop but it was feeling odd or clunky so I decided to remove it.

Adding aerial attacks was the most complicated process for me as I had not had any experience making it.
I wanted to add aerial attacks to give the combat more flair and make it feel similar to a Devil may cry style combat where the player can throw punches but can also initiate different attacks in various movement modes.
Having aerial combat meant , perfecting the timing for it and having the enemy movement mode change and freeze at accurate times

Steps for aerial attack:

When the anim notify hits from the player , launch the enemy character and change movement mode to flying.
Have the movement mode flying for the amount of time you want the enemy to be in air. (The reset is done using anim notifies)
For the player, check if the player is in air and have them perform combo actions for the same state.
Match the timing with exact frames for both enemy and player.
Add visual feedbacks and audio cures when aerial combat is initiated.

Aerial Combat:

Melee Combat

Aerial Attacks

Boss combat

For making the boss I researched on what makes a good boss combat and I came up with a list that I wanted to follow.

Controlled setting - Having a closed arena is what I decided to add for this , meaning it is a closed space which would make the player feel something big is incoming.
Predictable attacks but challenging - Attack patterns should be predictable but at the same time it should not be super easy to counter.
Playing with player skills - The player needs to use all of the tools/skills in their arsenal to beat the boss. This points out to the fact that the learnings are gonna get carried to this specific combat scenario.
Enemy reaction to the player - Bosses are not simple enemies , they have to react in certain ways towards the action done by the player. States such as staggered , dodging and even a super attack when their health is low to deal more damage to the player.
Difficulty - Gradual increase in the variety of attacks , the boss once predictable is gonna be a standing pawn , it needs to show its arsenal gradually.

Looking at the above list , I decided to have three attack variations for the boss.

Simple combo attack - The boss gets close to the player and starts a simple combo attack.

This felt good at the start but didn't feel satisfying or let's say it felt too simple. Adding a teleport to this attack made it much more varied but at the same time still predictable.

Ranged attack - The follow up from the melee. The boss teleports to a selected point and starts throwing projectiles. I made it such that the boss teleports 3 times to a specific location and shoots projetiles
Stomp - This is the attack which had more difficulty curve. The enemy charges and stomps the ground creating this huge AOE burst which is unavoidable unless the player is out of range.

All these attacks were balanced with their timings , damage and responses.

Short Range Attack

Prototype Boss Final

Learnings

As this project was my first attempt at bosses and strengthening my knowledge towards AI , I think for a 2 week challenge I grasped most of the fundamental stuff.
Just technical stuff is not gameplay , need to show the player tutorials and how to play this character is very important and I will continue improving upon this project.
Learnt what is polish and I understood what stuff makes a game good and learnt to always ask myself "Would I buy this game?".
Animation is key for melee combat , frame times , hits and even visual effect notifies need to be done accurately.
Will take all the feedback I got for this project and still continue working and polishing the combat.

Thank you for reading!