Combat Design Journal

• Blending the combat and gameplay of Furi and Hollow Knight with a focus on 2.5D or 3D depending on complexity, with sword combat as the core.

• Alan: Communicated ideas and references. Discussed how to blend mechanics from different titles to build a strong combat system. Explored using a 3rd-person camera that can switch to 2.5D to manage scope.
• Noah: Created assets and set up a new repo on Perforce. Brainstormed ways to combine Furi’s melee combat with a 2.5D style akin to Hollow Knight as a scope-down option.
• Nishant: Created the initial movement system deviating from the Unreal starter code, including sprinting and crouching animations.

• Discussed Furi’s design and how it integrates ranged and melee combat to make each fight feel meaningful.
• Referenced Hollow Knight and Dark Souls for mechanics, encounter design, and enemy difficulty tuning.
• Still need to scope the project and define the core game loop along with the distribution of mechanics and implementation plans.

• Advanced movement system with sprinting and crouching implemented.

• Task for the week: add a dash mechanic, a sword-to-cube interaction, and a health system.
• Lost Perforce/Google access — attributed time slot to game development instead.

• Alan: Implemented Dash and began looking into VFX to make it feel better.
• Noah: Built a simple health and damage system with a Health UI bar. Health packs restore 10 HP; cubes heal over time while the player stands near them. Damage is variable-based. Health capped at 100. Inspired by Dark Souls’ bonfires — interactables on the ground to aid scavenging.
• Nishant: Added weapon-hits-cube damage interaction and the ability to pick up and equip a weapon using number keys.

• Discussed migrating the ability framework to GAS (Gameplay Ability System) for better flexibility and designer control.
• Outlined the full ability set to implement: Rage Meter, Dash with invincibility frames, Heal/Tank, Slash-Dash, Light Attack combo, alternate RMB attack.
• Planned lock-on system and attribute fixes (5 charges, heals 40–60% of max health).

• GAS health system, cooldown/stamina, simple upgrade system, and base combat attacks planned for rollout.

• Goal: find a combo animation, improve collision testing, and push toward crunch. Most items were on track but not all met the agreed targets.

• Alan: Implemented Dash and the first dash animation.
• Noah: Implemented an isometric camera that toggles between 3rd-person (dev) and isometric view. Got stuck on integrating Hollow Knight-style enemies.
• Nishant: Added a combo animation to the character.

• Identified the camera as the main blocker — needed to integrate a first-person-style attack rather than just triggering an animation after the dash.
• Discussed new camera approach that better integrates into the current attack patterns.

• Focus: polish the dash ability, add a LMB heavy attack, and implement a working damage system.

• Alan: Fixed up the dash — player now properly enters the combat stage of the dash on activation.
• Noah: Implemented a modular damage system designed to be easy to extend as the team adds mechanics.
• Nishant: Worked on in-motion collision mapping to connect sword swings with multiple targets simultaneously.

• Continued building on damage and movement to push combat closer to a finished feel. Many systems still need polish.

• Simplified remaining systems to address issues carried over from Furi’s implementation. Still revamping the camera and working on a clean dash-to-hit transition.
• Primary focus this week: game feel — making the player feel like their attacks have real impact.

• Alan: Polished the dash so movement momentum is preserved; added VFX.
• Noah: Fixed the damage system, added health bars on enemies, and added a health dot indicator on targets when hit with a crit.
• Nishant: Added proc/updater hooks for future extensions.

• Continue polishing dash attacks, movement, hit reactions, damage framing, and crit system for the dash.
• Still a lot left to finish before the end of the semester.

• Decision: migrate the combo framework to GAS. The existing approach wasn’t improving feel — GAS offers better flexibility for ability tuning, cooldowns, and cancellation.
• Added a condition system to implement ability cooldowns.
• The dash remains timing-based — still intended to be design-driven rather than purely mechanical.

• Alan: Worked on VFX and GAS combat integration.
• Noah: Built damage through GAS, implemented dodge-based mechanics.
• Nishant: Continued work on melee collision and multi-target sword swing connection.

• Camera still needs more work for aiming and target acquisition.
• Character movement refinement ongoing.

• Continued catching up from Week 6. Added rotation system, polished motion mapping, and addressed player positioning for combat stability.

• Alan: Converting Dash to GAS; implemented the spin attack ability.
• Noah: Camera work — improving state clarity for when the player picks up a sword and enters combat, making it clearer when hits are registering.
• Nishant: Rotation system improvements to make attacks track and feel more intentional.

• Completing GAS transition across all attack end states.
• Adding complexity to attacks, abilities, and enemies as the core loop stabilizes.

• Caught up to and moved past Week 6’s scope.
• Designed Rage mode: fills a meter that changes Alt attack and regular attack into new combos and effects.
• Added a healing system inspired by Ghost of Tsushima.
• Discussed balancing Rage across different enemy densities.

• Alan: Implemented Rage mechanic and corresponding VFX.
• Noah: Implemented the healing system and built a radial UI progress bar to display the healing state.
• Nishant: Implemented the Alt attack when ranged — lets the player teleport/chain between enemies.

• Drew inspiration from Furi and Sonic’s “Chaos Control” ability for the Rage mechanic feel.
• Continued playtesting for bugs — certain attacks not draining stamina or dealing damage correctly.
• Experimenting with enemy density, attack damage values, and how Rage shifts the combat balance.

• Focus: expanding current moves to make them feel more rewarding when mastered.
• Continued work on player positioning for stability in combat.

• Alan: Working on air-to-air attack interactions.
• Noah: Continued camera improvements for combat clarity when entering and exiting attack states.
• Nishant: Rotation system refinements; attacks continue to feel more intentional and game-like.

• Combo timing refinements — tightening windows to reward skilled play.

No development this week.

Attended GDC. No production update this week.

• Shifted focus to a final boss-battle level: single-player vs. the game world with deep mechanics over broad content.
• Cooling down on complexity — polish, system fixup, and making what’s there feel complete.
• Building toward the original first-design vision for the project.

• Alan: VFX for Rage and All-Rage attacks.
• Noah: Encounter design and high-polish detail — bystanders, damage tuning, save point placement.
• Nishant: Enemy attack polish, VFX.

• Called it good on attack building — shifted fully to polish and feel.
• Continued iterating on enemies and encounters; adding VFX to make combat feedback land cleanly.

• Defined final goals: make all attacks cancellable after the first hit to prevent lock-in and support a down-based combo system.
• No new mechanics — focus entirely on making existing systems feel complete.

• Alan: Final VFX pass.
• Noah: Encounter design and high-polish detail — bystanders, damage, mechanics.
• Nishant: Enemy attacks, VFX.

• After a semester of building, playtesting, and iterating, the C(ombat)ANN tech demo is complete and playable end-to-end.

• Even though we faced a lot of setbacks during this project, our team walked away with valuable experience, from iteration and development processes to a much deeper understanding of what makes a combat game feel great. We ran into major issues with Perforce and Unreal that kept us from fully reaching the goals we originally set, but the knowledge we gained is something we can carry forward into future work. Moving forward, I want to take what I’ve learned and dive deeper into Unreal’s GAS system combined with C++. Using everything I picked up about combat design, along with the lessons from all the challenges we hit, I’m planning out a new project that I’ll be working on in my free time. It’s a way for me not just to fix the flaws from this project but also to build something stronger from the ground up, with everything I know now. Keep an eye out for Squirrel Souls!