Controls
RE: Vengeance: Combat System
RE: Vengeance is a third-person action-adventure RPG set in modern-day Busan. My goal for this combat system was to build an action-packed experience best suited for small groups of melee enemies. The core mechanics of which are melee combos, supernatural combos, and supernatural environment interactions.
TOOLS:
Unity
LENGTH:
6 Weeks
GENRE:
Urban Fantasy
Action-Adventure
The controls underwent a significant amount of iteration on this project. My original intent was to create a modal enemy system, whereby players would use R2 to switch between telekinesis and electrokinesis. This would allow for more ability types and abilities. Due to the scope of this prototype, I decided to keep the controls simple to showcase the abilities I was able to prototype. In a future iteration with more than 4 abilities, I would like to revisit this ideation and implement a multi-modal control scheme.
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I also revised my original input architecture to list the controls more clearly & handle inputs in their respective scripts. In the original version, I listed the controls by function (movement, running, etc) which lead to naming overlap and ambiguity. Although this was a solo project, I knew that if I was sharing this code with another developer, it would be easier for them to recognize inputs by their button names. This would also save time if controls were changed, so no one would have to back and rename inputs to reflect their current functionality.
Combat
Core Combat Moves:
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Light Attack
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Heavy Attack
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Block
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Dodge
Basic Combos:
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​L3 Combo (Light, Light, Light)
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Staggers the enemy​
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LH Combo (Light Heavy)
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Knocks the enemy down​
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L2H Combo (Light, Light Heavy)
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Knocks the enemy back
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Electrified Combos:
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​L3 Combo (Light Light Light)
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Supercharged melee finisher​
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LH Combo (Light Heavy)
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Knockback AOE finisher​
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L2H Combo (Light Light Heavy)
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Ranged AOE finisher​
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Supernatural Abilities:
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Electrokinetic Attack ​
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Telekinetic Grab ​
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Telekinetic Push
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Telekinetic Shatter ​
Combat Goals
My goal for this project was to create a combat system that contrasts more vulnerable feeling melee with powerful supernatural abilities. For melee, I wanted to create vulnerable but brutal action-adventure survival combat similar to The Last of Us. For abilities, I wanted to create a supercharged fantasy experience, similar to the BioShock and Dishonored series’. Specifically, I wanted to frame both the melee and abilities in a more vengeful version of stories like Stranger Things and Beyond: Two Souls.
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Although I was inpired by the melee combat of The Last Of Us, their combat system focuses more on one-on-one combat. Because I wanted to capture the contrast of character vulnerability and super powerful abilities, I opted to design my combat to eventually work with small groups of melee enemies, similar to the street fights of the Yakuza series.
Combat Animations
My initial setup for animation layers prioritized the movement animation over combat, which didn't work because the combat animations relied on a certain amount of lower body animation, and there were only a few recovery frames where lower body movement was an option.
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Targeting
For combat targeting, the player uses a field of view script to determine what enemies are in front of the player & within range. When an enemy is in view & in range (ie. targetable), the field of view script turns on the enemy display target script, which displays either a circle or a circle with a dot in the center, to show the player which enemies are targetable & which enemy is closest. If the player attacks an enemy, the combat script will assist the player towards that enemy for up to a meter and a half.
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For interaction targeting, the same field of view script will determine when an interactable object is in range & changes the material highlight on that object. In the original iteration, I used the same target display for enemies and objects, which wasn't ideal for communicating the type of interaction that would take place (combat vs. ability).
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In the event that the player is using an object ability on an enemy (ex. throwing a trashcan at them, shattering glass towards them), the display targets on the enemies turn red.
Supernatural Abilities
Because my biggest influences for the abilities were Jedi: Fallen Order and Control. The main abilities I focused on were telekinesis and electrokinesis. I started my abilities design ideation with broad ability categories (telekinesis, mind control, time manipulation) and focused on trying to find abilities with the strongest combat and interaction potential.
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Initial category & ability ideation
Because my scope limited me to a small number of abilities, it was important to pick abilities that would allow for multiple combinations & support as much emergent gameplay as possible. For example, players can electrocute an object before throwing it at enemies or electrocute an enemy before pushing them back into another enemy.
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Ability development ideation
The main challenges of this project were programming the player targeting, balancing the combos, and editing a limited set of animations. Because this was my first melee combat project, I learned a ton of design principles and systems programming in a short period of time.
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