Combat Design Project

Dominating Power

Team Size: 4

Genre: Combat Game

Platform: PC

Gameplay Video

Developer Diary

Week 1

This week, our team held a group discussion and decided to create a third-person action game, focusing on designing a boss battle. The key points we agreed upon are as follows: the giant enemy moves slowly, while the player has high mobility. Defeating the boss requires following a sequence to break its weak points one by one. The player will have both ranged and melee abilities.After the discussion, we created a UE5 project and began development. The main development tasks for this week were relatively limited, focusing primarily on player controls. To achieve the desired high-mobility player controls, we modified the default player controller in UE5, adjusting parameters such as jump capability, double-jump effects, turning speed, and sprint acceleration to achieve the intended gameplay experience.

Week 2

Working on the concept and the very basic player control of the character. We have decided to make a robotic character with swift movement, and high mobility. On the enemy side, we decided to make a giant boss creature with slow movement but heavy attack in contrast. On the developing side, learning to use the GAS Companion plugin to setup the player's ability and stats structure. We decided to use the GAS plugin to store the attributes of our game, and my task for the week was to research the plugin to set up the structure. I basically followed the instructions of the GAS plugin, made a simple template ability that cost Stamina and with a CD, and also with a simple UI shown on the screen. As we setup the structure of the ability system, we will be implementing more spells next week.

Week 3

This week, we worked on adding extra mechanics and further defining our character design. We had decided on a floating robot as our character to simplify some of the implementation. However, we realized we needed to clarify its appearance, as some team members imagined a bulkier design, which didn’t align with the agile feeling we were aiming for. By sharing drawings and references, we were able to reach a clear vision of what we wanted. My task this week is to create a custom double jump ability with the GAS component. The blueprint I created has a connection to the player's stamina system and detects the first jump action for the condition of triggering.

Week 4

For this week, we decided to add a teleport ability where the player launches the arm to aim for a position, and after reaching the target, the player teleports to the spot. We split the work, and my task was to make the aim function. I added an ability under the GAS structure of the aiming mode and added a line trace for the direction of shooting, and the direction always towards the camera view.

Week 5

This week we are adding juice to the project, mostly animations, SFX, and VFX. I added VFX for both the aiming ability and the fist hit for the Firearm ability, where the player can enter an aim mod and launch their right arm to hit the target. I also added a simple Niagara VFX of an explosion that occurs when the arm hits something.

Week 6

For the last week, I have been working on some glitch-fixing and polishing of the aiming ability. I replaced the line-trace with a real front sight and added some simple vfx on top of it. Also. The way in which the character is controlled is now changed according to the result of the playtest. It used to be free rotation after entering aim mode, now instead the player follows the angle of the camera, which creates a better sense of AIM experience, you shoot the arm towards where you are facing.

Week 7

This week, our team is moving on to make some enemy and damage events. My task was to make a laser shooter that targets the player in real time and shoots to hit the player. I did the player targeting thing with a blank of adding delay and the laser itself as a BP that we can use as a common damage thing for future use, like walls or abstacles.

Week 8

This week, our team has discussed adding some UI to the project to have some sort of indication to the players.

I was working on the UI of some player abilities, such as double jump, aim, and the laser damage event. This includes an icon of the ability displaying, and the effect when the ability is triggering. For the laser enemy attack, there is a need for you to tell the player when it is going to happen as well, something like a warning sign that shows on the screen.