Devlog 1 - Game Overview, Combat Design & Arena Mode Demo

For the last month I have been working on my own game, Enfabler. I have been focused on getting the combat system in a good state and feeling polished and have now released a demo on itch.io. I am now working on getting a blockout for the first level, and I plan to show progress soon, but it is my first foray into level design so it is taking a lot of time. This devlog focuses on discussing the overall game concept and combat so far.

Enfabler is inspired by games like Fable, Medievil (not medieval) and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. In Enfabler, you play as a hero, who is aided by a famed storyteller. The storyteller aids you because they are searching for the perfect hero for their next big story, and is hoping that you are that hero. Prove you are more than an adventurer, uphold the highest standards of bravery and valour, and earn the right to become a hero. You will spend most of your time exploring dungeons, embarking on quests to earn fame and defeating powerful foes.

The third-person combat follows the hero in the thick of the fight, and you will use multiple weapons to fend off groups of powerful enemies or giant threats. To make the hero feel powerful, they may fight many enemies at once, or maybe 1 giant monster. A lot of time has been spent polishing the combat to make each attack feel powerful and punchy. To do this, I started out with some techniques that I have used in previous projects, like particle effects, screen shakes and slow motion. This was a good start, but I felt it was still a bit flat for this game and wanted something that would really sell the feeling of playing as a hero.

After a bit of research, I added ragdoll physics to killed enemies, which makes their deaths much more satisfying, as opposed to having them all play the same death animation or just pop out of existence. I then had to just disable all their AI and hit boxes so killed enemies would just fall over. The extra step to adding punch was to add a small impulse when you hit enemies so it looks like they have been hit rather than just flopping to the ground.

I then experimented with a bit of animation freezing and controller rumble the instant a hit connects. This really excentuates that the player has hit something physical, as their weapon pauses and gets stuck for a split second. The player also gets some tactile feedback that lets them know they hit something. After adding ranged attacks, I made arrows stick to whatever they hit. I also added some FOV changes when sprinting to make it feel a bit faster, and also added some very small screenshake on footsteps while sprinting to make the player feel like part of the world.

Many of the levels in Enfabler will have traps and environmental hazards, so I started work on a system that would allow me to make traps very easily. I used the scriptable objects feature in Unity to create trap data. A trap manager will ensure that all traps fire at the correct interval and can be synchronised together. Traps like dart towers and blade traps will all run at regular intervals. Some traps are instant effect however, like mines. Utilising OOP principles, these traps share interfaces with the player and enemies so they can interact using interfaces that let them know when they have taken or dealt damage.

The gameplay was still feeling a bit simple and boring, so I decided to add dodge and sprint attacks. This didn’t help much so I decided to add charged attacks. the player can hold the input to increase the damage of their attacks. If they charge their attacks past a certain threshold, they will be able to perform an unblockable attack. I added a new particle effect to show the player when the attack is charged. This helped make the combat more varied, but it still felt like there wasn’t much depth to the combat, so I looked at other ways. I didn’t want to add spells or special abilities, so I decided to add a ranged attack. The player can still use dodge, sprint and charged attacks with the bow, but charged attacks have different properties. Charged bow attacks release a fan of arrows that may help deal AOE damage.

The next feature I added were the switch attacks. When the player mixes melee and ranged attacks, they will perform a switch attack with special properties. Quickly rerforming a melee attack after a ranged attack will cause them to leap forwards as they attack, while a switch ranged attack will cause them to leap backwards while firing 3 arrows. This will help making the player feel powerful while blending melee and ranged attacks, and also helps them manage the distance between them and their enemies. I plan to extend this feature to have 2 weapon sets that can be changed by equipping different weapons like in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

I’m also experimenting with non-standard UI design. the health and block bars appear as circles around the characters. I like this as I find health bars in the corner take attention away from the action, and the player is most likely looking at their character or their enemies so I like having their health UI next to the character. However, I don’t know how readable this is so I’m planning to get feedback on this.