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A 1-4 multiplayer Co-op Action Adventure game presented with Third-Person Perspective gameplay. Players control Heroes that offer unique playstyles and abilities to fight monsters. Players can unlock and equip magical elements upon defeating powerful foes as they traverse through the world.

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  • Soulslike Co-op Action Adventure ​​

  • High Fantasy

  • Player vs. Environments

Platform

PC

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Engine

Unreal Engine 5.1

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Language

Blueprints

Animation State Machine

Gameplay Abilities System

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Resources

Udemy

YouTube

Unreal Documentation

Infinity Assets

Paragon Assets

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Completion

Began Feb. 2023 - OnGoing

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Team Size

1

Gameplay | Nov. 28th, 2023

Goals

  • Complete Project Refactor​​​

    • Nearly every system in the game, including Camera, Targeting, Weapons/Equipment, Stats, Taking Damage, Abilities, AI Behavior and more.

    • This was needed to improve the continuation and introduction of new systems that squashed bugs

    • This was also a HUGE learning hurtle to improve Blueprinting best practices

  • Improve camera work and build logic better for consistent plays and easier implementation

  • Give attacks and hits some "oopmh"

  • Previous feedback suggested attacks, blocks, and animations were too floaty

    • Improved by overhauling animation fidelity for both the player character and AI by making custom animations and improving the logic with the AnimBlueprint

  • Improve AI with better decision making​​

Design Details

Design Pillars

Goals:

  • Keep this in scope

  • Allow for emergent gameplay

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References:

  • Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

  • Horizon: Zero Dawn

  • Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen

  • Elden Ring

Basic Combat | Weapon Styles

11_26_23_HeavyAttack.gif

Details

  • Each equipped weapon offers a different style of combat animations and attack combinations

  • Basic attack strengths and weaknesses are determined by an attacks range, animation speed, and recovery time

  • Players can attack with both heavy and light attacks

Targeting | Control Rotation

Details

  • Players can toggle their character control rotation by pressing the Target Lock Button

  • Tapping one of the the Rotate Targets Button will switch to the next closest target at the left or right of the character

  • The health UI of "mob" units is displayed above the targets head or for a short duration if damage is received 

Finishers | Pacing & Feel Goods

Details

  • Enemies can be instantly slain with a cinematic finisher if their balance breaks from blocking too much

  • To increase difficulty, the AI will recover balance slowly overtime and all balance will be recovered if the player fails to deliver the finishing blow

  • These finisher are meant to be feel good moments and set the pacing for an engagement

11_26_23_SS_AI_Finisher_Response-1.gif

  • While performing the Finisher animation, the player character cannot take damage or be interrupted

  • AI targeting a player performing an finisher will have their current behavior interrupted and react. This behavior can be unique per finisher or even per AI

Parry | Counter Attacks

Details

  • Enemy Attacks can be parried if the player taps the parry button while blocking

  • There is a notify frame that sets the character to "isParrying". Melee attacks received while in this state will force an appropriate recoil animation.

  • Some weapons, like the 1 handed sword, cannot block projectiles, however with good timing, can parry the projectile back at the players target

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Abilities | Mana & Weapons

Details

  • Players can consume Mana, a resource Stat to perform an ability.

  • Each ability is unique and has flexibility on when it's useful in a particular situation

    • This Sword Ability can launch projectiles by timing the next ability button press and combo this until the player stops or Mana is deplenished​

AI | Behavior & Navigation

AI Behavior Tree Design

  • Using the AI Controller to sense and set target/s, I chose to give each AI enemy type it's own unique Behavior Tree

  • Each Behavior Tree follows a general set of guidelines, however, sense many AI have unique behaviors, it seemed better to not use a Master Behavior Tree, as it would quickly become unmanageable.

Evade & Block System

  • Close Ranged Attacks: Created a function within the Combat Component that Line Traces for valid targets when a successful attack begins. If hit, do weighted chance to attempt to block or evade. This gives the feeling the AI see's an attacking coming and attempts to react.

  • Long Ranged Attacks: Attached a collision trace to Ranged Weapon Base that triggers the AI react event.

Environment Query System

  • Used for decision based behaviors including

    • Strafe​

    • Patrol Area

    • Find Player

    • Move To Location

  • Using the Behavior Tree, I can set the task or service I want the AI to perform and how I want it to perform based on the AI​'s current Behavior  in a Root Behavior Service Node

AI Coop Interaction | Valuting

  • Coop Interaction Goals

    • Create a  Service Node system to allow quick AI interactions with each other​

    • Detect if valid actor and enable design quick means to insert Anims or functions within Service

  • For this example, I created a more interesting interaction between AI using a vault anim​

Gameplay | Sept. 26th, 2023

Goals

  • Re-work the naming conventions of each Hero

    • Knight -> Paladin (Dwarf)

    • Youxia -> Knight (Human Male)

    • Huntress (Human Female)

  • New Knight Ability - Lightning Spear Portal

    • Activate to throw spear

    • Activate again to teleport to spear location

    • Light Attacks and Heavy Attacks become shield only attacks until the spear ​is recovered

  • New Paladin Ability - Light Field

    • Heals allies within AOE​

    • Enemies are knocked back when attempted to enter AOE field

  • Improved AI for allied Paladin and Knight​

    • Activates abilities​

    • Properly retargets new enemies after killing current target

  • Improved AI for Goblins

    • Improved responsiveness and awareness​

Update Log | Sept. 20th, 2023

Character Model Update

Goals:

  • Replace Paragon Assets with new premium models from Epic Marketplace

  • Bug Fixes

  • Continue friendly AI polish​

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Update Log | Sept. 6th, 2023

Youxia Showcase

Youxia Showcase

Watch Now

Hero & AI Update

Goals:

  • Improve Hybrid Def/Off class

    • New Abilities 

    • Strengths/weaknesses

    • Improved Camera

  • Interesting AI

    • Attacker Goblins jump over mobs in front, weaker, and are very evasive

    • Defender Goblins are aggressive with shields, move more slowly and have ranged capabilities

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Update Log | Aug. 22nd, 2023

Co-Op AI Showcase

Co-Op AI Showcase

Watch Now

Aggressive AI & Companion AI

Goals:

  • AI Behavior

    • Block​

    • Parry

    • Lunge

    • Evade

    • Abilities

  • Visibility of actions is clear using good camera angles

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References:

  • Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

Gameplay | July, 28th, 2023

Goals

  • Introduce a new Off/Def hybrid hero

    • New attack combos​

    • Explore feel and play of this class

  • Retarget Warrior animations for a Knight class

  • Explore cinematic events

  • Fix multiplayer replication issues

    • Explore multiplayer interactions with AI

  • Design and implement 2 unique Boss AI

  • Design and implement new AI and behavior

  • Rework the Huntress combat design

Update Log | May 24th, 2023

Hero Design

Warrior Breakdown

Goals:

  • Close ranged attack and defense focused

  • Fast attack speed

  • Able to traverse the environment swiftly on foot

  • Access to AOE abilities to control the crowd

  • Powerful counter attacks

Huntress Breakdown

Goals:

  • Balance Ranged Mastery with Target-lock combat

  • Find what feels best for an Archer Hero while keeping continuity with melee combat

  • Enable easy weapon-swap between sword and bow

  • "Floaty" sword attacks for look and feel

  • More actions to do than fire basic arrow attack

AI Design

Block Meter

Goals:

  • AI that can Block have a "Block Meter"

  • If not attacking, the AI should block all incoming attacks if the Block Meter value is greater than zero

  • After X number of hits of the Block Meter being empty, the AI will auto-gain back Block Meter and begin blocking 

  • Attacks from behind cannot be blocked

AI - Frost Walker Heavy SS

Goals:

  • Strafe at various ranges around the targeted player

  • Weighted chances to select aggression level

  • Attack if player gets too close

  • Taunt to add look and feel

  • Character has Red shader for Un-blockable frames

  • Leap attack to allow players to feel good while dodging

  • Variety of attack patterns to keep the player interested

Update Log | April 12th, 2023

Goals

  • Proof of Concept

    • Multiplayer Lobby

    • Client/Server Play

  • Sword and Shield Hero ~ First Pass

  • Sword and Bow Hero ~ First Pass

  • Combat

    • Target Lock Mechanic

    • Root Motion based Combat

  • Introduce ranged and Melee enemy AI

  • Introduce a Boss AI

Special Thanks!

I want to give a huge shout out to my friends and family for playtesting my game and providing much needed support and feedback on my project!

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I couldn't have done this without y'all!

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