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Quinn McDonnell - Systems Designer
Unity Sword System
Picture #1
What I Made
In my spare time, I created a basic combat system in Unity2D that was based around sword fighting. I wanted to make something that was fun and engaging while being simple and cheap to make.
Bug to Feature
Originally I was just going to have button inputs and direction
determine where the sword would aim and swing at however
the code I was using had an error where the box collider did not disappear and so enemies would charge into you and die. While at first this was an issue I realized that having the sword always out and swinging it around with your mouse was a lot more fun. So I built the game around swinging the sword and adding physical power behind it.
Special Hits
While swinging the sword with your mouse is fun, it could get repetitive to players. So to circumvent that, I added two extra attacks you can perform by clicking the left and right mouse. A small swing attack that can be held down to slash away at enemies, and a long range poke attack that launches your sword forward to do damage to the enemy.
Adding Variety
To keep the game loop interesting I made the player capable of swapping between three different sword types. A lightweight dagger that can pierce enemies from afar. A broadsword that can swing at enemies consistently. And a great sword that hit like a truck but was slower than the others.
What I Learned
From this project I learned a lot about time management and combat design. With time management, you need to make a game that you can make, not the one you want to make. I had very lofty ideas at the beginning but scaled down due to the fact I had to work on Booklet's Big Story for most of my time while working on this side project. So I learned how to manage my time to make not the best, but the most functional product. As for combat design, I learned the key importance of game feel. The biggest feedback I got was that game did not have the juice to feel satisfying. So I added a bunch of particle FXs, SFXs, and camera shake to all my combat actions to really improve the feel. And I learned just how important that is. If anything the thing you should focus on most is not making a lot of actions, but one action feeling really really good to perform.
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