Haki

Roles: 3Cs, Combat, Systems, Gameplay, Boss fight, AI and Encounter design

DESCRIPTION:

Third Person Action Adventure game about a girl named Haki, a village girl seeking revenge on her village destroyers.

Haki uses her sickles as a weapon to attack and stun enemies. She uses them to grapple and climb structures. The game has 3 encounters. The first encounter starts with a platforming section leading into a stealth enemy fight and ending with a boss fight.

Year: 2022

Platform: Windows

Genre: Third Person Action Adventure

Engine : Unreal

Haki has dual wielding sickles to attack.
She has a 3-tap combo where the final attack does 2x damage.
Haki can throw her weapon to attack and stun enemies. This is inspired by God of War's Leviathan axe.

Attacks

Combat and Systems

There are 4 kinds of traps in the second encounter.

Exploding Barrels
Hanging objects
Swinging Log
Rolling Rocks from a ramp

Traps

Haki uses her Sickles to grapple and zip-line to specific location when near by.
She can grapple midair from one grapple to another.
She can climb structures and jump from one climb structure while climbing.
She can even use these to run away with momentum and hide.

Grappling and Climbing

In the second encounter, the boss keeps looking around. When the player is in sight for 5 seconds, the boss attacks.
Once the player is sighted, the boss will not lose sight for this encounter increasing the difficulty.

Boss & Enemy Encounter

When Haki kills the 3 patrolling enemies, the true Boss fight will start.
The bosses attack will do a lot of damage to the player and will even knock back the player.

Level and Encounters

Encounter 1

The first encounter is a platforming section where the player should traverse the environment by jumping, wall climbing and grappling. When the platforming section is finished, the second encounter starts.

Encounter 3

The boss does close and ranged attacks. If the boss takes damage 5 times non stop, the boss stuns the player. When the health of the boss is below 50%, the boss becomes more aggressive. This aggression is achieved with one simple skill function that triggers at 10 seconds gaps. The boss's attack pattern can be broken down as follows.

Close Ranged melee attacks
Long range attack
Adaptive moves

Trap and Throw Ranged

The boss has 2 single attacks, 2 combo moves and 1 stun kick.

These attacks are performed when the player is close to the boss.

1 slash and 1 360 spin slash attack
2x combo move.
3x combo move.
Stun kick - happens when boss takes 7 attacks in row.

Close Ranged attacks

The boss has 2 single attacks, 2 combo moves and 1 stun kick.

These attacks are performed when the player is close to the boss.

1 slash and 1 360 spin slash attack
2x combo move.
3x combo move.
Stun kick - happens when boss takes 7 attacks in row.

Long Ranged attack

The boss has 2 ranged attack. If the player is far away from the boss, the boss leaps into the air and ground slams the player doing a radial.

The other attack is projectile throwing. In phase 2 this projectile throwing will be combined in the trap skill.

Adaptive attacks

Stun Kick:

When the player attacks the boss 5 times in a row in a short period, the boss stun kicks the player.

When the player gets stun kicked, the player is pushed away from the boss. The player gets stunned in the process for few seconds.

Trap and throw ranged:

In phase 2, the boss gets more aggressive and starts to trap players movement. The boss will trap the player and launch a projectile towards the player. The player has to doge the trap and even the projectile. If the player gets trapped, the projectile cannot be dodged.

Encounter 2

The second encounter is a stealth combat section where Haki need to take down enemies stealthily. She can choose to take them down in a full fledged combat. There are 4 different types of traps.

AI and Boss

Paroling Enemy AI:

Patrolling enemies have a fixed path and will chase the player if the player is in sight. They have a simple melee attack pattern but will do lots of damage.

Behavior tree of stealth paroling AI:

Boss Enemy AI:

Stealth Phase: The boss is performing a ritual. The boss looks in each direction. If the boss looks at the player for more than 5 seconds, the boss will stops the ritual and attack the player. The boss will not loose sight of the player if detected even once. The player can take cover.
Boss Phase: During the boss phase the boss walks or runs towards the players depending on the distance of the player. As per the situation, the boss chooses 3 types of attack patterns. The boss adapts to the player action and performs various attacks.

Behavior tree of stealth paroling AI:

Full Game Play

Boss Fight

Heading 5

This is a fast shooting auto rifle. User can Aim down sites with this weapon. The weapon is more stable when aimed down.
This weapon has a vertical recoil when trigger is pulled.
This weapon is a projectile based weapon.

Fast shooting Auto Rifle

Hit pause:

When the player takes or causes damage to the enemy, the effecting actors will get time dilated causing a hit pause effect. The effect is subtle but effective providing the impact power of a weapon strike.

When the player causes damage through weapon attacks, the camera zooms slightly until attacking is stopped.

Hit Stun:

When basic enemies get hit for the first time, they get stun for 1 second. This happens for every combo loop of the players attacks.

Boss dose not get stun with simple attacks. The boss can be only stunned by throwing the sickle.

Game Feel Systems:

Boss Enemy AI:

Stealth Phase: The boss is performing a ritual. The boss looks in each direction. If the boss looks at the player for more than 5 seconds, the boss will stops the ritual and attack the player. The boss will not loose sight of the player if detected even once. The player can take cover.
Boss Phase: During the boss phase the boss walks or runs towards the players depending on the distance of the player. As per the situation, the boss chooses 3 types of attack patterns. The boss adapts to the player action and performs various attacks.

Attack Effects and events