Asurya's Embers
Combat Designer
First Person Shooter
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Team Size: 21
Quick Summary
Asurya's Embers is a first-person, single-player, bow-and-arrow adventure game where you embark on a journey to save your home from the wrath of a vengeful god.
Design Goals
1. Create engaging enemy encounters and bosses
2. Add fun simple puzzles to break away from constant fighting
1. Create Engaging Enemy Encounters and Bosses
I was tasked to design the bosses and enemies including their environment and arenas in which they appeared.
Enemies
When designing the enemies and bosses we were tasked to layout the various ideas and references
Boss Design
Enemy Designs
Environments
Arena 1
Arena 1 Initial Sketch
In Arena 1 we wanted it to be connect to the rest of the village. Originally this was going to host a boss but due to time constraints we instead made it a multi-wave enemy encounter.
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This allowed me to have enemies spawn all around the player and taking advantage of the different verticality.
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It also would guide the player to use said verticality when fighting other enemies that end up spawning on the ground during the next upcoming waves.
Boss Arena 2
Boss Arena 2 Initial Sketch
For Boss Arena 2 we wanted to have it be inside a cave. However, with our mechanic with sunlight causing harm to the player, an idea I came up with is having crystals that also produces the same damage to the player since the player is now in an interior and blocked from the sun.
Also, since this was a combat focused area, I wanted to provide circular flow and cover to allow the player to constantly run around the boss and have areas to hide. The player can split off into one of the three concentric sections, but each provide some form of circular flow.
Platforms
Platforms can raise the player to reach higher locations to get a better angle on the boss and its minions
Rocks
The rocks in the boss arena when shot fall onto the ground. They deal damage to the boss if it lands on it and will break on impact.
However, if the player misses, these rocks can now act as cover for the player to hide behind.
2. Add Fun Simple Puzzles to Break Away from Constant Fighting
While the main goal of Asuyra's Embers was to be a first-person shooter, we wanted to add breaks in between fights to give the player a breather and not have the game pace too linearly.
Throughout the game the player learns to hit these fans to open something. So here I designed it to raise a platform.
These platforms mechanics are:
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Lower if the player stands on them and raises above its original height when the player hits the fan.
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After a few seconds lower back to its original height.
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If the player is still on the platform while it lowers it will lower to its lowest height.​
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Here instead of fans, the player hits a rock which permanently raises a platform to its maximum height.
Reinforcing the mechanic
Now it tests the player's mastery with both in a boss fight
Postmortem
What Went Well?
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The game came together at the end and was able to be shipped on steam!
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The art looks amazing.
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The maps all feel nice and unique. Each map team worked well together creating a great level in its entirety.
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The music development was done quickly in a short amount of time.
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What Went Wrong?
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Was working on bug fixing towards the very end so quality of life things or little juice elements weren't able to be implemented.
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A lot of confusion with direction with elements for the game.
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AI had issues getting stuck in certain places.
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Playtesting could have occurred much earlier.
What I learned​
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I learned how to communicate with leads and other teammates.
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I learned the process of systems design and how changing a small variable could change more than just that one variable.
