🕹 Gameplay & Combat (Player-Visible)

🎧 Sound Design & Audio Engineering

🔧 Technical Development (Behind the Scenes)

🧪 Quality Assurance (QA)

🎨 Game & System Design

🧩 Additional QoL & Player-Facing Enhancements

✅ Summary

Here are more details if you want to read precisely.

Gameplay and Combat (Visible for the Player)

• Redesigned Damage System:
  A complete overhaul of the damage system has been implemented. Players can now play around with Base and Bonus damage to create their desired playstyle. For instance, some players may focus on burst damage for quick, impactful attacks, while others may prefer to build toward damage per minute (DPM), allowing for consistent damage output over time. The system was built to be highly scalable, allowing for more fine-tuned control over damage calculation. Damage is now calculated via custom magnitude calculations, which are based on the attributes of both base and bonus damage, ensuring more precise and reliable damage calculations. This change will allow for much greater replayability, enabling players to experiment with different approaches in combat and keep gameplay fresh and dynamic.
• Damage to Stamina Concept and Mechanics:
  As part of the new combat system, damage to stamina has been introduced as a core mechanic. Certain abilities, including Poison and some others, now deal a percentage of damage as stamina damage. This provides additional tactical opportunities in combat, as players can use these abilities to slow down their opponents without directly reducing their movement speed. This mechanic introduces a layer of strategy by forcing players to consider how to balance stamina management with health, adding more depth to the gameplay and encouraging players to think carefully about their moves.
• Damage Over Time (DoT) Effects – Bleeding, Burning, and Poisoning:
  The introduction of DoT effects such as Bleeding, Burning, and Poisoning adds new layers of tactical depth. These effects deal consistent damage over time, forcing players to think about sustained damage as well as burst damage. Poisoning, specifically, also adds a unique twist by dealing a small amount of damage to stamina alongside health, forcing players to balance their resources and deal with multiple types of damage simultaneously. DoT effects offer interesting gameplay opportunities, such as forcing players to manage their health and stamina while being affected by persistent damage from various sources.
• Stagger Mechanic:
  A new stagger mechanic has been carefully introduced for certain abilities. This mechanic adds a new element to combat by allowing certain attacks to stagger opponents, briefly interrupting their actions and leaving them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. The stagger mechanic is implemented with great care to maintain a sense of fluid movement while still offering a chance to control opponents in certain situations. This provides players with more tactical options, whether they’re looking to gain an edge by disrupting their opponent’s flow or capitalize on an opening for a combo attack.
• Character Class Attribute System:
  A significant update has been made to the character class system. Unique attributes such as health, stamina, base damage, and bonus damage are now specific to each character class. This gives each class a distinct playstyle and ensures that different characters feel unique in their strengths and weaknesses. In the future, passive abilities will be introduced for each class, further enhancing their individual identity and providing players with a more tailored experience when choosing characters.
• Melee Attacks System & Interactivity:
  The melee combat system has been significantly expanded. Melee attacks now come in two distinct forms: combination attacks and attacks that can be performed while moving. This opens up new strategic possibilities, allowing players to adapt their combat style to different situations. Additionally, destructible objects can now be damaged by melee attacks, allowing for greater interactivity with the environment. This not only makes the combat feel more dynamic and satisfying but also introduces new opportunities for environmental strategy, encouraging players to think about how they use their surroundings during a fight.
• Ability Redesign:
  A major effort has gone into the redesign of all existing abilities to ensure they feel more impactful and satisfying. Each ability has been reworked to provide more tangible feedback when used, so players can feel the effects of their actions more clearly. Alongside the redesign of old abilities, four new abilities have been created. The system for adding new abilities is now streamlined, making it easy to create new abilities with minimal effort in terms of technical work. The key elements for adding new abilities are VFX, animations, and sounds, but the programming behind them can be accomplished in a very short timeframe, meaning new abilities can be integrated quickly and efficiently.
• Camera System & Spectator Mode:
  A camera system has been created to allow for camera shakes, FOV changes, and changes to the viewpoint during specific abilities like aiming abilities and others. This system enhances the overall combat experience by making the camera more reactive to player actions, increasing the immersion. Additionally, spectator mode has been implemented, allowing players to watch ongoing matches and better understand the flow of combat, offering more opportunities for both engagement and learning.
• Damage Reaction System:
  A damage reaction system has been added to provide more visual feedback when characters take damage. Now, the impact of damage is more visibly clear, helping to immerse players into the experience and make combat feel more reactive and impactful. This system ensures that damage is not only a gameplay mechanic but also an important visual cue, so players can clearly understand when they have successfully landed an attack.
• Custom Lobbies:
  The ability to create custom lobbies has been introduced, enabling players to set up their own matches with specific parameters, such as character selection, maps, and match settings. This feature offers greater flexibility and customization for multiplayer gameplay, allowing for more varied and personal experiences.
• Progression System:
  The first version of the player progression system has been implemented. This system allows players to earn in-game currency and experience points after each match, which can be used to unlock new characters and weapons. The introduction of this progression system provides players with a sense of reward and a tangible sense of progression, making matches feel more meaningful and giving players goals to work toward over time.
• UI/UX Improvements:
  Many improvements have been made to the HUD and user experience in general. This includes the addition of debuffs, improved health change animations, and a more refined damage display. These changes help make combat feel more fluid, intuitive, and visually engaging, allowing players to better track their status and make more informed decisions during gameplay.

Sound Design and Engineering

• FMOD Integration:
  The FMOD audio system has been successfully integrated into the latest UE version. This allows for advanced audio control, enhancing the overall sound design of the game. The migration to FMOD ensures that future sound design can be easily expanded and customized.
• UI & Combat Loop Sounds:
  All UI sounds have been fixed and implemented, improving the player’s interaction with menus and HUD elements. Additionally, the combat loop sounds have been implemented, providing immersive feedback during rounds and matches, as well as combat events like attacking and blocking.
• Character and Abilities Sounds:
  All character sounds have been fine-tuned, including death sounds, footsteps, jumps, and rolls. Additionally, the sounds for various abilities have been fixed and new ones added to ensure they match the intended impact and feedback.
• New Music:
  A new batch of original music tracks has been created for the main menu, with four unique OSTs now in place, helping to set the tone and atmosphere for the game.

Technical (Invisible for the Player)

• Game Mode Redesign:
  All game modes have been redesigned to ensure they work efficiently and can be easily expanded in the future. The new system allows for easy scalability, meaning that new modes can be implemented quickly and without significant technical debt.
• Save System Implementation:
  A comprehensive save system has been added to ensure that player progress is tracked and saved correctly, with support for future expansion
• Enhanced Input System:
  A completely new input system has been designed based on the Enhanced Input System in Unreal Engine. This new system gives designers far more flexibility and control, enabling the ability to change abilities in real-time based on inputs, which is crucial for future systems like the Deck system.
• Ability Base Systems:
  New ability bases for various types of abilities (area abilities, self-buff abilities, charging abilities) have been created, making it easier to implement new abilities with minimal programming work. These bases provide a template that only requires VFX, animations, and sound effects for full implementation, drastically reducing the time and effort needed for new abilities.
• Backend & Infrastructure:
  A new backend has been developed to handle accounts, matchmaking, progression, and other critical game systems. Additionally, a game launcher and patching system have been created, enabling easy updates and patches to be deployed.
• Migration to Unreal Engine 5:
  The project was successfully migrated from Unreal Engine 4.27 to Unreal Engine 5.3, including all maps, animations, VFX, and other game assets. This migration has brought significant improvements in performance and scalability.
• Optimization and Refactoring:
  Following the migration, a thorough optimization process was carried out, including code refactoring, scene optimizations, and the migration from Blueprints to C++ for greater performance.

QA

• Testing Systems:
  A series of testing levels have been created for various elements, including animations, VFX, and UI elements. These levels allow for efficient and focused testing of individual systems. Additionally, data asset validators have been put in place to ensure that all assets are correctly implemented and validated.
• Unreal Insights Setup:
  Unreal Insights has been set up to provide performance tracking and debugging tools for continuous optimization and issue resolution.