What’s Project PSBF?

Project PSBF is an Action game made in the Unreal Engine that I worked on with three other RIT students over the course of two semesters. The aim of this project was to create an Action game that more accurately simulates real combat in comparison to other games with regard to spacing and reacting to the opponent. We utilized observations of real combat sports such as fencing and boxing, then took our notes and implemented them in a gameplay environment.

My Role – Team Lead/Lead Designer

In the first semester of this project I worked as a Designer and primarily focused on creating the level for our game while also assisting the Lead Designer with the combat system. We initially designed a three stance combat system where the player would have to determine the stance of the enemy if they wanted to properly defend against and parry their attacks. However as we approached the end of that semester we realized that attempting to do so was unrealistic given the number and quality of animations needed for players to be able to discern between the different stances.

During the second semester of this project I stepped into the role of Team Lead and Lead Designer after two members of the team had graduated. One of the first things we did was to simplify the combat system of our game. We removed the stance system as well as limiting the player character and enemies to one attack string to make the workload more feasible for our single artist. We also decided to focus more on the AI behaviors of the enemies as getting them to behave with certain patterns could help deliver the depth we were trying to achieve without having to produce additional assets given our team size.

My primary responsibility during the second semester was to update our combat system and ensure that the project stayed on track. I also edited the behaviors of the enemy AI and balanced the combat once we had a playable prototype. My ultimate goal was to take the findings from our observations and create a fun and engaging gameplay experience.