Combat Design Basics

What the talk is about

Andrii Kosynskyi covers the basics of combat design: how to make fights with enemies an interesting challenge for the player. He walks through three principles: attack, defense and enemy design. An attack animation splits into anticipation, the strike and recovery; anticipation must be readable and unique to each attack type, and every attack should have its own pros and cons. He also discusses balancing realism against gameplay conventions and how enemy defense differs from player defense. He advises designing the enemy and its combat first and the level afterwards, and checking the mix of physical, mental and social skills being tested. For several enemies at once he suggests cooldowns, group positioning with sectors and orbits, and enemy feedback to player actions. Examples come from Metro Exodus. Useful for combat designers and indie developers adding or improving combat.