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Combat/AI Development Progress
(Newest to Earliest)
History of Development
PERANNIMAE is my largest project so far, with work beginning in late 2024. Shortly after work on ORBLITERA, I took it upon myself to grow my design and development skills tenfold, which would only come with practice on a larger title. Thus, PERANNIMAE began development!
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It began with an idea I've had for an experimental combat loop, which replicates and gamifies medieval combat. The basic idea being that combatants in plate armor would have to knock their opponent to the ground first, before dealing the final blow.
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I wanted to couple this combat style with the fact that this game should set itself apart from every other fantasy game out there. I wanted PERANNIMAE to be able to answer questions such as, "Why play this over Skyrim, or Dark Souls?" The heart of that answer, of course, being their combat systems.
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So far, we've run many combat playtests over the course of a year, across many prototype builds, to land on where we are today.
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As it stands, the game is now complete with the foundations of its features, and we are now able to build on top of what we have. Due to ongoing additions and improvements, the present programming and overall design have been fine-tuned as well, with plenty more to come before final release!
PERANNIMAE (Ongoing)
PERANNIMAE is an ongoing project with my team: John Estes, on tech art, and Bryce Hoelter, from which this idea spawned, responsible for narrative and 3D art.
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I am personally responsible for the game design in its entirety, as well as the sole developer.
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Built in Unreal Engine 5, PERANNIMAE is a LITE ARPG set in the sci-fantasy island called the Northern Break, complete with magnificent alien vistas, and awe-inspiring megastructures.
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PERANNIMAE features an experimental combat system, in which the player wields a sharp and a blunt weapon, as well as a lance for range. All three weapons, as well as the player, can be upgraded with craftable components that add a complex build-crafting element to the game.
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Players can hunt enemies of varying difficulty, and utilize their new abilities to reach areas they have yet to explore, to collect crafting components to make them even more powerful than they were before!
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However, should the player meet their demise before stashing their items, everything will be lost!
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Due to my style of game design, PERANNIMAE has adopted a focus on achieving "intelligent" AI, and deep player agency. The player can physically manipulate the world and their opponents, and enemies utilize Utility AI State Tree systems to dynamically react to the world, and the player's actions.
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So far, we have run various combat playtests to ensure that its unique combat loop can introduce refreshing ideas to the gaming landscape, while ensuring that it remains fun and frictionless!
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I have also had the opportunity to utilize PERANNIMAE in multiple studies for Graduate school, with the focus of creating this intelligent AI.
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PERANNIMAE is set to release on Steam in he future!
Graduate Study: Creating an Intelligent Boss Fight
To earn my Master's Degree in Visualization at Texas A&M University, I was required to complete and defend a graduate study on a topic of my choosing.
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As I was actively developing PERANNIMAE, I chose to focus my study on creating a boss fight that adopted the traditional formula while enhancing it with PERANNIMAE's focus on intelligent AI and player agency.
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In this study, I worked with a committee of professors to create the foundations to a boss fight encounter, which utilized multiple playtests to pin down what players believed "intelligence" meant, and whether the boss was able to perform their understanding of this intelligence.
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I conducted multiple studies and surveys across play-testers of various backgrounds, and concluded that the boss's ability to record what the player is doing, and react to it via multiple curated voice lines, was substantial in creating the illusion of intelligence. The ability to observe, and communicate observations can and will make an NPC feel alive, while taking this a step further and allowing the NPC to not only comment, but act on it's observations, adds an incredibly strong layer to this theory!
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This boss fight is not at all complete, but the study itself served as an amazing opportunity to ensure that the game's direction is legitimate, and far from just a gimmick!
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I am incredibly excited to put these design studies to the test, and publish something truly unique to the market!
