You are the last swordsman, and enemies with guns are trying to attack you! Attack them while they are reloading their guns, and parry their shots when they attack! Take out as many as you can!

Controls:

-Space to attack/block

-Attack when the Enemy's charge bar isn't up to do damage

-Perform a reaction time event when the Enemy's charge bar is up

--Hit in Green for no damage

--Hit in Yellow for some damage

--Hit in Red for more damage

--Hit in White for death.

Design documentation for your Playable Prototype

• Progression Mechanic Name: 
  • Parry 
• Description of mechanic and their progression 
  • The parry mechanic is baked into the enemy attack reveal mechanic and the player attack mechanic. If the player attacks right when the enemy goes to attack, then a parry is successfully performed. This progresses the combat over time as it becomes more complex as these skill checks range in frequency and reaction time.
• Implementation description
  • In the prototype we created an enemy that has a wind up attack that is displayed to the player. The player wants to both attack the enemy and protect themselves from the enemy’s attack by parrying. The player attack has a few second cooldown.The player must not spam attack or they can be left defenseless when the enemy charges up (no attack to parry with).
• Description of how your pattern(s) relate to the prototype. (Include a link the to pattern)
  • (1) https://patternlanguageforgamedesign.com/PatternLibraryApp/PatternLibrary/2522
  • (2) https://patternlanguageforgamedesign.com/PatternLibraryApp/PatternLibrary/2240 

Pattern (1) is about adding parrying to combat adds more weight and a new dimension to combat, helping to add nuance and agency to a combat system. We implemented this by allowing the player to parrying the enemies attack if they attack right at the proper spot in the enemy bar charge up.

Pattern (2) states that a designer can make a boring gameplay decision more engaging by providing agency and a risk/reward element to a previously simple gameplay decision. We do this in our game by adding a dimension to “receiving attacks” and giving more agency in your defensive strategy. In other games you simply take damage, but we allow the player to parry with their own attack. This creates a risk/reward scenario where you want to attack the enemy with your weapon (reward), but also save up your attack in case the enemy attacks and you need to parry (risk).

• Analysis describing the implications of the progression explored in your playable prototype.
  • The progression of the difficulty/complexity of the combat was interesting in this game because it got more tense as time went on and as players we were more zoned in. Since the rate at which the enemy attack falls can increase over time the player has to be ready to react in time and to properly save their attack for the right moment. I think the complexity progression of it really tuned into the twitch mechanic-y/reaction time part of the Parry pattern.

Asset reference：

高橋邦幸 - 砂塵ノ記憶 from NieR:Automata Original Soundtrack