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Ambidexter
Genre: 2D Action Adventure
Platform: Windows
Engine: Unity
Duration: March 2024 - Ongoing
Team Size: 5
Role: Game Designer / Lead Artist
Development in Progress
Ambidexter is a 2D Action RPG platformer where players control the main character, chosen by nature and endowed with both flame and frost powers. Setting off on a treacherous adventure, the player must defeat monstrous enemies who seek to exploit nature's power for their own greed to prevent the world's destruction.
RESPONSIBILITIES
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​Led the design of character movement, combat style, the overall mood of environments, interactive objects, enemy combat movement, and VFX.
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Collaborated with another designer on the game for character sound effects and Background music.​​
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Organized overall workpieces regularly to manage the deadline and checked on other team members regularly to encourage work speed. ​
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Managed and organized every piece of artwork done within our group to supervise and provide proper feedback from the design team to keep the overall art style consistent and high quality.
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Finalized various movements of the main character to demonstrate smooth animation throughout intense gameplay.
Game Design
​Let's start with the design part. At first, we wanted a game that was a soul-like 2D action RPG with a bloody and cruel art style. We've gotten great inspiration from Elden Ring and Blasphemous.
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The main character is chosen from the world's absolute to prevent the world from collapsing and is able to use the environment's special mana to utilize both flame and frost elements.
Based on the concept and storytelling we had, we designers finalized the combat style, healing method, enemy design, environment concept, and more details of the game in the game design document(GDD). We aimed for a fast-phase process to provide a more intensive vibe and challenging controls.
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Work Break Down Chart
I've organized the workload by breaking down the required assets in every category - such as main character movement, enemy, and environment details. This breakdown helped team members efficiently manage their work by highlighting priority tasks and tracking completed items, making the workflow more streamlined and organized.
Character and Environment Design
So, based on the concept of the main character we had, I had to design the main character's model in pixels. ​First, we wanted the main character to be not heavily armed, but light clothed adventurer with an ability of martial arts.
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Here are several models I have designed:
Combat Design
Our goal is to create a combat system that is both challenging and rewarding. We want players to feel the satisfaction of mastering the mechanics while being incentivized to strike at the right time and place. Success in combat requires players to carefully study the enemy's attack patterns and range, timing their actions precisely to exploit openings and gain a tactical advantage.
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To enhance this experience, the basic attack has been divided into three distinct phases, designed to function as a seamless chain action. The first phase delivers a quick, light jab; the second phase follows up with a one-two punch combination; and the final phase culminates in a powerful, long hook punch. This progression encourages players to plan their attacks strategically while providing a dynamic and rewarding combat flow.
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First Attack
​When the player presses a key for the basic attack, this quick ice jab will be executed to damage enemies.
Second Attack
​This second one two punch is available after the first attack only for a short period of time.
Third Attack
Just like the second attack, the third attack becomes available immediately after the second attack. The final attack deals the most damage among basic attacks, as it's more difficult to execute while evading simultaneous enemy attacks.
I designed the basic attack system with three distinct phases to provide players with multiple strategies for dealing damage, adding depth and variety to the gameplay. Inspired by Souls-like games, particularly Elden Ring, this system emphasizes precision and timing. Enemies and bosses are designed to deal greater damage than players, making careless aggression a costly mistake. To succeed, players must carefully observe enemy movements, timing their dodges and attacks to exploit openings. This design encourages strategic play, rewarding those who adapt and execute well-timed actions to deplete the monster's health efficiently.
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The intent behind this design is for players to primarily use the short basic attacks of the first or even up to the second phase while observing the enemy monster's behavior. Then, when an opportunity arises, such as when the enemy is having a long recovery delay or presenting a chance to deal damage, players can deliver a powerful blow using the third-phase basic attack or other skills.
Animations
Idle
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Running
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Flinch
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Jump
Full Basic Attack
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Flame Skill:
designed to focus on damaging a broad vertical area.
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​Frost Skill:
designed to apply massive damage to a single enemy infront
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Conclusion:
This project was my first time participating as the animator role. We were able to finish the design stage early with the game's basic combat system and its own aesthetic style. So, I was able to focus most of the time on the art and animation side because animation was the part where we were far behind.
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One thing I would change if I could go back to the beginning is that I want to reduce the amount of VFX in the basic attack of the main character. At first, I was excited for my character to have fancy and brutal attack effects. It looked cool and people liked it.
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However, implementing the shown animations, I realized that it would be better to keep the basic attacks simple and make the other abilities fancy and big with details. The VFX for basic attack could be just a simple line or an area with both red and blue color, referring to its ability, flame, and frost.