Dreamscaper: Killer Combat on an Indie Budget

In this GDC 2022 session, Afterburner Studios’ Ian Cofino walks through the process of creating a satisfying combat system on a small, indie team-focusing on the design, feel and workflow needed to achieve success.
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[@drmofasa880]

if you're reading the comments to decide whether to watch/listen to this presentation (like I do), then rest assured , it's a great talk!

[@Rick-ng3lr]

Agreed!

[@jonathansandusky7446]

Yeah, this was one of those really solid ones ... where you sit down and go ... "yeah ... this is the sort of thing I was looking to listen to."

[@TheBushwizard]

If you can get past the cringe response(and I mean cringe in the way it was meant to be used I’m not saying that he is cringe) every time he takes a gulp of water yeah.

[@NF12222]

Legend, thank you lol

[@me43135]

1:27 Gameplay example 2:54 Establish Strong Pillars 5:58 Player Options - Depth vs Complexity, Working on pillars, Scope 12:26 Layered Systems (important for iteration & scope) 13:36 Hit Reactions & Enemy States 20:28 Feel 41:45 Keys to success (the most important section) 50:53 Key Takeaways 52:14 Q&A

[@Luluskuy]

A simple corrections, reactions & enemy states is in 15:36. But thanks bro, you helped me

[@bloogalooga]

This was a great talk and I appreciate how in-depth each portion was even though a lot was covered. I like that they kept a player-focused approach in relation to their core pillars and allowed their pillars to come second to the player experience. The result was great feeling combat that left the player in complete control of each situation.

[@SuperDutchrutter]

Awesome talk, a lot of useful tidbits in here for indie devs. Thanks!

[@djebil2749]

His loud swallowing triggered me but the talk is great. Gotta try out the game too

[@processseer6693]

Yeah couldn‘t watch all of it as it made me rage.

[@aslkdjfzxcv9779]

good mic. 😂

[@rohamsajjadi6326]

Yeah, it got on my nerves too

[@anthonyhoganson9527]

The swallowing noises made it SO difficult to focus on the talk 😭

[@galamotshaku]

Lol I know

[@Sephern]

I'm so glad I found this talk. Definitely a great watch, and though it's geared around indies it certainly is going on my list of recommended GDC talks. I just watched the God of War combat design talks from GDC 2019 and comparing and contrasting. If you're looking for more combat design GDC talks, I highly recommend "Evolving Combat in 'God of War' for a New Perspective."

[@afrayedknot1337]

This is great advice. As an indie developer this has given me so many good ideas. Thanks!

[@rohamsajjadi6326]

This is a great talk and I highly recommend to see it (just be ready for the noise).

[@moocowp4970]

Excellent talk, really useful for what I'm working on :)

[@davecharlton6380]

Great talk. Extremely useful tips!

[@Xo1ot1]

Very helpful. Thanks very much.

[@harrywilliams7881]

Amazing talk!!! Can't believe this content is free

[@taymack9725]

The best ones aren’t

[@smokeback]

awesome wish more game devs with released games shared such information as its very helpful to game devs growth

[@waylonpark2340]

Magnificent Game Themes And Music

[@ifvictorthen10]

Happy to hear about strong feedbacks. I wonder about vr games performance constraints and visual fidelity.

[@ChristopherCricketWallace]

it won't be long before that's less of a concern. the tech is moving fast. Honestly, motion sickness and locomotion solutions are both still the biggest barriers.

[@tolulopemojid2720]

I just love any game were there is actually hit reaction on enemies

[@badradish2116]

GREAT talk

[@CBSuper]

Really good talk, great info. That mic tho.

[@corgalie]

Pro tip: the listener should never be able to hear every sip, swallow and lip smacking sound in excruciating detail

[@ragnar7106]

He swallows water like he's trying to swallow a whole truck

[@Mawal28]

Great talk. I loved Dreamscape but the worst thing about it is waking up into the real world, wish you could just play and replay the roguelike without having to do stuff outside the dream

[@kyarirugiusu]

Can I buy this game on steam?

[@lorenfulghum2393]

This is all solid stuff. I figured most of this out by analyzing Elden Ring's combat in detail, and I think they did the same thing.

[@swisspunker94]

seems like a nice guy and a good talk. I will say he should definitely work on his involuntary mouth sounds, its a little off putting to listen to. Im sure he has heard it before and maybe there is nothing he can do about it, if so i'm sorry for bringing it up.

[@AndrewARitz]

I blame the sound engineer could have mic'd him differently, and taken down the high end too.

[@Naquarus]

Ayo why his mouth so loud

[@sd19delta16]

The treble for the lapel mic he's using is too high so it catches all of the normal lip smacking and other mouth sounds even while he's talking normally. The staff should have tuned the mic so it didn't catch so many of these frequencies.

[@DrunkenWizardBattle]

@@sd19delta16 GDC has the wierdest blend of high quality polish on thier vids and then glaring issues like this (honestly its still way above the bar of quality for a lot of confrences tbf its just additional polish in some places that makes it jarring). how many of these do you see people talking and then like 5 mins into the presentation someone goes oh shit and realise they've just been recording the person and not the slides lol

[@brandonscott3012]

Lol I'm glad I'm not the only one who is very triggered by the nonstop swallowing and lip smacking sounds. Useful insights though.

[@ssssss9740]

GDC presenters gulping water with a mic on their throat make for good game sound effects - but triggers my misophonia

[@dragonoforange]

Literally had to turn this off because of the swallowing, really disgusting

[@RomanTimm]

Great talk but oh my god those swollowing sounds are so off putting. Please mind them for the next talk they are really distracting

[@machinefannatic99]

why do all this games look generic

[@vivid8979]

What makes you think so?? Because I highly disagree that this game belongs to a generic category..

[@machinefannatic99]

@@vivid8979 the moment I saw the animations I literally said dejavu I’ve seen this before.. I don’t know why things are like this

[@vivid8979]

@@machinefannatic99 You mean the cel-shaded art style? The particle effects? Because the more you play games the more everything will look the same you know? That's how everything in life is tbh.

[@machinefannatic99]

@@vivid8979 not really true, back in the ps2 days most games just felt different it was almost a new adventure when u put a new game on. From jack and dexter to James Bond to red rock. It all felt different but nowadays, games use same engines same techniques and they keep copying each other. Almost every new game I see looks dejavu depending on genre. The usual boring fps games the usual open world city games still look like ps3 titles and the usual cheap indie art design where it’s either pixel art or cheap 3D art with sharp polygons. I just don’t know why people can’t make games peculiar. It’s so boring

[@vivid8979]

@@machinefannatic99 Back then games are really still not that big and marketing and media around them are not that mainstreamed... Choices looks little because each genre has few choices in them and mostly the massive developers has the lead in terms of quality and word of mouth... Now that gaming is already a Massive Multi-billion dollar business and devs can easily just post their games in any store it blurs and bloats the choices... But here's the catch the variety also multiplies along that.. I will not force you to change your mind in terms of your opinion in this game, but saying gaming nowadays feels samey only means your catalogue is really not that vast...

[@zarodgaming1844]

what is the point of this if no coxe is shown? 😂 it's just like saying " hot water is hot, see? that's what we want for a good lasagna 🍝" ... but saying absolutely nothing about all the other components that make that food exist.

[@user-jj9tz6wn7d]

Very good adaptation, textbook-level ACT game action design guide！