Mark Of The Moon

Overview

Mark Of The Moon is a short narrative game made by me as the solo developer. It is built around a gameplay test of a new combat mechanic called the Exhaustion System, which combines the traditional gameplay concepts of health and stamina into a single bar that means the player’s attacking currency is also their health. This forces a higher degree of caution when in combat, as attacking can put the player in just as much danger as being attacked. The system is also built so that only attacks powerful enough to truly overwhelm an opponent will be able to knock them out. This aspect was designed to ensure more satisfying conclusions to combat, instead of defeating powerful enemies with small amounts of poke damage as the finishing blow.

I developed the game with the aid of some amazing art assets and the Narrative 3 quest plugin from the Unreal Engine Marketplace (the sources are listed in the game credits). I developed all of the gameplay logic, using a mix of C++ and Blueprint code, as well as the UI system, including the quest and dialogue displays that integrate with the Narrative plugin, and controller support. I also created all of the sound effects and composed the music for the game.

Mark Of The Moon is available here: https://trickarrant.itch.io/mark-of-the-moon  

Gameplay

Overview of the Exhaustion System

Combat is centered around Exhaustion. Attacking, empowering attacks, and dodging all build Exhaustion. The current level of Exhaustion slowly recovers after a short time of not building any new Exhaustion. Getting hit and taking damage also builds Exhaustion, but Exhaustion built from damage is permanent, raising the minimum level one’s Exhaustion can recover too. There is a maximum level of damage a combatant can receive. Above that threshold, further damage simply adds normal Exhaustion. To be defeated, a combatant must suffer damage that would cause their Exhaustion level go significantly over their maximum level. Such a blow will cause the combatant to be knocked out of the fight. Damage is healed for the player after successfully winning a combat encounter. Parrying attacks will instantly recover a small amount of Exhaustion, allowing the player to follow up with a powerful attack.

The player has both light and heavy attacks. Light attacks combo up to three moves. Heavy attacks combo up to four moves. Heavy attacks deal more damage, but are slower and build more Exhaustion. Moves higher in the combo chain deal increasingly higher damage. The player can empower attacks, causing them to deal double damage. However, empowerment continually builds Exhaustion while it is engaged, so be careful not become too vulnerable.

Tip: Only empower attacks right as they land for maximum efficiency.

Parrying an enemy attack will stagger the enemy and set both the light and heavy combo counters to their maximum values, allowing the player to follow up with very powerful counter-attacks.

If a combatant’s Exhaustion bar reaches full without being knocked out, they will be stunned until it can recover below a certain threshold. While stunned, a combatant will take extra damage.

The Intention Behind the Design of the Exhaustion System

The Exhaustion mechanic was designed to replace simple health bars with something that was more exciting and satisfying than simply wearing down enemies’ massive health bars before finally defeating them with some small amount of damage that doesn’t seem to do justice to the strength of the opponent when it is the final blow. The Exhaustion System is based on the idea that one’s likelihood to get knocked out of a fight is not a function of an arbitrary health number, but rather a function of how tired, and thus less able to defend, one is. Both throwing punches and getting hit by them makes one more tired, and thus more vulnerable. The Exhaustion System combines attacking stamina and damage into a single status bar called Exhaustion, that builds when both attacking and being attacked. The higher it gets, the more vulnerable one is to getting knocked out.

Audio and Soundtrack

All of the audio in the game was created and implemented by me. This includes one-shot sounds such as footsteps, the punch swooshes, the power-up sizzle, and the UI clicks, as well as the ambient effects such as the wind loops and the birds. I also implemented the reverb volumes and attenuation settings to establish the acoustic environment. This is particularly noticeable in the Ashen Respite (the cave) where the reverb is a much stronger echo than it normally is in the forest.

The original soundtrack for the game was composed by me and is comprised of three songs: "Main Theme", "Ambient", and "Combat".