Gameplay & Battle Designer | Ember: Reignition

What I did — prototype, develop, and release a fighter

In a three-person team, I led combat design from an early parry-and-dash toy through a local multiplayer fighter. I developed sprite-based rigging and attack variants, added close-range shoving, worked on feedback and a playable title screen, and contributed to the trailer, release, and later readability updates.

What I think — test the interaction before expanding the game

The first prototype let players experiment with parrying and dashing against different projectiles. That small space exposed useful interactions before we committed to a full combat system. Later, attack variants and cooldown indicators had to make heavy sword combat readable without removing its deliberate timing.

Design process

Prototyping Ember: Reignition – Building a Toy Before a Game

Ember: Reignition is a local multiplayer fighting game developed from scratch by a three-person team over the course of six months. During the prototyping phase, our focus was on exploring core mechanics and identifying the unique gameplay possibilities they could offer.

As the Lead Designer, I deliberately structured the prototype to function more like a toy than a game—a sandbox for players to experiment with mechanics rather than a fully structured experience. My goal was to encourage player-driven discovery, allowing testers to explore emergent strategies within the system rather than being confined to predefined combat interactions.

To achieve this, I started by developing a simple bullet-dodging prototype that introduced two key mechanics: parrying and dashing. Each action was designed to interact differently with various projectile types, forcing players to experiment and adapt their responses dynamically. This early phase allowed us to test the flexibility of our combat system, laying the groundwork for the more refined mechanics that would later define Ember: Reignition.

Building Toward Alpha: Prioritizing Core Mechanics Over Visual Polish

Transitioning from early development to alpha was a challenging process, as we had to make strategic trade-offs due to the resource-heavy nature of fighting game development. As the Lead Designer, I played a key role in prioritizing essential mechanics for our vertical slice, ensuring that we focused on combat depth and responsiveness while deferring visual effects to the full development phase.

To establish a unique combat feel, I developed a custom rigging system based on sprite collections, allowing us to create a distinct control response and optimized performance. Since our playable character was a heavily armored greatsword knight, I studied the weighty movement of Dark Souls animations and translated those mechanics into a 2D combat framework. This approach helped maintain a sense of weight and impact in every action while ensuring fluidity and balance within our gameplay constraints.

To further enhance combat immersion, I implemented a shoving mechanic, adding visceral weight and tension to close-quarters encounters. This system gave players a greater sense of physical struggle and power dynamics, reinforcing Ember: Reignition’s heavy, tactical combat identity.

While we delayed most visual effects until the full development phase, we recognized the importance of presentation in playtesting feedback. To ensure our vertical slice felt complete, we implemented the final battle arena and core UI elements, such as health bars, allowing players to experience a near-finalized combat environment. This not only provided a clearer vision of the final game but also enabled us to collect more forward-thinking and valuable feedback during the alpha stage.

By the end of this phase, we had established a strong mechanical foundation, ensuring that the game’s core combat interactions felt polished and satisfying before moving into full production.

Full Development: Expanding Combat Depth and Visual Clarity

As we entered the full development phase, our focus shifted to refining animations, designing combo extensions, enhancing visual effects, and improving UI clarity. This stage allowed us to revisit and expand upon areas we had deprioritized in alpha, ensuring a more polished and immersive fighting experience.

On the gameplay side, we finalized the core rock-paper-scissors mechanic by implementing uppercut and thrust attack derivatives using our rigging system. To further enhance combat versatility, I designed both a grounded charge version and an instant aerial execution for each move, giving players additional strategic choices based on positioning and timing. These additions solidified combo depth, allowing for more dynamic interactions and counterplay.

To elevate combat impact, we integrated new VFX and SFX for every combo, enhancing hit feedback and overall responsiveness. Additionally, to help players track their defensive resources, we implemented cooldown indicators for dodge and parry directly on the health bar, ensuring clear and accessible combat information.

With these refinements, Ember: Reignition evolved into a fully realized competitive fighter, balancing mechanical depth, player feedback, and visual polish for a dynamic and engaging experience.

Full Development: Designing an Interactive Title Screen

For the title screen, I aimed to move away from the traditional static menu and instead create an interactive environment, inspired by Stick Fight: The Game. Rather than navigating a standard UI, players control their character within the title screen itself, making it an engaging and immersive first touchpoint with the game.

To enhance usability, I embedded essential information directly into the environment. Tips, credits, and controls were integrated as interactive doors on either side of the scene, while the game entry point was represented by a central altar, reinforcing the game’s thematic setting.

This approach not only made the title screen more dynamic and intuitive but also encouraged player engagement from the very first interaction, setting the tone for the game’s immersive and action-driven experience.

Finalizing, Releasing, and Post-Launch Updates

As the game neared completion, I took charge of the publishing process, ensuring a smooth transition from development to release. Collaborating with our SFX artist, I directed and edited a montage-style trailer to effectively showcase the game’s combat and mechanics.

Post-launch, I actively gathered and analyzed player feedback, identifying key areas for improvement—primarily in visual clarity and combat responsiveness. To enhance attack readability, I revisited the visual effects for uppercut, aerial thrust, and successful parries, drawing inspiration from Super Smash Bros.—specifically Cloud Strife’s greatsword effects—to refine impact visuals and improve player feedback.

Through these updates, Ember: Reignition continued to evolve, ensuring a more polished and satisfying experience based on community-driven refinements.