Trial of the Elements
A third-person elemental action-adventure focused on traversal, puzzle solving, and tactical combat.
Project Overview
In Trial of the Elements, players control a Druid who masters elemental powers to traverse a decaying world and overcome increasingly complex environmental and combat challenges.
As the Combat Designer, I was responsible for implementing and balancing core combat abilities, designing the final boss encounter, and ensuring responsive, expressive combat interactions in Unreal Engine.
My Responsibilities
Designed and implemented elemental abilities (Rock Throw, Boulder Levitate).
Built and scripted the final boss encounter, integrating all three elemental powers.
Created player-NPC interactions and ability acquisition sequences.
Balanced combat mechanics for usability, clarity, and level pacing.
Iterated on system interactions to resolve bugs and optimize responsiveness.
Rock Throw
Purpose: A core Earth-element ability used for both combat and environmental interaction/destruction.
Activation: Right Mouse Button
- Provide mid-range projectile offense.
- Enable physics-based interactions for puzzles (e.g., hitting distant triggers, pressure plates).
- Uses blueprint scripting to cast only to “rock” actor types (easily customizable).
- Adjustable “throw force” and “pickup radius” via exposed blueprint variables.
Levitating Boulder
Purpose: Utility-based ability allowing players to reposition heavy objects for traversal or puzzles.
Activation: Hold “R” to pick-up, release to place
Encourage creative use of physics and object placement.
Combine with environmental puzzles (e.g., pressure platforms).
Uses blueprint trace and float mechanics to suspend boulders.
Placement range controlled by variable exposed in blueprint.
Often used in tandem with Rock Throw to solve chained puzzles.
Additional Features
Designed NPC interaction dialogues for tutorializing and story progression.
Built functional puzzle doors triggered by pressure platforms and object placement.
Implemented slide mechanics, settings menu, and credits screen polish.
Inspiration
Core elemental traversal influenced by Jivana (Rubika Supinfogame).
Rock-based telekinetics inspired by Control’s environmental manipulation.
Focused on tight input responsiveness, clear visual feedback, and modular blueprinting for rapid iteration.
What went wrong:
Early collision issues between Rock Throw and glider object caused bugs across systems.
Debugging revealed that the throw origin was behind the glider’s collider—resolved by adjusting animation socket position and disabling glider collision.
What went right:
Successfully created modular, tunable combat abilities used throughout the game.
Boss fight successfully challenged player creativity and tested element synergy.
Feedback from internal testers noted fluid control and satisfying ability expression.
Tools & Collaboration
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Unreal Engine (Blueprints)
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Perforce – version control
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Trello + Atlassian Suite – task tracking and feedback integration