A key feature of this game is its turn-based combat, which the player will encounter whenever they interact with an Enemy or Boss NPC. When I say interact, this means directly colliding your player with the enemy NPC in the overworld will trigger the combat scenario.

In these combat scenarios, the player will either fight enemy NPCs or boss NPCs. The combat screen is comprised of many components, with the top corners of the screen comprising of statistics bars that represent stats of both the player and enemy that are relevant to the overall game play, and the bottom of the screen comprising of buttons of all the different moves a player could make in a turn.

The design of the overall combat screen was inspired from pre-existing pixel turned-based RPGs such as Pokémon, however the team wanted to divert from this design and make it somewhat original, resulting in the design below. The screen shows the stats of both the player and enemies, as well as buttons to do four different actions, attacking, guarding, sleeping and the use of items.

On screen, three statistics bars to the left display the players experience progress, current health and current hunger. The experience progress will show you either how much experience you gain upon defeating an enemy, or how much experience you will need to regain when you lose it all against a regular NPC. The health and hunger bars will be crucial in your combat strategy. For the enemy, their health and hunger are shown, ensuring that you can carefully calculate your moves based on the status of the enemy. Next to each bar is a label of their current stat value / the max stat value (in the player's current level). The statistics bars are:

Combat is the only way to gain experience in the game, with the defeat of each enemy increasing the players total experience count until they level up. Each level up will give a stat bonus increase to the player which help throughout the game as the enemies and bosses become progressively stronger and more difficult to defeat.

As mentioned, the player can choose to do one of four moves during each turn in combat. Once the player selects a move, the enemy will also complete either an attack, guard, sleep or special move (only if they are a Boss NPC). More specific details regarding the exact calculations for stat changes can be found in Combat System. The moves are described below:

For each of the moves a player and enemy can make, come different animations to enhance the user experience of a player in combat. Each move has a unique animation that is made to match the overall aesthetic of the game, as described and seen below:

After players have selected their moves, the change in stats for both the player and enemy are shown on screen by the appearance of text (like HP-10, HGR-5) on top of the player and enemy entities, with each colour of the text matching what stat has decreased. Orange text is a change in the hunger stat, and red (damaged) or green (healed) text is a change in the health sat. Changes in stats caused by Boss special move status effects are also shown with the status effect name and affected stat in each status effect's unique text colour (similar to the colour of their corresponding status effects bar shown below): Maroon for Bleeding, Forest green for Poisoned, and Yellow for Shocked.

Players and enemies (for the most part) are not stagnant and still in combat, rather having sprites that make them more entertaining to watch whilst combat moves are and are not occuring. There is a multitude of enemy and player sprites and movements that can be located in Friendly NPCs, Enemy NPCs and each of the boss pages linked at the bottom of the Home Page.

For each of the moves as well as different combinations of moves. different sounds will be made. For example, the attack animation is a rock throw, and the guard animation is a shield. Hence in combat if one player attacks, and the enemy guards, the audio that will be played is that of rock hitting metal. Having audio like this improves the overall quality of the game, adding another sensory experience whilst playing the game.

Similar to the main game world where you can free-roam, hunger is also important in combat. Every move other than items and sleeping use hunger. The less hunger you have the weaker both your attacks and guards become. Hence you must strategize when to sleep in order to balance your stamina as well as the potential risk of being dealt big damage.

When a player is in combat with Boss NPCs, they should be aware that Bosses have a special type of move that can inflict status effects on users. This special move does not inflict damage directly, but instead applies one of the four status effects (depending on the boss):

Once an enemy NPC has been beat by the player, it is transformed into a friendly NPC which will accompany the player throughout the game, helping them with combat and game progression. This means that extra FNPCs will be added throughout gameplay. Details on the enemy conversion can be found here: Enemy Conversion to Friendly Upon Defeat

In this game, there are multiple different consequences when losing all of your health, with some of them more severe than others. Be prepared and very careful when you fight against a boss as if you lose, you will have to restart the game from the beginning as your save file will be deleted. If you lose against a regular enemy NPC, the consequences are less severe, with you losing your inventory and experience progress to the next level, respawning on the main map with 50% health and hunger so that you have a chance to start again and become stronger.

In the game, there are three different kingdoms animals can come from, the land, sea and sky kingdoms. To match this overall game design, depending on the enemy that players encounter, the background of the combat screen will change. This is dependent on if the enemy is a land, sea or sky creature. Below are images of the different backgrounds:

After each turn in combat, dialogue boxes are displayed on screen illustrating the moves done by both the player and enemy. In combat against the boss, dialogue boxes will also describe the consequences of being under a status effect. Using these improves the user experience of players as it makes them more informed about what has happened and what could happen in combat depending on the moves they select. This improves the overall strategic aspect of combat. For more information about how the Dialogue Box works, refer to this link: Dialogue Box (NPC)

In combat, you can hover your cursor over certain buttons and indicators to open up a short popup with further details. Hover hints are available for all four combat move buttons to describe each move's effect. Hover hints are also available for status effects bars to give a more technical explanation of the effects applied.

The statistic bars, status effect bars and animations are designed with a brighter pixel-art aesthetic that matches the game's visual style, making them visually cohesive with the overall game.

For specifics about how to develop and use combat and its components in game see Combat Programming Guide