Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Join humanity’s last stand as Gods and guns collide in an all-new action-RPG open-world adventure.
The Door to the Afterlife has been opened, allowing the old God’s army of the undead to escape from within. The living are on the brink of extinction. It’s time for the coalition army to retake their world. Embrace vengeance, gunpowder and magic and embark on an epic journey to lead mankind’s final siege against the tide of the dead.
Your battle begins now.

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Role Overview

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is an Action Role-Playing Soulslike title. This was my first industry project and I worked as a Combat & Systems Designer on the game's core melee/ranged combat loop, enemy factions, and encounter design. My work focused on developing improvements to the Player’s combat toolkit, defining enemy behaviors, shaping faction identity, crafting boss encounters, and supporting level design needs.

In addition to feature documentation, I prototyped many systems directly in Unreal Engine using Blueprints to validate design intent and collaborated across departments to support final implementation.

Key Responsibilities

Combat and System Design

  • Expanded the Player's core melee/ranged toolkit, including:

    • Default axe combo 

    • Axe attacks integrating seamlessly with dodging, sprinting, and jumping

    • Perfect Parry mechanic for countering melee strikes

    • Interwoven pistol attacks between axe swings

  • Developed companion combat mechanics (Enki Attacks)

    • Provided ranged utility during combat

    • Added traversal and verticality options

  • Created the Gun Parry System

    • Allowed players to interrupt enemy heavy attacks with well-timed pistol shots

    • Opened enemies up to powerful counterattacks

  • Co-developed the Armour Breaking System

    • Axe parries could rip off armour layers from enemies

  • Worked on the Ammo/Health Resource System

    • Axe kills granted Ammo

    • Pistol kills granted Health

    • Reinforced the hybrid melee/ranged loop

  • Refined enemy Stagger & Execution System

    • Multiple methods to building stagger on enemies

    • Worked with animators to craft multiple variations of executions

  • Designed the enemy Ambush System to create surprise and delight

  • Balanced all combat systems across enemies, weapons, and abilities

  • Constant balance adjustments in all areas of combat

    • Player and enemy stats, leveling experience, talent tree progression

  • Adjusted game feel across multiple features to improve responsiveness and player feedback

Enemy and Boss Design

  • Designed 5 unique enemy factions, each with their own behaviors, stats, and attack logic:

    • Bandits: Low defense, unconventional fighters

    • Travellers: Nimble, fast-moving enemies

    • Justice Knights: Moderate defenses with readable attack patterns 

    • Garrison Soldiers: Armoured units with disciplined combat styles

    • Undead: Low defense, erratic and frenzied attacks

  • Re-designed the Revenant miniboss, giving it new AI logic, attack patterns, and movement behaviors

  • Designed creature enemy types, including:

    • Forest Spiders: Melee creatures with ambushing behaviors

    • Coastal Spiders: High defense melee creatures 

    • Bittern Bird: Low defenses but with highly erratic attacks

  • Co-designed and prototyped in-engine two major bosses:

    • Rammuha: Three-armed swordmaster with flurry combos, built to challenge the player’s Perfect Parry skills.

    • Dukmar: Magical swordbearer mixing melee combos with projectile and gun-parryable beam attacks.

Enemy Encounters and Level Design

  • Created 100+ hand-crafted enemy compositions across multiple zones, incorporating faction identity and difficulty pacing.

  • Placed and managed enemy spawn logic, patrol routes, and encounter flow.

  • Designed bespoke mini-dungeons and open-world points of interest to reinforce exploration pillars.

PISTOL PARRY

One of my biggest contributions to the Flintlock combat system was the “Pistol Parry” mechanic that I created. This came about when I was looking at enemy designs early on and noticed that our enemies had unblockable attacks but the Player had no means of tactically countering them. This created a golden opportunity to create a fun little skill check that players could engage with.

Essentially, when the enemy performs an unblockable attack (coined “Break Attacks” in-game), they would shimmer red during the windup of the attack. While shimmering red, if the player shot the enemy with the Pistol, they would get staggered and take a burst of damage. Additionally, this dealt a large amount of damage to their stagger bar, quickening the opportunity for an execution.

I pitched this idea to my lead and as soon as it was green lit, I spent the rest of the day prototyping and implementing it into the player’s toolkit. It was a massive success and became a core part of the combat loop thereafter.

Enemy performs their unblockable Break attack

Player using the Pistol to parry the Break Attack

ENEMY DESIGN

When I first came onto the project, there was only one faction of enemies that the player could fight against and they were known as the “Traveller” enemies. During my time on the project, I helped craft the other 4 humanoid factions while also re-designing the Traveller faction. The goal was to make factions that each felt unique amongst each other and presented a difficult but fun challenge for the Player to overcome.

Each of these factions had a distinct fighting style that helped them stand out:

  • Justice - Orderly, methodical & disciplined

  • Traveller - Swift, flowy & dancerlike

  • Garrison - Heavy, defensive & tanky

  • Undead - Erratic, beastly & unintelligent

  • Bandits - Light, acrobatic & unorthodox

Example of a Traveller enemy - 3D model by Logan Currin

Example of a Garrison enemy - 3D model by Kurt Butler

Example of a Justice enemy - 3D model by Kurt Butler

Example of an Undead enemy - 3D model by Conrad Turzynski

Example of a Bandit enemy - 3D model by Veronika Krajcova

I also was responsible for designing out multiple creatures that would be present in all zones. These were the two spiders (Forest and Coastal spiders) and the Bittern birds. Spiders mostly used their fangs to attack while the birds relied on their powerful legs to crush the Player.

Forest spiders were found in lush, forest areas while the coastal spiders were found in the desert and near water banks. I also designed out the method by which these spiders would ambush the Player. Forest spiders would hang from trees and if the player crossed underneath them, they would drop and grapple the Player, dealing devastating damage. The coastal spiders on the other hand, hid underneath the sand and once the player got close enough, they would unburrow to surprise the player.

The Bittern birds mostly roamed grasslands and would only attack the player if they got close enough or were attacked by ranged weaponry.

Example of a forest spider - 3D model by Veronika Krajcova

Example of a coastal spider - 3D model by Veronika Krajcova

Example of a Bittern bird - 3D model by Conrad Turzynski

Finally, I helped re-design the game’s reoccurring miniboss, “The Revenant” from the ground-up. One of my core references for this miniboss came from “Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower” from Bloodborne. I really liked the way Lady Maria would reposition herself around the player with her phasing ability, so I used that as a cornerstone for the Revenant’s mechanics.

The revenant would be able to teleport to positions around the player before performing its attacks. It would also use this technique as a means to gain distance when it needed to back away. There were also escalating moments in this enemy where as it lost more health, it would unlock more of its moveset and start teleporting a lot more rapidly. This was a really fun enemy to design and work on at the time.

Example of a Revenant - 3D model by Veronika Krajcova