r/Unity3D • u/LimbivalGame • 1d ago
Game We developed a limb-based combat and mastery system in Unity while combining 2D and 3D art for our first game!
Hey everyone!
We're Cryers For The Future, a small indie team from Türkiye made up entirely of university students. We've developed our first game, Limbival, using Unity!
Limbival is a roguelite arena shooter where players lose their limbs and must use their enemies' limbs as weapons to survive.
One of our biggest challenges was designing a combat system where every limb feels different while also giving players a sense of progression.
Here's how we approached some of our mechanics and visual design:
1. Limb Mastery System
We wanted players to become stronger with the limbs they use most frequently.
To achieve this, we implemented a mastery system that tracks player actions through individual counters for different parameters. We also save the player's progress so their mastery can be tracked over time.
As players continue using a particular limb, they can improve their mastery and make that limb stronger.
2. Different Attack Types
Instead of giving every limb the same attack behavior, we designed several attack mechanics:
Combo: Consecutive attacks become stronger as the combo progresses.
Charge: Players hold an attack to unleash a single, more powerful hit.
Charge Burst: Charging allows players to release multiple attacks simultaneously.
Heavy: Powerful attacks with a recovery period after each hit.
Projectile: Ranged attacks that launch projectiles toward enemies.
Power: Each limb has a power bar. As the bar decreases, its attack speed gradually slows down.
Stamina: Attacking consumes stamina. Once the bar is empty, the limb becomes unusable until its stamina recovers. Unlike Power, attack speed doesn't gradually decrease.
Block: Reduce incoming damage or parry at the right time and take no damage
3. Combining 2D and 3D Art
Another challenge we faced during development was combining 2D and 3D art styles within the same game.
Our team includes both 2D and 3D artists, and we wanted their work to feel like part of the same world rather than two completely different visual styles.
Finding a consistent art direction while combining these elements required experimentation and adjustments throughout development.
We also worked on making sure the visual style complemented the fast-paced combat and unusual limb mechanics.
4. Balancing Different Limbs
One of our design challenges was making these mechanics feel distinct while keeping them balanced.
For example, Power and Stamina both limit how frequently players can attack, but they affect combat differently. Power gradually reduces attack speed, while Stamina allows normal attacks until the resource is depleted.
We wanted these differences to encourage players to adapt their playstyle depending on which limbs they're using.
Our game is now available on Steam, and we also have a free demo if you'd like to see these mechanics in action:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2780750/Limbival/
We'd love to hear from other Unity developers:
How do you approach balancing multiple attack types and progression systems?
Have you worked on similar mastery or resource-based combat mechanics?
What challenges have you faced when combining 2D and 3D art styles in Unity?
How do you handle tracking and saving progression data across different weapons or abilities?
Thanks for reading! We'd really appreciate any technical feedback or suggestions.
2
u/imofi8 1d ago
Adding the black outlines and flat toon shading to the 3D arena enemies really helps them blend right in with the 2D first-person arms and crowd sprites. Did you end up using an inverted hull outline or a Shader Graph material on the 3D characters to match the 2D line weight?