Combo Survivor is a game made during a game jam in collaboration with Esteban MELERO. The theme of this jam was ’COMBOS’.
To answer the jam’s theme, several types of gameplay were considered,
such as a fighting game, a merging game (in the style of Suika Game,
Candy Crush, etc.) and many others. We settled on a Suika Game-style
gameplay with element merging. Our thinking then led us towards a
Survivor-like (for example, Vampire Survivors).
In this game, the player must therefore survive waves of enemies that
appear, and must eliminate them before they merge with one another.
The 100 monsters and their animations come from a Unity Asset Store package.
Merges: When 2 strictly identical monsters come into contact, they merge. Their stats (health and damage) are improved. They become harder to defeat and deal more damage to the player.
Combos: Monsters are split into 9 types based on their appearance: fleas (’Flea’), flying balls (’Flying Ball’), round heads (’Round Head’), mounted creatures (’mounted’), toads (’Toad’), ostriches (’Ostrich’), four-legged creatures (’Four Legged’), armed creatures (’Weaponned’) and a miscellaneous type. When monsters attack you, they can perform combos. For example, if 3 enemies of the same type hit you, the damage of the 3rd attack is multiplied. Likewise, if one monster of each type hits you in a row, a multiplier is also applied to the last attack. A ’Combos’ button in the menu shows the different combinations and their effect.
Monster spawning: Monsters initially spawn every 2 seconds; the spawn interval shrinks over time, reaching a maximum spawn rate of 20 monsters per second. As the run progresses, the list of enemies that can spawn shrinks, favouring both the appearance of stronger monsters and monster merging, since they become increasingly identical to one another.
This asset comes from the Unity Asset Store; the scripts were extensively modified and adapted to match the behaviour wanted for our game.
The sword: the player can attack enemies with sword strikes using the right mouse button. This attack is slow and has limited range. However, every enemy killed with this attack grants the player one experience point and one power point.
Spells: the player can cast spells using the left mouse button. Spells travel in the direction of the mouse cursor on screen. They are far more powerful and have a longer range than sword attacks. However, they cost 1 power point, and grant neither power nor experience points when they kill a monster.
Levelling up: every 10 experience points, the player gains a level. Levelling up increases the damage dealt by sword strikes and restores some health to the player. It also increases spell power and grants a number of bonus power points.
Press ’Escape’ to bring up the menu. It pauses the game and allows the player to view the list of monster combos, the game credits, and restart the run using the play button.