Medieval Combat Game

A third-person, Souls-inspired medieval combat prototype built in Unreal Engine 5 with C++.

Overview

A personal portfolio project exploring third-person sword combat, AI behavior, and modular gameplay systems. The codebase is organized so the same core components (health, stamina, combat interfaces) drive a Souls-like Combat variant alongside lighter Platforming and Side-Scrolling variants — letting one C++ framework power three distinct gameplay modes.

Built from scratch in C++ — no Blueprint logic for combat, AI, or core systems.

Highlights

Player

• Attack combos with anim-notify driven trace damage
• Dodge with invulnerability frames (Elden Ring–style medium roll)
• Stamina cost, regen, and lockouts on attack / dodge / block
• Hit reaction + death animations with ragdoll fallback

Enemy AI

• Chase / attack / strafe pacing through EnemyAIController
• Hit reaction stagger that cancels in-flight attacks
• Death animation playback with optional ragdoll fallback
• Configurable from data — engineers can ship new enemies without touching code

Combat framework

• Modular UHealthComponent and UStaminaComponent usable by any actor
• ICombatDamageable / ICombatAttacker interfaces for clean cross-actor messaging
• AnimNotify_DoAttackTrace, AnimNotify_CheckCombo, AnimNotify_CheckChargedAttack

Inventory & interaction

• Pickup detection with highlight pulse on focused items
• Equip / unequip pipeline with held-item mesh attachment

Variants

• Combat: damageable actors, life-bar UI, lava floor hazard, checkpoint volumes
• Side-Scrolling: jump pads, moving / soft platforms, NPC AI, on-screen UI
• Platforming: dash mechanic with anim-notify cleanup

Tech

• Unreal Engine 5.4+
• C++ (gameplay code), C# (build scripts)
• Animation Blueprints, Anim Notifies, AI Controllers, Behavior / State Trees
• UMG for HUD and life bars

Project layout

testgame/
├── Config/                    Project .ini configuration
├── Source/testgame/           Gameplay C++ modules
│   ├── Combat/                Health and stamina components
│   ├── Enemy/                 Enemy character + AI controller
│   ├── Inventory/             Pickup, interaction, inventory
│   ├── Variant_Combat/        Souls-like combat: AI, gameplay actors, notifies, UI
│   ├── Variant_Platforming/   Platforming character, dash notify
│   └── Variant_SideScrolling/ Side-scroller character, AI, gameplay actors, UI
└── testgame.uproject

The Content/ folder (assets, animations, third-party marketplace packs) is intentionally excluded from version control to keep the repository lean and recruiter-friendly.

Build

1. Right-click testgame.uproject → Generate Visual Studio project files
2. Open the generated .sln in Visual Studio 2022 (C++ game-development workload)
3. Build the Development Editor | Win64 target
4. Launch the editor by double-clicking testgame.uproject

Requirements

• Unreal Engine 5.4 or newer
• Visual Studio 2022 with the C++ game-development workload
• Windows 10 / 11

Author

Kevin Rusev — gameplay programming portfolio.