Fatebound: Blood of Shtriga

The work at a glance

Fatebound is an upcoming AA action RPG inspired by Albanian and Balkan folklore. I designed and implemented its whole melee combat system, while leading gameplay development and coordinating the multidisciplinary team at Tika Studios. My contribution covers the internal prototype through July 2026.

The strongest part of this work is the connection between combat rules and their implementation: what the player can do, when an attack can connect, how enemies respond, and how animation and camera make those decisions readable.

Melee combat: abilities, timing and player decisions

I connected light and heavy attacks to the Gameplay Ability System, then built varied attack chains around startup, active and recovery phases. A timed follow-up input window lets the player chain the next attack into a continuous combo. Animation notifies control the hit-detection window so damage aligns with the attack's visible action.

I designed and implemented parry and dodge, enemy blocking stances, breakable guards and hit reactions. These systems give an encounter more structure than trading damage: timing, defense and the next action matter.

Enemy behavior and attack patterns

I designed enemy attack patterns and implemented movement and combat behavior with Unreal Behavior Trees. The combat work includes how an enemy attacks, blocks, reacts to a hit and loses its guard. I worked on both the behavior rules and the gameplay implementation that makes them playable.

Animation integration and camera

Different weapon types use distinct animation sets. I integrated these with linked Animation Blueprints and animation layers to connect locomotion, attacks and reactions. This was hands-on animation-system work using existing animation assets and sample foundations, alongside the combat implementation.

I also implemented and tuned camera lag and soft enemy following, aiming to keep combat framed smoothly while preserving the player's camera control.

Curse magic for combat and stealth

I designed and implemented an original curse mechanic: the player completes a short minigame to place a curse on an enemy. It supports both active combat and stealth, adding another way to approach an encounter beyond melee attacks.

Hands-on development and production

I continued programming while coordinating art and gameplay work, planning scope around the team's capacity and running weekly cross-disciplinary design reviews. Lessons from shipping Carnival of Souls informed the production approach.

The public Steam page provides the game's current presentation. This case study describes my own prototype-stage contribution, rather than the team's later development.