Bombjack

Bombjack is a ranged zoner with a twisted sense of humor who lobs its explosive head at you. When it's on its last legs, things get really wild. It triggers a self-destruct countdown that ends with a massive explosion, potentially taking you down in a blaze of mutual destruction. I handled the back end of development from rigging and animating this madman, all the way through behavior and implementation.

I wanted the animations to be playful and fun. Beyond the concept references from my colleagues, I pulled inspiration from a night at a local pinball arcade where the plunger shooting the ball sparked an idea for the character's offensive attacks, launching projectiles in high arcs toward opponents.

Once in game, I set up the actual moves and tuned the projectile trajectories to feel fun and varied, ensuring each attack had its own unique feel.

The part I had the most fun with was setting up the behavior trees that power the NPC during gameplay. For Bombjack, that meant creating a true zoner who keeps you at a specific distance, pelting you with projectiles from afar. When you get close, he has tools to knock you down and regain space.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this design feels to play against. He offers a unique challenge in our core gameloop that forces players to navigate projectile patterns while managing the threat of his self-destruct mechanic.

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