Tale Of Darkness
A Unity action-platformer with procedurally assembled levels, FSM-driven bosses, and a curse-based combat system — architected for online co-op on Photon Fusion.
Role
Gameplay & Systems Programmer
Engine
Unity URP / C#
Team
2 programmers (solo the final 4 months)
Year
2024 – 2025
Overview
Tale Of Darkness is an action-platformer built in Unity (URP) on Photon Fusion, with its gameplay layer architected for online co-op. Players fight through procedurally assembled, room-based levels against a roster of state-machine-driven enemies and bosses, and shape each run with stacking curses, trinkets and loot. The project was put on hold when the client ended the contract, before the two-player mode was finished.
My Contribution
I was one of two programmers — and the solo programmer for the final four months. I built the enemy and boss AI as finite state machines (from patrollers and flyers to four unique bosses), the player's movement and combat state machine, a modular event-driven quest system, the loot and curse/trinket systems, and a JSON save system with multiple profiles and settings — most of it running over Fusion's networked simulation.
Technical Challenge
The hardest part was making dozens of distinct enemy behaviors — plus four bosses — read cleanly while staying consistent under Photon Fusion's networked, prediction-based simulation. I leaned on a shared finite-state-machine foundation so every enemy reused the same core states and transitions, then layered per-type and per-boss behavior on top, which kept the AI predictable over Fusion and easy to extend as new enemy types were added.