Design Action Combat

From the author

Design, implement, tune, or test readable tactical action combat for web games. Use for attack timing, guard and dodge windows, hit contact, posture, lock-on, weapons, boss phases, combat feedback, and deterministic combat tests.

— the description by Meng To

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a structured approach to building action combat systems by prioritizing deterministic state machines over animation-driven logic. It emphasizes clear telegraphing, authoritative collision resolution, and rigorous testing methodologies to ensure combat is responsive, fair, and readable for players. By defining explicit combat verbs and decoupling simulation events from visual feedback, developers can create balanced, high-stakes encounters that remain consistent across different hardware and frame rates.

What it does

Defines combat actions using explicit state machines with clear startup, active, and recovery windows.
Establishes authoritative collision and contact resolution for hits, blocks, and parries.
Provides guidelines for tuning defensive mechanics to ensure meaningful player decision-making.
Outlines strategies for deterministic combat testing to validate timing and state transitions.
Ensures combat feedback is synchronized with simulation events for improved readability.

When to use it

When designing the core combat loop for a web-based action game.
When debugging inconsistent hit detection or unresponsive combat controls.
When balancing boss encounters to ensure fair and readable attack patterns.
When implementing a test suite for combat mechanics to avoid manual playthroughs.

Advantages

Reduces reliance on animation-driven logic, leading to more predictable and responsive combat.
Facilitates easier balancing through explicit resource costs and cooldown management.
Improves combat readability by standardizing telegraphs and feedback mechanisms.
Enables faster iteration through deterministic testing of combat scenarios.

Usage examples

“How should I define a basic sword swing action for my web game?”: The agent will guide you to define the swing's startup frames, active hit window, recovery duration, stamina cost, and the specific collision shape used for contact detection.
“How can I test if my parry mechanic is working correctly without playing the game?”: The agent will suggest creating a deterministic test scenario with seeded inputs to verify that the parry window correctly resolves against incoming attack frames.

Install

Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/mengto/design-action-combat/download

Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip design-action-combat.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Meng To

Treat combat as explicit state machines with visible, testable timing rather than animation-driven guesses.

Specify every combat verb

For each player or enemy action, define: startup, active window, recovery, cancellation rules, resource cost, contact shape, damage/posture outcome, cooldown, and feedback. Make telegraph, danger, contact, and recovery readable at normal camera distance.

Use authoritative outcomes

Drive hits, blocks, parries, and interrupts from authoritative collision/contact events.
Require direction, range, phase, and state validity before resolving an outcome.
Apply each contact once using stable action and target identifiers.
Keep visuals downstream of resolved simulation events.

Tune for decisions

Give each defense a distinct purpose: spacing, dodge, timed guard, interruption, or resource trade. Avoid unpunishable attacks, recovery loops, unavoidable damage, and dominant spam. Boss phases must alter decision pressure without invalidating learned timing.

Test combat deterministically

Cover early/late timing, wrong direction, out-of-range contact, multiple targets, interrupted actions, phase changes, cooldown boundaries, pause/frame step, equip swaps, and repeated inputs. Use seeded or queryable review scenarios instead of requiring long campaign playthroughs.

Verify in play

Test at realistic frame rate and camera distance. Confirm that player intent, contact feedback, health/posture changes, sound/VFX, and target state agree. Check reduced motion and input alternatives before release.

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer868 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
SKILL.md1.8 KiB
agents/openai.yaml209 B

SKILL.md