Spire Of Trials

Director/Designer | Spire of Trials

• Led a six-person team through a four-month development cycle.

• Designed the core combat loop, including the three-lane shield system, directional attacks, timing, and telegraphs.

• Built the full Unity codebase: enemy state machines, attack systems, shield logic, UI, input, and weekly integrations.

• Directed music design and implementation, including themes, layering, and in-engine transitions.

• Led QA iteration to refine combat and encounters, contributing to six local indie awards, including Best in Show.

• Ran live QA sessions to gather feedback, identify issues, and drive iteration.

Blocking System

Communicating a Complex Battlefield

Spire of Trials needed to convey a large amount of information with very limited screen space.

Players had to understand where enemies were, where attacks were coming from, what type of attack to use, where they could attack, and where they needed to block.

When Offense and Defense Share the Same Space

The core challenge was that attacking and blocking happened in the same space.

Players had to stand in an enemy's slot to attack while defending against attacks coming from potentially different slots. Some enemies could even attack any of the three slots regardless of their position.

This quickly became overwhelming.

The Signals Weren't Working

My first approach was to flash the side of the screen where an attack was coming from. Some players thought they were taking damage, while others failed to connect the effect to enemy intent.

Next, I added a blinking shield indicator. This helped communicate that the information was defensive, but many players weren't looking there during combat.

The information existed, but players either misunderstood it or never noticed it.

Building a Combat Language

To improve readability, I layered multiple signals together.

I added enemy wind-up animations that hinted at attack direction, positional sound effects that played through the left, center, or right audio channels, and supporting UI indicators.

Each element helped on its own. Together, they created a readable combat language.

Teaching Players How to Read the Fight

This structure became the foundation for every enemy in the game.

By combining UI, animation, audio, and enemy design, I communicated complex mechanics without overwhelming players. They naturally learned to predict attack directions, defend intentionally, and understand the flow of combat.

The UI didn't just display information. It taught players how to read the fight.