THE STUDIO
In Midnight Games is an independent gaming studio. Our 30-person team brings experience spanning AAA production and large-scale online development.
We build games by and for people who love competition: approachable, difficult to master, and with the depth necessary to reward study, execution, and teamwork.
Currently building a dark fantasy competitive MOBA for the PC.
CORE COMBAT SYSTEM
The CORE Combat System is a combat framework plugin being developed as an extension of the Unreal Engine Gameplay Ability System (GAS). The goal of the system is to provide a modular and designer-friendly way to rapidly build combat mechanics, abilities, and character kits while maintaining full multiplayer replication support.
The plugin extends GAS with additional layers that simplify class creation, ability composition, and gameplay configuration. Designers can build complex abilities using reusable gameplay patterns rather than requiring new engineering work for every mechanic.
This system allows designers to create fully replicated character kits (~15 abilities) in under an hour. Individual abilities take <1 minute to create from start to finish.
This system is currently part of an unannounced game in active development, implementation details are proprietary. So, this documentation focuses on the high-level architecture and design philosophy behind the framework.
TOOLING DESIGN GOALS
Modularity
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The system is designed around modular components that can be combined to build a wide range of combat mechanics. Abilities, archetypes, and weapons are implemented as independent systems that interact through shared configuration and gameplay tags. This allows new gameplay behaviors to be created without modifying core systems.
Designer Workflow
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A major goal of the framework is reducing the amount of engineering work required to implement new abilities. Designers can assemble skills using reusable ability patterns and configuration data rather than requiring custom code for each mechanic. This makes iteration significantly faster during gameplay development.
Reusability
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Abilities are organized into reusable categories such as movement, spawner, and linked abilities. These patterns act as building blocks that can be combined to create more complex gameplay behaviors. As a result, a large variety of functionality can be achieved by utilizing existing systems rather than building new ones.
Multiplayer Support
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The framework is built on top of the Gameplay Ability System in Unreal Engine, allowing it to inherit the engine’s replication and gameplay effect systems. This ensures that abilities and combat interactions function correctly in multiplayer environments while minimizing the need for custom networking code.
