Melee
Close-range sword enemies that aggressively pursue and pressure the player.
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AI & GAMEPLAY PROGRAMMING
The NegativeEdge
A fast-paced third-person arena shooter where I built the enemy AI architecture, enemy archetypes, wave system and encounter-control systems in C++.
FAST-PACED ARENA COMBAT
01 / GAME
Arena pressure
The Negative Edge is built around speed, mobility and surviving escalating waves of enemies in stylized black-and-white arenas.
The player uses advanced movement such as grappling, wall running and rail grinding, so the AI had to remain readable and threatening without creating unfair attack overlap.
02 / ENEMIES
Four enemy archetypes
I created the enemy foundation and specialized it into four distinct behaviors.
Ranged
Distance-focused enemies that reposition and attack from safer ranges.
Explosive
Rush-down units that charge the player and detonate, forcing immediate reactions.
Agile Flying
Highly mobile aerial units that can activate totems which temporarily protect other enemies.
03 / ENCOUNTERS
Systems behind the waves
Wave System
Controls enemy composition, spawning and progression to escalate encounter difficulty.
Attack scheduling
Limits how many enemies can commit to attacks at the same time so pressure stays high without becoming unreadable.
Custom EQS backbone
Coordinates movement points, attack positions and contextual decisions across enemy types.
Zone & area management
Splits encounter spaces into meaningful regions used by spawning and AI positioning logic.
04 / ARCHITECTURE
Built to extend
The core goal was to avoid four completely separate enemy implementations.
- Modular base classes: Shared enemy/controller responsibilities provide common behavior without locking every archetype to the same strategy.
- System integration: Wave pacing, EQS positioning and attack scheduling work together instead of competing for control.
- Iteration: New enemy behavior can be added while preserving the same encounter-level rules.
- Performance awareness: Zone-based logic helps keep AI decisions focused on the parts of the arena that actually matter.