Ablity Design: Vanish

Vanish

I had a great deal of fun designing this ability.  The premise was to create an ability that would help the player get out of sticky situations in style. Thus, the ability to vanish away in a poof of smoke seemed rather ninja- esque.  However, I wanted to add a little extra flare to the ability, so I thought to also design an offensive aspect to it.  Thus, I made it so the player also drops a bomb where he previously was.  This created the feeling of escaping a perilous situation while simultaneously attacking a group of enemies.

Fortunately, I was able to make this ability much the way I previously designed it.  I made it so the player, once the ability is activated, will vanish up into the air instantly.  From there, the player can move slightly to alter his/her landing point.  However, I thought of the situation where the player has a ceiling directly above him.  Thus, I made it so, if such a situation occurs, the player would actually latch onto the ceiling where he could hang until the situation is less dangerous.  This turned out to feel totally bad-ass, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

The next part was the bomb left behind in the smoke.  At first, I wanted it to trigger if an enemy attacked it (that way it would be more of a counter-attack for a skilled ninja), but I realized that might be a bit too complicated to implement well.  Thus, I decided to give the bomb a proximity where it would explode.  This helps it retain the counter-attack theme, but makes it a lot easier for it to be effective against enemies.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied with this ability.  It feels like a tool a ninja would have, and it executes near flawlessly.