ABOUT THE GAME
Swords of Sakura is an experimental samurai-themed boss rush game that explores the relationship between risk and power. You play as an old samurai entrusted with protecting the late emperor's daughter as his final wish, a duty of honor that demands you face an endless series of challenging bosses.
The game challenges the traditional "stay at full health" mentality by making low health a viable and powerful strategy. Players should feel the weight of every decision in combat. Do you fight carefully to maintain honor and keep your health high? Or do you embrace the berserker path, purposely taking damage to gain devastating power?
Swords of Sakura rewards both playstyles equally, creating a unique tension where "taking damage" becomes a strategic choice rather than just a failure state. The honour rating system provides score multipliers based on remaining health, while the blood loss mechanic grants power buffs at lower health thresholds.
SYSTEMS I IMPLEMENTED
The core of the game revolves around the Blood Loss / Power Scaling System. I needed a way to make losing health feel strategic rather than just punishing. The challenge was balancing the power gained from low health without making it the objectively "best" strategy, which would remove player's choice between playstyles.
I implemented a buff system that would increase the players damage output by a certain percentage depending on the health that they lose in the round. However, these buffs reset after each boss, and health never regenerates between rounds. This creates a meaningful choice: players who maintain high health can play more rounds safely, while aggressive players gain immediate power but risk dying sooner.
Beyond the core mechanic, I also built a Health Management System with percentage based calculations, Boss AI using state machine-based behavior with multiple attack patterns, a Score Calculator for the honour rating system, and a Round Manager handling boss progression, state transitions, and buff resets.
WHAT I LEARNED
Technical Skills Developed
Working on Swords of Sakura pushed me to develop my state management abilities, particularly managing complex state transitions between rounds, including buff resets and health persistence. I gained experience in AI programming, building flexible and maintainable state machines for enemy behavior. I also improved my approach to balancing mechanics, using playtesting data to tune buff values and scoring systems, and strengthened my overall systems design skills by creating interconnected systems (health, buffs, scoring) that work cohesively.
Design Lessons
Risk/reward mechanics need careful balancing. If they are too strong in either direction removes player choice. Playtesting revealed that players need clear feedback when buffs activate or reset. Supporting multiple playstyles requires intentional design, not just "allowing" different approaches. The "honour" scoring system actually emerged from playtest feedback as players wanted recognition for skillful play without feeling forced into it.