Grab & Struggle System in Sombionic!

You’ve probably seen grab systems in survival horror games, where an enemy restrains you and you have to complete a quick mini-game to break free. I’ve been wanting to bring something similar into Sombionic. The idea is that before adult-only interactions are triggered, you’ll have a short window to resist and escape.

Right now, the system is pretty basic. When an enemy damages you, a small prompt appears asking you to press [X] to resist. If you don’t react in time, the enemy will pull you into an animation after a few seconds. The issue with this approach is that it doesn’t always feel fair. You might miss the prompt entirely, or sometimes it can trigger even when the enemy isn’t close enough like being 30 meters away and still getting pulled into the scene.

A grab system on the other hand feels much better since you can clearly see when an enemy is close enough to grab you, so the interaction makes more sense.

How it works?

Building Tension: The longer you stay close to enemies, the more likely they are to attempt a grab. If you keep moving in and out of their range, that pressure builds up even faster almost like you’re provoking them.

Random Chance: There’s also a random element to it. Enemies have a chance to attempt a grab, and that chance increases the longer you stay close. However, it never reaches 100% and even at close range, they might still choose to attack instead.

Grab Priority System: Light attacks can be interrupted and overridden by the grab system, so enemies can transition into a grab state. However, heavier attacks and ultimates such as Kryth’s jump attack cannot be interrupted and will always take priority.

Struggle Mini-Game: Even if an enemy successfully grabs you, you’re not locked in immediately. A short mini-game gives you a chance to escape. Right now this is implemented as a mouse-shake mechanic, but more variations may be added later. Each enemy will also have unique grab animations.

Global and Local Cooldowns: To prevent frustration, the system uses layered cooldowns. When a monster grabs you, it enters a local cooldown and won’t be able to grab again right away. At the same time, nearby enemies are affected by a shorter global cooldown to prevent immediate grabs by them.

Success or Failure: If you beat the mini-game, then you can escape the animation scene, if not the monster is in control.

A Problem to Solve: The old system was damage-based and when an enemy hit you, there was a chance to trigger an animation. The new system is position-based, meaning enemies need to be close to grab you. Because of that, ranged enemies currently don’t have a good way to use this system, so for now they won’t be able to grab you.

I’d love to hear your ideas on this. We’ve already been discussing options like ranged “tentacle-like” grabs or charge-based engages, but I’m open to exploring more possibilities.

This change moves all mini-games (except the control fight) out of animation scenes and into the Grab & Struggle system. As a result, the animation UI is much cleaner, so no more rhythm prompts or score requirements.

Because of this, animation scenes no longer require a score to progress or trigger abilities. You might be wondering if that means abilities can now be used freely, but to keep things balanced abilities are now tied specifically to climax animations (unless a monster only has a single animation, as is the case for Myrmidalus).

Another small but important improvement: during the old rhythm mini-games, you probably had one or two favorite tracks you hoped would play, but they were randomized. Now that those mini-games are gone, you can select a song directly from the animation settings UI, and it will persist across all scenes.

The next build of Sombionic is planned for release next week during Easter. It will include this new system for testing, along with an updated Lab game mode and a limited-time Easter Bunny skin. This cosmetic is only available once a year, so make sure to grab it while it’s around.