Somehow Fitting Combat in a Match 3 Game

For my second game ever, I had to make a match-3 game. I found the idea of making a traditional match-3 game boring, so I looked for a way to make the matching part of a larger gameplay loop.

The Game Loop

I designed a game loop which included a combat system where the player's matches decide how powerful the player's attacks are.

1. The player completes a Quick Time Event (QTE) to earn moves.
2. The player uses those moves to make matches and accumulate damage.
3. The player chooses which enemy to use that damage against.
4. The enemies attack back.
5. Repeat.

Combining Items to Become a Stronger Samurai

After winning battles, I had the idea of the player buying items and match-3'ing them to become stronger.

These items could improve the player's abilities in future battles, such as increasing their movement speed or allowing the player to reach further across the board. These items had the potential to be designed to be purposefully situational considering you can only equip one. This means that players could equip the gloves if they'd want more damage potential against Enemy A, or equip the boots if they wanted more defensive capabilities against Enemy B.

What I'd Change

The biggest problem was communicating how the match-3 board affected combat. I should have designed an animation or visual effect that made it clear that the accumulated match-3 score was being converted into damage.

I also should have pushed the theme further. The enemies and attacks had nothing to do with painting or samurais, despite the game's name being "Samurai Brush". I also should have given the samurai an attack animation where he swipes with his brush. This would have made the combat easier to understand and made the theme feel more connected to the mechanics.