Damage numbers
Pop-up numbers that say how hard you hit.
Players want to see the result of each hit. Floating numbers that pop, rise and fade tell them damage, crits and heals at a glance. Done badly, they stack into an unreadable pile. Done well, they scatter a little, scale crits up and merge rapid small hits.
Try this: Attack rapidly in plain mode: the numbers pile up on one spot. Switch to styled (S).
Attack the slime.
Prompt bit
Works for 2D or 3D in any engine (Unity, Unreal, Godot, web). Paste the short one for a quick fix, or the detailed one when you want it done properly.
Show floating damage numbers: spawn at the hit point with a small random horizontal offset, pop in by scale then rise and fade over 0.8 s with ease-out, enlarge crits, and merge hits on the same target within 0.1 s into one number.
Add floating damage numbers (2D or 3D; in 3D, render them in screen space or as billboards with constant screen size). On each hit spawn a number at the hit point plus a random offset of a few pixels. Animate: scale from 1.4 to 1 over 0.1 s (pop), move up 30 to 50 px with ease-out, hold, then fade out by 0.8 s. Style by type: white normal, bigger yellow or orange for crits with a short shake, green for heals, grey for blocked. Merge rapid hits on the same target (within 0.1 s) by adding to the existing number and re-popping it. Pool the text objects. Keep numbers readable with an outline or shadow, limit how many are visible, and offer a setting to turn them off. Do not let numbers block the target or the player.
Where it's used
- RPGs and action RPGs: damage, crits and heals
- Roguelites: fast feedback for builds
- Idle and clicker games: numbers as the main reward
- MOBAs and MMOs: combat text
- Strategy games: hit results on units
Common mistakes
Every number in the same spot so they stack, linear motion that feels flat, no difference between crits and normal hits, too many on screen, and creating new text objects every hit.
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