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[EdFarage]

hah thats super cool
i do agree though, you should stick to your grumpy blocks, they suit you well
i mean i recognized you were rabbit cause of it 

[bounds]

ahhhh! omg im tweeting the shit out of that

Glad you liked it, was fun to do once the idea popped in to my head!

[happymonster]

i mean i recognized you were rabbit cause of it  Giggle

[Rat Casket]

I am really awful at programming.

I spent a lot of my free time being sick last week, and a lot of my free time this weekend dealing with an awful something that is probably going to change my life forever.

So mostly I did nothing in a week. Glyph helped me program some controller support stuff but I'm still 2 dum 2 set up character select screens and level select screens.

I am going to put out a build soon that will support 3 players with game pads only. It will have all 3 playable characters. If anybody has 3 pads and would like to test this let me know.

[bounds]

Sounds like the universe threw some crap your way, here's hoping you'll have a great christmas!

[Rat Casket]

On items:


Items in Smash Bros MOSTLY suck. Seriously. There are so many items in Smash that just don't do anything, or have very little use. In my experience people usually turn off items entirely (for competitive reasons) or disable all of the stupid ones that aren't fun.

Also picking up items in the recent Smash is a nightmare. I feel like I'm always 1 pixel too far away from picking up the item. 9 times out of 10 I end up attacking instead of picking it up so I don't even bother.

I'm not good at Smash btw.

In general though items are cool. If they were easier to pick up and did cooler shit I would use them all of the time because they are ~*FUN*~

This is why I want to add items to Kerfuffle. But what are items even good for in a game with 1 hit kills? Mostly for controlling space and or landing a kill. For example lets look at one of the best items in Smash, the land mine, and why its going to also be in Kerfuffle.

The land mine is an amazing space controlling item. Once it is in play you are pretty much forced to avoid wherever it lands at all costs. On some bigger stages this is less of an issue but on a small stage it can be devastating. You can use it to cover your spawn, cut off a choke point, remove a high ground advantage, or use it to confine the fight to whatever area you feel you have the advantage in. Compound this with 1 hit kills and you have an extremely deadly item.

Compare the land mine to a normal bomb. You throw a bomb and in most games with bombs/grenades, it will detonate on impact with the target or detonate after a short time if it does not. It has some of the same space controlling properties as the land mine, but it doesnt dominate the playing field in the same way. However it is incredibly dangerous to go on the assault against someone with an instant kill projectile. Simply by having the bomb you force your opponent to try to rush you down and kill you before you can use it, or to play super defensively and try to bait it out.

Anyway these are two of the items that are for sure going to be in Kerfuffle. Along with a myriad of buffs (movement speed, attack speed, dash speed, extra jumps, extra dashes, extra shield etc), thrown items (mines, bombs, stun traps, ice traps), and others that I havent thought of yet.

So how do you control these god damned items? Picking up items is as easy as walking over them. If you are holding an item and happen to walk over another, you will drop the one you had and replace it with the new one. Throwing the item is as easy as pushing a button and pointing in one of 8 possible throw directions. Some items activate as soon as you pick them up (buff items).

The only real problem I have with items is that they require another button. So now you have jump, attack, block, and item. Thats 8 buttons per player if you are playing on a keyboard which essentially forces you to use a game pad to play with multiple people. I'm not sure I like that but at the same time OH WELL.

[Canned Turkey]

EHGHphuthhbabRAHRAHRG!!!!! 
Eh-hem... 
Now that I have your attention.
The reason high tier smash players ALWAYS turn off items, is because the awful way they spawn.
The items spawn at a random chance at a random choice any of the pre-set coordinates, and the item that will spawn is random.
I just said random three times, which means three RNGs (or at least a PRNG, but that's besides the point)
Serious players hate RNGs in a skill based game, because it adds luck to an otherwise very well balanced game.
If you add items, I would suggest you find a way to make the spawning of them predictable in some way, whether that be to tie it to player kills, a visual timer, or however else.

Thank you.

[Rat Casket]

You will be able to turn off any item individually, all items, and change the spawn rate of items.

When an item is about to spawn there is a visual indication of where it will spawn a few seconds before it shows up. Buff items always spawn in the same spot, like they do in Quake/Unreal.

[Canned Turkey]

It seems everything I think of, you've already covered it. 
Really look'n forward for more, I like games like this.

[Rat Casket]

I hope to figure out this menu bullshit soon so people can play it.

[tjpalmer]

Reminds me a bit of square dudes I've used the past and considered returning to in the future. My old guys didn't tumble. Only jump. But I've pondered the idea of tumbling for future games. Anyway, looks really fun here in this game you're making, and I hope if I return to such ideas ever that they don't end up too similar to what you (or others) might have done along these lines.

[Rat Casket]

Dashing:

Most people are capable of double tapping to dash. So I changed the dash button to a double tap because the game is getting harder and harder to play on a keyboard, especially for multiplayer on the same keyboard.

However I am interested to know what you guys think about double tap to dash vs a dash button. Coming from playing fighting games I am so used to double tap dash that I may be a little biased even if its not a good idea.

[tanis]

This game definitely has potential! I like the animations and you should really stick to the squares as they add character to the game!

[Cloudiest Nights]

I think double tapping to dash is the best option. It cuts down on keys, and, IMO, it feels more natural.

I don't play too many fighters, but I like the double tapping to dash in MvC and Skullgirls, and similarly the double tap to spring in Smash.

[Rat Casket]

Double tap to spring? Can you explain that? I have no idea what spring is in Smash.

[Rat Casket]

Made a slight change to the way you move in the air.

Whenever you are not pushing a movement key, your current speed is multiplied by 0.9 until it gets between -0.5 and 0.5, then it is just zeroed out. While in the air however your speed is multiplied by 0.99 and does not zero out. This allows for much more control in the air, and a nice jump arc that you can see in the gif above.

I changed this because the dash into jump cancel felt very stiff. It is much better now.

Also, for now, I have decided to just make the controls gamepad friendly and say fuck it to keyboard controls. Dash is a single key for this reason.

[Reilly]

Following. Carry on!

[Rat Casket]

oh hi Reilly. <3

[Canned Turkey]

Are you going to keep the camera zoomed in like the alpha, or smaller characters like the gif?
I prefer the zoomed out feel.

[Siegfried Croes]

This game sure looks great Totally deserves my first post on these forums Hello everyone