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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingAces Wild, baby!
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Dim_Yimma_H
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« Reply #40 on: May 21, 2010, 10:06:14 AM »

Ah I remember this game! The demo was impressive, feels good to know it's being developed further. Good luck and all that.

I'll try not to speculate too much but the screenshot above looks promising, to say the least. Have you decided if the destruction that happens is graphical or does it also affect where Ace can walk?
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« Reply #41 on: June 11, 2010, 06:01:55 PM »

Well that would be boring if it were just graphical, right?  Wink

You can apply all sorts of properties to anything you place onto the map in the editor.
Some objects like a box or car will move as soon as you punch it. Other things like walls, statues and floors can be set to move only after you dislodge it by doing a certain amount of damage first. The next attack will send it flying damaging foes and the environment. Things like glass or plants will break easily and don't necessarily cause damage if it flies into you. But it can if you set it that way in the editor.

Here's a quick vid showing a bit of that.




Thanks for the feedback! indiePub.com (formerly 2bee games) has a $100k contest coming up so expect something for then!
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baconman
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« Reply #42 on: June 12, 2010, 01:08:48 PM »

Now this IS a fun, exciting game framework so far. I can agree with the "groupy showdown beat 'em up" kind of pacing, but I also see good potential in minor platforming segments between them. I ESPECIALLY love how the combat system focus on a mix of mobility options too, so you're never standing still for long, and the freeform combat system where you can combo practically anything, considering you don't whiff. Hit reactions and so forth are spot on, and everything seems very crisp and smooth.

The combat part, you pretty much have down. You may consider giving some of your other characters different pacing/rhythm, or an option for nailing more that one opponent at a time - possibly even a move that hits all around you, but hinders the mobility for a second as you perform it - this way, you aren't helpless to being blindsided. Perhaps also consider an attack or two you can use to deflect weapons thrown at you, but I suppose that's all in the dodge/counter aspect (and much the point to it).

But you have an enviable fluidity and pacing about your game's momentum that would make for SPECTACULAR acrobatic platforming scenes BETWEEN the encounters, and leaving it unutilized or underutilized feels unfortunately wasteful. The mobility-based combo system could contribute even MORE to it, as you can simply set up objects that your attacks can contact, allowing you to "combo your way around," as a fun and effective method of transporting yourself around (which again, only contributes to the focus on combat moves).

I'm not just giving this to you. IMO, you've earned this vote.


EDIT: Uhh, whenever they open it, that is. I guess it's indiePub now, not 2BEE. You might check that first post.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2010, 01:15:48 PM by baconman » Logged

Xander
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« Reply #43 on: June 23, 2010, 12:55:08 PM »

Oh wow! I'm pretty damn glad this game is still around. I was actually searching around for writing examples and then got curious to see if this feedback thread was still active at all.

Good luck with the contest! Can't wait to see the build whatever happens.
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Kicks
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« Reply #44 on: July 05, 2010, 08:28:16 AM »

Yeah, baby! Thank you, everyone, for your support.

Just busted out some quickie scrolling background stuff for certain levels.


(this is quite a low quality vid, dunno what happened)
Back to work!
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Kicks
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« Reply #45 on: July 13, 2010, 02:44:51 PM »

Hypothetical situation.
Right now the game has Combo Button, Smash Button, Dodge Button, Dash Button, Taunt Button, Jump Button.
I was thinking of making it 2 buttons.
Attack and Dash.
Currently there's very little difference between jump and Dash, so I thought I could combine them. I also thought Dashing could have invincibility like the Dodge or a neutral dash would be invincible or would activate the old dodge.
Neutral Attack would be combo. Directional attack would be Smash. I'll figure something out for taunt.

Is forcing two buttons too wacky?
Part of me likes the chopping off of excess. Another part of me knows a lot of people will be playing this on keyboard and 2 buttons really helps that.
I'm worried that some reasonable amount of content could be lost.
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The Monster King
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« Reply #46 on: July 13, 2010, 06:39:38 PM »

make it 3 buttons then

maybe i'll play the game first before making silly suggestions

its on my (imaginary but relevant) to-do list though
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baconman
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« Reply #47 on: July 13, 2010, 07:14:25 PM »

Combine Taunt + Dodge into a dodging taunt; and add that to your already decent idea. 3 buttons is fair/managable; dropping it to two seems a bit wonky. Also, don't many of your "Directional Smash" attacks double as dashes anyways?

Judging by the demo I played, that's how I thought/expected it would work, anyways. (Or how it kinda does already. I didn't even know there was a dash, tbh! I just spammed the specials/attacks to move around quick.) I guess if you really want to 2-button it, you can just sub the up-attacks for jumps too. So then you have:

Punch/Kick/Jump/Dash button (nail "targets" with combos to maneuver around)
Taunting Dodge button

If you want to map Jump or Jump/Dash seperately, or plan to use them without attacking frames however, I would seperate that out into a third.
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« Reply #48 on: July 13, 2010, 08:20:58 PM »

Well I had a bunch of different type of "dashing" attacks before as my design scheme was "Combo," "Smash," and "Chase" attacks. But I sorta changed the chase attacks because they were too good and dashing+attack is very similar. The use of the chase attacks to move around was something I didn't like. Even if it didn't necessarily break the combat (though it did), it's just too weird.

Maybe a better question would just be... How many buttons is too many for Keyboard?
I personally can barely handle 2 buttons. But maybe Z,X, Shift would be alright. Or Z,X, Space or something.

More specifically the current scheme is...

Combo: Mash to have a long attack string come out
up+Combo: Jumping kick for attacking (attacks at an angle most other attacks don't reach)
down+Combo: Diving kick for attacking below and dropping quickly

Using Combos builds up your Wild Meter quickly. Missing any attack lowers your Wild greatly, so keep chaining attacks together!

Smash+Direction: Attack in the given direction with a strong attack
Smash+Neutral: Special attack that changes based on the length of the preceding combo.(where a lot of the old abusable moves are now)
These moves also get stronger based on how much Wild you've built.
Smash attacks also turn objects and enemies into projectiles to damage even more enemies.

Dash+dir: Move quickly in any direction
Dodge+dir: Move slowly in any direction and avoid attacks
These use up Wild too, but only in a way to limit spamming them.

Taunting was mainly for fun, but it also allowed you to keep an attack chain going while staying in place allowing for enemies to come to you.

Any more thoughts would be great, guys.
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baconman
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« Reply #49 on: July 14, 2010, 03:35:51 PM »

Do enemies still try to actively dodge you? If so, whiffing shouldn't drop your meter. For that, I see three main uses: the Dash/Dodge anti-spam, special finishers (chase/juggle attacks, skill/timing based but for really good damage like 5 combos worth), and special openers (generally with the abusable attacks, but in a way that limits players' ability to spam those as well).

This leads to some tactical depth, as intentionally NOT landing finishers will allow for a greater number of high-priority openers at your disposal. But it's "use it or lose it," if you 3-5 seconds or so without some kind of fighting action (trash talking being useful for restarting that btw), it wipes out; possibly with some minor benefit to the player (score, minor life recover, something like that). Certain penalties and "power-downs" or being hit with a demoralizing (IE: funny/embarassing) enemy projectile/attack will drain it outright, too.

So while you build and use it, it's not like you build it up a long long time and use it once or twice. It's a constantly active, integral part of the fighting system. And maybe when it's full, each character can have some Marvel-esque super move meant to take out a crowd of enemies - like those in a line/direction from you, a radius-range, bounding around, a seismic attack that hits any enemies contacting the ground... kinda similar in concept to Chrono Trigger techs, in fact. Just activate it by pressing Smash + Combo. We can call it...

wait for it...

"THE SMASH COMBO!"
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« Reply #50 on: July 14, 2010, 04:22:13 PM »

Well even in the older versions, when enemies instantly avoided your attacks, you'd still technically hit them, they just don't suffer any damage, knockback, or hitstun. So you can still cancel out of it.

I guess I should mention that the meter itself adds damage and knockback to all of your attacks. That's why else chaining them together is important. So the longer the chain you get, the huger the damage you can do. That means the special smash and directional smashes all get powered up. I suppose if it's too useless, I'll have a cooldown for Wild and keep the stronger penalties for harder difficulties.
Smash attacks use up a little Wild, so building up a bunch, then doing a huge Chain of smashes is like your own version of a super move.

I really like your ideas though about having Wild as a longer lasting resource. I'll definitely keep them in mind.

Playtesting is the best solution of course. I'll try and have a scenario available for download sooner or later before the 31st.
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baconman
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« Reply #51 on: July 14, 2010, 06:57:45 PM »

If it adds knockback, do you think additionally strong attacks should compensate with additional range or mobility? I guess that just comes down to whether it's intended to cap comboability or extend it.

I'm getting really psyched about where this is going, btw. :D
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Kicks
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« Reply #52 on: July 29, 2010, 05:16:33 PM »

I think I have a good overall design scheme set up for the combat now.
Combo Button (Might call it Rapid Button)
Neutral and forward is a longer combo that ends with a Hyper Punch. You can move around in all directions during that attack to position yourself and the enemies you're attacking. This attack ends with a kick that sends an enemy flying as a projectile, but that enemy won't bounce after hitting an enemy so you can blast through a line of enemies with it.

Up + Combo is an aerial combo that doesn't have a big finish, but allows you to move upward and the attacks can hit multiple enemies. The attacks themselves are more fancy and have unique properties.

Down + Combo is a dive kick that ends when you land and can go through multiple enemies.(not much of a combo, ha!)

Direction + Smash: These are powerful moves that hit in a larger area in the given direction and send enemies flying into other enemies in that direction.

Neutral + Smash is a very slow bicycle kick. It hits all enemies around you and sends them flying, but you can't cancel out of it.

Dodge Button lets you move a short distance in any direction and makes you invincible. You can cancel into this move at anytime, no matter what you're doing, but requires lots of mental and physical exertion from Ace, you can't do it more than 3 times within a certain amount of time.

Direction + Dash. This lets you move quickly in any direction. You can do it once before landing again.

Jump. This lets you move upward in an arc. It isn't as precise as a dash, but you maintain momentum and is better for scaling the landscape.

Neutral + Dash. This is a homing dash. It requires Wild meter.(might not make the final cut at the moment as it's a bit too good)

Wild. This is built up for each attack you chain together. If you miss an attack, you'll lose a bit, then lose a bunch more if you don't attack again. Dashing and Jumping don't build Wild but you won't break the Wild chain. You can earn back dashes and jumps by building Wild as well.

Each Combo attack gets a damage boost equal to the Wild you've built up. Each Smash attack gets a damage boost equal to the built up Wild squared.

You can do a Wild Counter by using a Smash attack at the exact moment an enemy strikes you. This will cause you to chase the enemy slightly with the attack, build more Wild than normal and be invincible. It is possible to do a Wild Assault by timing another attack after this.

The 3 main overpowered moves are the Hyper Punch, it's follow up "Deep Kick", and the Bicycle kick. I'd like to organize them a bit differently in the movelist to balance it better, but for now, this should be fine... at the least, none of them are too abusable.

I'll submit to the indiePub competition on Saturday and a demo should follow soon afterward.

Thanks for the support and stay tuned!

EDIT
Got it submitted to indiePub! Make sure you visit indiepubgames.com and vote for your favorite! If you vote for me, pick Aces Wild Advance. I can't seem to get rid of the old version.
Also check out the first post to download the newest version and give me some feedback! PUMP UP THE WILD~!
« Last Edit: August 01, 2010, 11:47:51 PM by Kicks » Logged
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« Reply #53 on: August 10, 2010, 05:14:22 PM »

Made an update of the first page.
Took a week off since the contest at indiepub. I really hope I do well!
Getting back into action.
Working on polishing up random things to ease back into it since that's always fun and easy. Specifically working on a snazzy effect to visualize how much Wild you've built so you don't have to look up at the meter.

Going to plan out some levels, flesh out a movelist revision and work hard on the enemies. There're still a bunch that I didn't have time to get into the demo, so stay tuned!

And download the demo if you haven't already gosh dang it!
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« Reply #54 on: September 27, 2010, 09:59:16 PM »

Didn't place at all at the indiePub competition.  Cry
I really thought I would do better, but no biggie, the game will keep being made until it's done no matter how many competitions it wins.

Redid one of the boss characters. The final Boss roster will have a pretty equal mix of relatively 'player' sized fighters and 'awesomely giant' sized robot enemies.

I'm inches away from having all enemy assets done. (drawn at least, will still need to animate and hit box them in the editor). Which will leave background assets.

There's still tons and tons of design to be done.

Re-organizing the moveset. It's going a bit back to the original design of more directional attacks. So there will be several combos for each direction, several smash attacks for each direction and several chase attacks for each direction. Plus some special situational moves.

Most recently, I reworked a lot of the basic physics of running and jumping. A new jump animation makes everything 100x better. You can wall slide and wall jump. You can also do a low slide while on the ground. Dashing will probably have a cooldown which can be shortened by striking and KOing enemies.

This has all been possible because I think I've finally got the collision detection near perfect. A lot of that was thanks to the N article on that very subject. I knew there were easier ways than what I was doing and I am extremely thankful for metanet and that article.

This week I've been working on a foundry level. It has lots and lots of fiery, molten metal and furnace hazards to really take advantage of platforming and the environment in combat. I've been playing or watching videos of a lot of platformers like mega man, mario and I Wanna Be the Guy for influence.

A release could still be a very long ways away, but more demos will be out along the way. One perhaps soon, for another contest, but I dunno if I'll enter yet as the entry fee is steep and I don't feel super confident about the current build.

Solid environment design, a tighter, more versatile movelist and fun bosses are what I'm focusing on right now.

Stay tuned!
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Carlo Castellano
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« Reply #55 on: September 30, 2010, 01:02:33 AM »

I watched the videos and I must say that it's a very impressive game. Congrats.
The music is nice and fit the game very well! Smiley
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« Reply #56 on: October 21, 2010, 11:13:50 PM »

Hey!
Not much to report. I've just been designing levels and enemies.

I have 'finalized' planning everything for the beta. It's likely it won't be more than that for the arcade mode, but I hope to have a bunch of extra challenge levels and other extra modes. The editor will be available for the pc version. If I get crazy smart, maybe for xbox version too (no promises!). The editor itself, likely won't be user friendly.
Anyways! Check out tylerdoak.com for more detailed info from the past few weeks.
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« Reply #57 on: November 09, 2010, 12:27:51 AM »

I'm desperately looking for playtesters and feedback. Particularly how people play the game. If you wanna be a true American Hero, upload a youtube video of you playing through the demo and share it!

Update wise I have built a few of the levels and have gone back to designing enemies some more.

A lot of this stage really feels like "work" so when I wanna do fun game design I work on my next games.

Finally have some good ideas on how to improve Ace's move set. One of the main issues was staying in place to much, so I'm working on things that will force the player to move around more.
An important part of this is simply enemy behavior. The demo basically has only one behavior even though there are several enemy types. So that will be improved upon. The other part is Aces attacks. Forcing more movement during them will help a bunch too and make battles much more dynamic.

Back to work!
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« Reply #58 on: December 13, 2010, 02:01:37 PM »




Another awesome track from the lead composer, KgZ!

Indiepub just announced it's next competition. Coincidentally, I had just started working on Aces Wild again after a much needed break.

Look for another demo around February 18th!
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Alistair Aitcheson
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« Reply #59 on: December 13, 2010, 03:19:26 PM »

Just listened to the music. It sounds awesome!   Hand Metal Left Crazy Hand Metal Right

I'll definitely download the demo from indiePub and give you my thoughts soon Smiley
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