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[Soulliard]

If you want to, go ahead. Just keep me posted on how it's coming, since the menu will be one of the more technical parts of the game.

[William Broom]

Y'know what I think we need? Impact sprites. Notice how all the top fighting games have very clear special effects when attacks collide, like the flashes of colourful fire in Tekken or the smashy-sparkly things in Smash Bros. If someone could do, say, a small impact sprite, a large impact sprite, a blocked impact sprite, and maybe a sparkles sprite that denotes an unblockable attack, and then Nightshade worked them into the engine so they appear automatically and don't have to be inserted into every attack? I think that would make the whole thing look a lot better.

[Soulliard]

Agreed

[William Broom]

So, I'm still up for some coding, especially while school holidays last. Nightshade, would you like me to keep tweaking Nikujin? It seems like you've got that mostly under control. If you give me the go-ahead I can start work on the Dwarf or The Golden Knight.

[Soulliard]

Of the two, I'd work on the Golden Knight. The move list we're working with is in the 6th post or so.

[William Broom]

OK!

[William Broom]

After seeing Gainsworthy talking about 'future heroes' like U-Head and Cornelius, I came to a realisation. I think that a problem with the organization of this project is that though we have goals to achieve, we don't really have an ending. I think it would be a good idea to set ourselves a point to aim for where the game is fully playable, enjoyable, and ready to be released to the general public. The goal would be something like "12 characters, 15 stages, working AI, rudimentary singleplayer mode". Then, when we have achieved this goal, we release the game all over the internets, and Indie Brawl is finished. We win.

But: if enthusiasm stays high (as it hopefully will) we can continue to work on the game, with a new set of goals to reach for. And when we reach those goals, we can release again, and so on. This is probably what we would have done anyway, but the difference is that we've clearly defined in advance the point at which we release.

This will stop the game from petering out as we add 'just one more character'.

Good idea?

[Gainsworthy]

Good Idea? Great Idea.

Was merely suggesting Future Heroes as an off the cuff thing. Needed to be said, I suppose. I agree that with thinking like mine, it'll never get done. Goals are the way to go.

I agree with Chutup, and think the goal for Version One Point Oh: We're Releasing it Now Edition should be:

+ 12 Characters
   -completely animated and... move-setted (I made up a word. So there)
   -fully functional
   -play-tested and properly balanced
+ 12 Stages
   -One for each character, I guess
   -Completely decorated in-style
   -Reasonably unique, not just graphical rehashes of one another
   -All special features functioning
+ Sexy Menu System

Means we won't wear out on things like AI or Single Player - focus on a good, solid multiplayer. I may love and eventually need single player, but all said and done, it's an extra.

Once 1.0 is finished, I would think it diligent to begin on a serious single player. But that will all happen in time.

Though, would a functional online system be difficult to implement? Because that would really make my day.

[William Broom]

That looks like a good list of goals! I think the next goals after 1.0 should include AI and online multiplayer, though - this will make the multiplayer much more accessible when you don't have friends over.

[Gainsworthy]

Yeah, if it's local only, just gonna be me versus my brother. Not that we don't have a proud history of playing these kinds of things for far too long - Tepposenso and Cortex Command come to mind - but it can't and won't happen for too long. Bots would be nice, too. Get some practice in between rounds.

But that's ~1.5 talk. As for characters, here and now:

• Naija
• Xoda
• Quote
• Golden Knight
• Naked Ninja

They're our current focus, and will certainly* make the Initial Twelve. But we have another seven slots to fill. I think we should strive to represent a set of different play styles and authors, first and foremost. I'm going to humbly suggest

• Turner
• Sexy Hiker
• Lyle
• Gish
• Barkley
• Gunlimb
• The Cactus Composite Character**

Based purely on author response time and how different the character would be. I'd think it'd make a wonderfully mixed and varied set. Iji would be cool, but rather run-and-gun. Quote kind of covers that. On the other hand, Fantastic Blood Boy would be... fantastic. He's gotta be in 1.5***, or an enthusiastic 1.0.


*unless Pixel tells us to stop infringing on his mind already. Which would be fine. Heartbreaking but fine
**or was that Shotgun Ninja?
***Gustav, where's the permission at?
EDIT: Oh, that's where it is. Speak of the devil.

[Soulliard]

I already plan on working on Turner, so our first six characters are more or less set.

Sexy Hiker, Gunlimb and Shotgun Ninja are all pretty obscure (and the former two would have pretty bizarre fighting styles). I think we'll probably want to cover the more well-known characters first.

My own personal top twelve list includes:
Trilby
Lyle
Liero
Barkley
Iji
Gish

Not that we need a list set in stone. People are going to want to work on whichever characters interest them the most, and those are probably going to end up being the characters that are finished first.

[William Broom]

Last night I started working on some rudimentary hit sprites and then tried to code them into the game. Then I realised I probably should have mentioned it before diving straight in. So yeah, I'm doing that. But if anybody else wants to do hit sprites, go ahead, since mine are just 'programmer art'.

[Rory]

Gish would be pretty hard to do though.

I can do hit sprites as well (if by hit sprites you mean the yellow attack mask thingys, otherwise I don't know what you are talking about), although I prefer to have an image of the character I'm doing them for. Also a move list helps.

[William Broom]

No, I mean like the little puffs that appear when you hit someone.

[Rory]

Oh. I can (try to) do those too.

[godsavant]

No, I mean like the little puffs that appear when you hit someone.

You go ahead and work on Xoda, Rory. I'll take care of this. 

[Rory]

No, I mean like the little puffs that appear when you hit someone.

You go ahead and work on Xoda, Rory. I'll take care of this. 

NO! You work on Xoda too damnit! I want my sprites! Eh, nevermind.

[William Broom]

No, I mean like the little puffs that appear when you hit someone.

You go ahead and work on Xoda, Rory. I'll take care of this. 

Cheers!

@Rory: I've been angling to get those hit sprites done since before you were born, boy on these forums, boy, so don't get cocky with me. *chews menacingly on hayseed*

Er, anyway, I finished the basic framework for hit sprites and I think they look pretty good. I also added some dodgy sfxr sound effects which give it a bit more feedback too. There are different sounds/sprites for little hits, medium hits, big hits, blocked hits, block-breaking hits, and reflected projectiles.

For integration purposes, I changed:
- All the sprites in the 'FX' group (well, I created them)
- ditto for the objects in 'FX' and all the sounds
- all the attack/missile templates, just to initialize a few variables
- attack_hit and reflection scripts

The important new variables are strike_xoffset, strike_yoffset and strike_distance. The first two determine where the 'strike point' of the attack is in relation to its origin. Then the hit sprite is created somewhere between the enemy's origin and the attack's strike point. Strike_distance determines where exactly - a strike_distance of 0.5 (the default) is halfway between.

Right now, all the attacks except Flipper Kick have default strike points and distances. This doesn't matter most of the time, just occasionally the hit sprites might look a bit out of place. I didn't want to do all the hard work of defining strike points because I'm not sure if this system will remain at all - it's pretty superflous?

Exe here and source here.

[Yaddy1]

Alright, I'm a huge Dwarf Fortress fan and this looks awesome but will it ever be compatible with power pc mac?

[Soulliard]

Hopefully. A new version of Game Maker should be released soon that is compatible with Macs.