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[8Points]

Hey guys! Super Punchy Face is a brawler inspired by kung-fu movies.

I've been working on this prototype in my spare time for almost a year now. There's still a lot I want to add, but I feel the combat is in a pretty good place right now.












Here's a video of the game in action on 5/30/15:


Download it from my itch.io page: drewdunaj.itch.io/spf


GOALS
- Destroy all enemies
- Find and open the chest -- it's a little black box, open it with any attack
- Red bar on the left is your Health -- Don't die!
- Red bar next to that is your Stamina -- you can only dodge when it turns white

CONTROLS & INTERACTIONS
- WASD keys move you
- Mouse cursor aims
- Tap the left-mouse button (LMB) to jab
- Hold LMB to charge a Super Punch -- does more damage the longer it's held for
- Right-mouse button blocks -- first couple frames of the block will parry enemies when they attack it
- Tap spacebar to dodge -- you can dodge-roll if you tap it while holding a movement key
- Hold spacebar to sprint -- move faster, body check enemies if you're moving fast enough
- When you dodge an attack, you'll hear a ping that lets you know you've successfully dodged the attack, press LMB at this time and you'll hurl your attacker towards the cursor
- Press LMB and RMB at the same time to kick, sending enemies flying -- overpowered, needs balancing
- Press E or middle-mouse button to pickup and drop weapons
- With a weapon, hold down LMB to prepare a throw, release to throw the weapon
- Press E or MMB when on top of a stunned or knocked down enemy to execute them
- Attack crates/tables/chairs to send them flying, preferably into enemies
- Enemies take damage depending on how hard they hit a wall
- Press R to restart the level
- Press the escape key to exit to the main menu

You can also use a gamepad. You can control the game like a twin stick shooter and use the shoulder buttons for all your actions, or just use the left stick and face buttons like a more traditional beat-em-up.

GANEPAD SUPPORT
- Left stick moves and aims where you're moving
- Right stick aims, overrides left stick's aiming
- A button or left trigger Blocks
- B or left bumper for Dodge/Sprint
- Y or right bumper for Pickup/Execution
- X or right trigger for Attacks

FROM THE MAIN MENU
- Tutorial -- actually just a test chamber, no real tutorial yet
- Level -- one hand made level that's always the same (attack white blocks to destroy them)
- Random -- randomly generate a new level


There's a lot of interactions that don't have proper animations or feedback yet which is why I made that list. I want the combat to feel fluid, and encourage players to improvise during encounters. I'm sure there's plenty that still needs balancing.

What I'm really looking for is advice on where to take the aesthetic. I'm having trouble settling on a the right setting and general fantasy. Right now, it's kind of a mix of cryptic messages and stupid jokes. Also, thoughts on what the goal of the game should be, if killing all enemies isn't enough. I'm thinking of maybe doing Rogue style, find the mcguffin at the end of this series of levels, with a the temptation of useful pickups to distract you from the critical path, though maybe leading to your untimely demise.

GRAND PLANS
- Metroidvania style explorable maps
- Make enemies smarter and give them all the same capabilities you have so they are more interesting to fight
- Tons more weapons/interactables
- More enemy types
- More combat options, like a drop-kick attack out of sprinting
- Hidden alternate move sets that you can swap with the default ones to make your own 'load-outs' for lack of a better term
- Light character progression and permadeath

[Quicksand-S]

-In the tutorial (which doesn't actually do any tutoring...?), I won but it didn't end. I reset, took out the enemy without being touched and then didn't even get a victory message that time.

-The character looks really weird holding large weapons without using his arms...

-I really like the controls. The way you perform different attacks feels very natural.

-I'm not a huge fan of the extreme screen-shake when getting hit or hitting hard, but I guess it works. It's just not my thing.

-If glass is already breaking, it might be a good idea not to play the same sound again.

-The damage I do is really unpredictable. I can take out a "boss" enemy with one hit of a weapon, but do almost nothing with fists? At the same time, power-punches sometimes kill enemies in one hit and other times do almost nothing.

-It wasn't clear what the boulder-like objects were (the circle things that flash when I hit them). I used one against an enemy, but I still don't know what it's supposed to be.

-It bugs me that every sprite is a different resolution. I tend to think resolution should be consistent across all assets unless the game is trying to be weird/wrong for artistic reasons.

-The game doesn't pause when I'm in another window, so I keep hearing my character smash glass while I'm typing.

-The sound effects are decent, but more variety for different weapon types would be nice. Music would help a lot too.

-Stamina was almost never important, at least as far as punching. I could punch enemies over and over and over until they went down and not run out of stamina.

-I didn't use dodging at all in my first few games. Then I got into battles with five or six enemies at once and had to dodge, but it didn't stop me from getting bounced around constantly.

-Blocking was rarely important. I mainly needed it for the really big enemies, and even then it was usually only if I didn't have a weapon. Combat, to me, feels best when there's a back-and-forth structure to it. Hit-hit-hit-block-hit-hit-doge-hit-hit. That sort of thing.

-It annoyed me that I couldn't attack enemies that were knocked down and just had to wait for them. It killed the pacing.

-The "Random" mode was pretty annoying to me. One time, I spawned with about three enemies punching me and at least three more very close-by. I found the game much more fun when fighting one or two enemies at a time. Getting swarmed just results in being knocked around and having all your attacks interrupted. Dodging doesn't get you very far either, so sometimes you finish your dodge in range of some other enemy.


The biggest issue, by far, is the movement collisions. I can have my feet inside a wall, which is weird but works for the point-of-view. If you're doing that, though, then you also need to have his head and torso overlap walls that are above him (in which case, I'd recommend not having walls be black).

Worse is that if I touch any wall I stop moving. I should be able to slide against walls if trying to move diagonally. I kept getting caught on things all the time and it really got annoying.


Anyway, I took out every enemy in level 1 and then nothing happened. Is there another level? I tried the "Random" option and tried taking on a big enemy with fists, which didn't work well. I feel like maybe their health/armor could be balanced differently. I feel like I'm almost forced to use weapons on them OR to take forever slowly doing tiny amounts of damage with my fists. The more common enemies were more fun to fight, but might've been more interesting if they could block/dodge.

I feel like combat could be a lot more varied. I'm thinking of Dark Souls combat at the moment. I feel like the whole "attacking an enemy when they're blocking staggers you" thing could cut down on button mashing and make combat require more concentration. Then again, if you're going for a crazy action movie feel, then maybe the game just needs more weapons and not "better" combat. Either it needs to be more strategic/interesting, or more of a crazy brawler against stupid enemies that you can pound into pulp. Right now, it's somewhere in the middle and I'm not sure that works so well, even if the controls are good.


This feedback seems a little disorganized... I wrote as I played but had a completely different experience with my last few random fights than with the first few levels I tried. It's like trying to give feedback on two games at once, because the sort of one-on-one dueling game feels so different from the swarmed-by-enemies-and-trying-desperately-to-get-an-attack-in game.

[8Points]

Great criticisms! Where to start...

I suppose I have to turn that tutorial level into an actual tutorial, right now it's just a test chamber. There's a lot going on that I talk about in the first post here that doesn't show up anywhere in the game.

For every level, there is a little black box you have to find and open in order to complete the level. It turns white when you attack it. Only after that's open and all the enemies are dead will you get the ending message. And right now, you have to hit "R" to restart the level or the escape key to go to the main menu.

The damage modifiers are something I didn't mention in my original post, should put in the tutorial, etc.

Basically, if an enemy is in the middle of an attack or stunned (white swirly stars) they take double damage. (Though you're right about the boss guys, i gotta balance them more)

This is basically the hook of the combat system, and it ties into your assessment of the overall combat feel - It is certainly in an awkward place between strategic dueler and mindless beat-em-up, and I'd honestly like to see it be the former. In that Dark Souls way, I want players to be choosing the right times to attack and defend. Damage modifiers are one way I'm trying to do that. I've yet to get the new ai that can block and dodge working, but you're right that those abilities are absolutely critical to achieving that dynamic.

Also knocked down enemies can't be attacked but they can be executed, this is ripped straight from Hotline Miami but maybe the system and knocked down state are totally frivolous.

Those boulder things are supposed to be crates! What's a video game with no crates amirite?

Really sorry to hear that you got caught on walls way too often!! That's something I've got to dig around in...

Also there are no other levels after the first one. Still trying to wrap my head around level design!

Annnndddd I might have gone a bit overboard with the screenshake ...playing too much Nuclear Throne...

Thanks for the feedback! I guess I better get all that information in the actual game ^_^;

[8Points]

Fixed the wall collision issues! Should be smooth from here on.

[Quicksand-S]

For every level, there is a little black box you have to find and open in order to complete the level.

Here's a question for you: Why? Does it add anything to the game? It seems to me that players are just going to kill all the enemies and then wander around, bored, until they find the box. I don't really see the reason for that. Just ending the level when everyone's dead would cut out the boring part and let the game keep some momentum.

Also knocked down enemies can't be attacked but they can be executed

I expected that to be in the game, but nothing I tried actually made my character perform an execution.

Those boulder things are supposed to be crates!

Slightly round crates? That's...different.


Glad the collision issues are sorted out.

[8Points]

I need an artist...

You're right about not needing the black boxes, but they exist as a sort of stand-in for level exits. They are left over from older versions of this game, so I guess I should just make a proper exit or something. That will at least make sense thematically.

For the record executions are the pickup weapon button: 'E' or middle mouse button / Y button or right bumper

[Quicksand-S]

For the record executions are the pickup weapon button: 'E' or middle mouse button / Y button or right bumper

Ah. Strange. I always picked up weapons with the left mouse button.

[8Points]

Yeah you can pickup weapons by dodging over them too. Supposed to emulate Jackie Chan's style.