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[Soulliard]

Based on my obsessive googling, I think people like what they see so far. I was honestly not expecting such a good response for a game that still lacks a single player mode. But I'm glad to see it.

Most of the criticism I've found is about stuff that's already in the works, like AI. But a few pieces of criticism are relevant to consider.

1- "It doesn't work!"
It's no secret that GM's surfaces work poorly on some graphics cards. Reducing graphics quality fixes the problem, and is mentioned in the readme and by the download link. But a lot of people still had problems. I probably copy-pasted "go to settings.ini and replace 'quality=1' with 'quality=0'" half a dozen times.

To help the people out there that refuse to read readmes, I can at least make it automatically reduce graphic quality if the computer can't handle surfaces at all.

Also, one person had problems with the FMOD DLL (which is used to play the sounds). I could switch sound DLLs, but then it would probably just mess up on other computers instead.

2- "<Insert Game Here> should be included."
Some of the suggestions are better than others. One I think we should take seriously is Cortex Command. It's a very notable indie game that currently has very little representation. A character is probably out of the question, though, since the game doesn't really have memorable named characters. One good suggestion was for a Crab, as an item. It could walk around and be thrown. And maybe it could go on a little rampage after it lands, running around and damaging anything it touches. I'm also considering the possibility of a Cortex Command stage or support character.

3- "Special and standard attacks are too similar."
This varies a bit from character to character, but the biggest offender is probably Naija, whose ^S is very similar to her >A. I don't see any easy solution, though, and this is a pretty minor problem.

4- "The game feels too stiff."
This was never mentioned as a game-breaker, but as a small quibble. I think this is an area that can be improved, though. I'm going to try a few things to loosen up the gameplay:
-Remove the warm-up frames for double jumping.
-Reduce the warm-up and cool-down of aerial attacks. In exchange, there will be a longer period after making an aerial attack during which you can't use another attack.
-Add a bit of directional influence to movement during some attacks (such as the time-consuming item-summoning moves), especially in the air.
-Do you have any other ideas?

[Laremere]

Perhaps a simple game maker program could be created called "It_doesnt_work.exe" that changes the graphic setting to 0.

[medieval]

What bothers me the most is the sluggishness of the characters. Their walking speeds could definitely go up a little

[ChevyRay]

Perhaps a simple game maker program could be created called "It_doesnt_work.exe" that changes the graphic setting to 0.

That would significantly increase the file size, though. An empty game maker file compiled to an EXE is already probably over 1 MB. No point, when it would be just as easy to have a little check the first time the game run... like, have a little spinning box that uses a surface. If surfaces aren't working correctly, then the transparency won't work correctly behind the box, and you can get them to check the "surfaces off" mode. If surfaces won't even create, you can automatically just set quality to 0. Etc.

[Laremere]

Ah, I see.  I'm not too familiar with game maker, so I wouldn't know much technical stuff about it.  That could work.

[Pietepiet]

What bothers me the most is the sluggishness of the characters. Their walking speeds could definitely go up a little

This. Why do the characters walk instead of run? Would you walk casually while in a fight, or would you run? It looks really, really weird to me.


No offense to the animators here, because they're fine animations, but do these really look like they belong in an action packed fighting game?

Look at Super Smash Bros, which this game is obviously based on. Most of the time in that game, characters are actually running pretty fast rather than walking. It gives the overall battle more of an action packed feeling, rather than some casual slapfight.

I'd suggest putting in both walking and running by use of double tap or something, but if you only want one then running is definitely the way to go.

[Jason Bakker]

Hehe yeah, it's surprising how much of the effect of speed can be achieved by a speedy-looking animation.

[JaJitsu]

Hehe yeah, it's surprising how much of the effect of speed can be achieved by a speedy-looking animation.

I agree, Animation is the illusion of movement after all

[Pietepiet]

I can edit one of the current walkcycles to show what I mean, if that's of any help, by the way

[Soulliard]

I agree with what you're saying. I'm upping the speeds for the next release*, and changing the walking animations to running animations would look better. Even though I know what you mean, if you want to edit one of the current walk cycles, that would be very helpful (I'd edit the sprite stored in the game's Assets folder, rather than the one online, since it's more up to date).

*I'm leaving aerial speed mostly unchanged, though, so characters don't suddenly gain obscene horizontal recovery.

[Pietepiet]

if you want to edit one of the current walk cycles, that would be very helpful

And so I have
This is just a rough though. If people like it, I can make it cleaner. I'll post it in the Golden Knight thread as well.

old|mine
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[hyperduck]

That run animation is class!!

[medieval]

with much refining that is definitely a wonderful animation

[Radnom]

What bothers me the most is the sluggishness of the characters. Their walking speeds could definitely go up a little

This. Why do the characters walk instead of run? Would you walk casually while in a fight, or would you run? It looks really, really weird to me.


No offense to the animators here, because they're fine animations, but do these really look like they belong in an action packed fighting game?

Look at Super Smash Bros, which this game is obviously based on. Most of the time in that game, characters are actually running pretty fast rather than walking. It gives the overall battle more of an action packed feeling, rather than some casual slapfight.

I'd suggest putting in both walking and running by use of double tap or something, but if you only want one then running is definitely the way to go.

I completely agree with all of that. Some of the animations need to be shorter and way more exaggerated.

This helps with readability (giant fist = big punch, my attack worked) and gives a better sense of power. Currently I'm not 'feeling' some of the attacks.

It's a great fun game though

[Dailyman]

Something really annoying I noticed:

I want to move forward and use standard A attack at the same time. Instead, I end up doing A> attack. This gets really annoying when you're playing with a character like Ninkujin.

Just a suggestion: You should make A> so that it activates only a few milliseconds after you press the > and A key simultaneously.

Also, If I want to do a Av attack on a fall-through platform, I end up falling down instead of doing the attack.

[Contrary]

A little thing: I don't really like how characters can overlap.
It'd be good for moves that move forward a lot if when you collided with another guy you'd move them a bit. Like GK's >A simply gos past people sometimes.

[Soulliard]

Just a suggestion: You should make A> so that it activates only a few milliseconds after you press the > and A key simultaneously.

That would just make >A attacks more difficult to use instead. I don't see any elegant solution to this problem.

Also, If I want to do a Av attack on a fall-through platform, I end up falling down instead of doing the attack.

There's some delay before you fall through. In another thread, it was suggested that tapping the down key would result in falling through the platform, and holding it would not, so I'll try that out.

A little thing: I don't really like how characters can overlap.
It'd be good for moves that move forward a lot if when you collided with another guy you'd move them a bit. Like GK's >A simply gos past people sometimes.

I might add an effect like that for some attacks.

[William Broom]

Like GK's >A simply gos past people sometimes.

that's true to the original game then right?

[Contrary]

Ehhh... Well in Bonesaw your opponents aren't as mobile, so it's not really an issue. But in IB it's a bit of an annoyance.