As a prototype its nice. Controls would need work as well as the tightness of the inputs. As soon as you stop moving you should be able to punch/jump, but apparently theres a time you have to wait first.
I wonder how this combat system would fit into an adventure game? It's clearly an arena you fight in, so i guess you get this combat instance once you find enemies like in some JRPG? Also if you wanna give the player the chance to switch weapons in the fight, it also needs really good input shortcuts to not be annoying, otherwise someone like me would just not do it and rely on the initial weapon setup.
The camera movement works really well and the movement/orientation of the characters do their job too. I guess thats what most of the work went into, so good job. Now do the adventure part!
Solid controls, definitely a good start with some potential. Holding CTRL to block and pressing W ended up closing the tab rather than facing up, so maybe a standalone build in the future?
lol yeah, ctrl+w is the default shortcut for “close tab” in a lot of browsers. I hadn’t even considered that.
Next time I won’t even do a web version, it’s just too much trouble.
Right now it feels like more of a fighting game prototype than a battle system (probably the inspiration), though I guess would depend on the implementation. It's fairly simple to win with just spamming attacks (brawler has some pause between combos but swordsman especially can easily stunlock enemies) as the combat itself doesn't have much depth at the moment.
Expected that going around the block would negate it (hitting the back), was sad that it didn't. What I could see to be cautious for in the future is how handling items/equipment via menu would affect the pace of the combat action. Other than that worked fairly well, didn't encounter any issues.
Right now it feels like more of a fighting game prototype than a battle system
I’m not sure what you mean by this. It’s a “battle system” in this game because this mode is separate from the “adventuring” part of the game. Instead of what would normally be a turn-based battle or something (in a JRPG for example), it’ll be this.
It’s fairly simple to win with just spamming attacks (brawler has some pause between combos but swordsman especially can easily stunlock enemies) as the combat itself doesn’t have much depth at the moment.
Yeah, depth is a problem that I don’t quite know how to solve yet. I’m still working on getting stagger time, knockback amounts, and other things like that dialed in. There’s certainly plenty of progress to be made there.
Expected that going around the block would negate it (hitting the back), was sad that it didn’t.
I shall remedy this.
What I could see to be cautious for in the future is how handling items/equipment via menu would affect the pace of the combat action.
The games that inspired this style of combat use the menu to use items, and it is often frustrating to be pausing the action so often to heal or whatever, but right now I don’t know how to do it better. It’s something I’m often thinking about though. I’m definitely not committed to the menu method.
Reminded me of very early Tekken 1/2. Looking forward to future versions. Directional inputs for combat are nifty, how are you going to go about combos and all the usual fighting game stuffs?
It borrows a lot from fighting games, but aside from adding chainable special attacks (more flashy, more powerful, uses MP), it’s just not really gonna go very far in the direction of combos and such.
Cute game. The controls are a bit funky and take some getting used to, but I don't think they're necessarily bad - probably just in need of some more polish. The models are cute, sounds are fine. I played as a swordsman with a partner. It's fun even in this state, so I'll be keeping an eye on this in the future.
I did have some issues with the webplayer. After beating up the bad guy, my mouse got stuck on the game screen and wouldn't budge, even if I tabbed into another program, so I couldn't close the tab. I tried to alt-F4 at that point and that didn't work either. I had to close my browser from the task manager. Not a big deal, but yeah.
the model is fun and the SFX make sense, no issues there. the big annoyance for me was the controls - it feels like there is a delay or something when inputting commands. it also sometimes just ignores my input?
upon further investigating it seems like if you're holding move, then press jump, the jump command is ignored.... sometimes? i think this should be your top priority, since i believe it is a common thing to have in any game featuring combat of this nature.
something else that i would consider is to speed up the player's attack animations - they feel a bit too slow for my liking.
upon further investigating it seems like if you’re holding move, then press jump, the jump command is ignored…. sometimes? i think this should be your top priority, since i believe it is a common thing to have in any game featuring combat of this nature.
Yeah, more than anything else, a video game needs to respond to inputs promptly. Nothing is more annoying than having your inputs dropped. I’ll take care of it.
can confirm it's not a rollover issue, and while i can't reproduce it consistently there is a quite notable and obvious delay for some commands, and a skip for others.
I know you still have a ton of stuff you want to add, but I will say that it doesn't feel like the attacks are dealing damage. Visually the characters shrug off blows from each other.
Comments
Camera breaks when you add more enemies to the field. It seems like it's trying to show you all enemies on screen, and it's really disorienting.
Also encountered the bug where the menu does not disappear.
I think it works for a prototype, an adventure game with beat em up/fighting style combat sounds interesting. Looking forward for further development!
Video Feedback:
As a prototype its nice. Controls would need work as well as the tightness of the inputs. As soon as you stop moving you should be able to punch/jump, but apparently theres a time you have to wait first.
I wonder how this combat system would fit into an adventure game? It's clearly an arena you fight in, so i guess you get this combat instance once you find enemies like in some JRPG? Also if you wanna give the player the chance to switch weapons in the fight, it also needs really good input shortcuts to not be annoying, otherwise someone like me would just not do it and rely on the initial weapon setup.
The camera movement works really well and the movement/orientation of the characters do their job too. I guess thats what most of the work went into, so good job. Now do the adventure part!
I'm not a fighting game kind of guy, but had some fun slap fighting. Keep up the good work.
Fun stuff. Things I feel are missing;
-a reason to use different attacks. The all have basically the same speed, range and damage as far as I can tell.
-backstepping when locked on
I also feel like the movement speed is a little fast for how short range the brawler's attacks are. Jumps are also very, very high.
no technical problems that I could notice. Fine work, and I love the little details like how the character changes expression when attacking.
Looks like it could become something really interesting.
Jump is too powerful, I just landed on enemy's head each time.
Feels fun to run a hit the enemy, but right now we were just trading simple attacks.
I am not sure, maybe I did it too fast but menu didn't disappeared when I started a new match.
Thanks for the bug report, I think I found what was causing the lingering menu. And thank you for playing!
Solid controls, definitely a good start with some potential. Holding CTRL to block and pressing W ended up closing the tab rather than facing up, so maybe a standalone build in the future?
lol yeah, ctrl+w is the default shortcut for “close tab” in a lot of browsers. I hadn’t even considered that. Next time I won’t even do a web version, it’s just too much trouble.
Thanks for playing
This is pretty fun for what it is. Should be good with some more polish, actual sfx ect.
My friendly AI would run away into the corner only to come back 5 seconds later.
Thank you for playing!
The AI is pretty stupid right now. They run away for a bit and come back – it’s just a routine they have. It will get better, I promise.
Right now it feels like more of a fighting game prototype than a battle system (probably the inspiration), though I guess would depend on the implementation. It's fairly simple to win with just spamming attacks (brawler has some pause between combos but swordsman especially can easily stunlock enemies) as the combat itself doesn't have much depth at the moment.
Expected that going around the block would negate it (hitting the back), was sad that it didn't. What I could see to be cautious for in the future is how handling items/equipment via menu would affect the pace of the combat action. Other than that worked fairly well, didn't encounter any issues.
Hey, thanks for playing.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. It’s a “battle system” in this game because this mode is separate from the “adventuring” part of the game. Instead of what would normally be a turn-based battle or something (in a JRPG for example), it’ll be this.
Yeah, depth is a problem that I don’t quite know how to solve yet. I’m still working on getting stagger time, knockback amounts, and other things like that dialed in. There’s certainly plenty of progress to be made there.
I shall remedy this.
The games that inspired this style of combat use the menu to use items, and it is often frustrating to be pausing the action so often to heal or whatever, but right now I don’t know how to do it better. It’s something I’m often thinking about though. I’m definitely not committed to the menu method.
Reminded me of very early Tekken 1/2. Looking forward to future versions. Directional inputs for combat are nifty, how are you going to go about combos and all the usual fighting game stuffs?
Thanks for playing.
It borrows a lot from fighting games, but aside from adding chainable special attacks (more flashy, more powerful, uses MP), it’s just not really gonna go very far in the direction of combos and such.
Cute game. The controls are a bit funky and take some getting used to, but I don't think they're necessarily bad - probably just in need of some more polish. The models are cute, sounds are fine. I played as a swordsman with a partner. It's fun even in this state, so I'll be keeping an eye on this in the future.
I did have some issues with the webplayer. After beating up the bad guy, my mouse got stuck on the game screen and wouldn't budge, even if I tabbed into another program, so I couldn't close the tab. I tried to alt-F4 at that point and that didn't work either. I had to close my browser from the task manager. Not a big deal, but yeah.
Looking forward to seeing more from you!
Hey, sorry about the web player issue. I don’t know what that’s about but I’ll probably just… not export for web in the future. :)
Thanks for playing!
ahoy.
the model is fun and the SFX make sense, no issues there. the big annoyance for me was the controls - it feels like there is a delay or something when inputting commands. it also sometimes just ignores my input?
upon further investigating it seems like if you're holding move, then press jump, the jump command is ignored.... sometimes? i think this should be your top priority, since i believe it is a common thing to have in any game featuring combat of this nature.
something else that i would consider is to speed up the player's attack animations - they feel a bit too slow for my liking.
keep up the good work.
Yeah, more than anything else, a video game needs to respond to inputs promptly. Nothing is more annoying than having your inputs dropped. I’ll take care of it.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!
Can you confirm that it’s not a key rollover problem?
On my laptop, it’s due to the limitations of my keyboard. It absolutely will not register a spacebar press if I holding LShift and A.
can confirm it's not a rollover issue, and while i can't reproduce it consistently there is a quite notable and obvious delay for some commands, and a skip for others.
I enjoyed kicking and the option of free roaming around the map and oh, also the locking system. Didn’t block at all tho.
i really like your low poly style and your textures.
the combat of course is still pure jank, but i look forward to your next updates.
Thank you for playing.
Can you be more descriptive about what you mean by “pure jank”? I know it’s pretty unpolished, but is there anything specific that you found janky?
i guess the "combos" don't really flow into each other. it doesn't feel fluid
i'm more of a fighting game than a beat em up fan, so i'm used to moves being concatenated into each other
you should look at other beat em ups like streets of rage for inspiration, adding moves and spicing it up
Great job m8!
I know you still have a ton of stuff you want to add, but I will say that it doesn't feel like the attacks are dealing damage. Visually the characters shrug off blows from each other.
Thanks for playing, Frosch.
Good to know, I’ll look into it.