What does a good/fun/interesting fighting game need? - Developers

I'm an aspiring game dev. making an indie fighter/brawler without a budget, using 8-bit sprites and a free engine to mess about with. I'm aiming for a fun & glitchy arcade style game with a cartoon physics engine. What do I need?

[QUOTE=LoganMorpheus;47931106]I'm an aspiring game dev. making an indie fighter/brawler without a budget, using 8-bit sprites and a free engine to mess about with. I'm aiming for a fun & glitchy arcade style game with a cartoon physics engine. What do I need?[/QUOTE] Do you have any previous experience with programming or game dev? Which engine where you going for? The best way to see what your game needs to be fun, is to just take a look at your favorite fighting game. Ask yourself what makes it fun for you, or what makes it your favorite? How does it work?

Fighting games need extremely good collision handling and really good input responsiveness. You can add a shitton of combos and fatalities, but if the regular fighting isn't any consistent with the graphics then your game falls apart.

Yeah, fighting games are a pretty big undertaking. I'd suggest looking into M.U.G.E.N. It's a free 2D fighting game engine, so all of the necessary systems like input and hit detection are already setup, allowing you to go right to the gameplay stuff and character/stage creation. It's only for non-commercial use though. I haven't used it personally since I wanted to try doing it myself, but it looks pretty alright for what it is.

If you have no programming/game making experience, just try building the absolute minimum that your idea needs to be playable, and see if that's fun. You can flesh out a bad idea all you want but that's time better spent on a good one. After that, sit down for a good while and put your whole idea in writing. It'll expose any huge flaws and give you a better idea of what you actually need to be working on. After all that, get to work. Implement important features first, then [url="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QtwIwAGoVChMImMOV7byIxgIVhSCsCh2FFwDd&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFy0aCDmgnxg&ei=5-55VdizJIXBsAWFr4DoDQ&usg=AFQjCNGCE49ql9zLhbcNK1M_bgStELuLWA&sig2=JU8wsALT_MqY_jNnwfsc7w&bvm=bv.95277229,d.b2w"]"juice it"[/url], then add in the secondary features. Post a video or two in WAYWO, we'll give good feedback. Probably :P Take people's advice and don't get too attached to your work. It's easy to do. Taking criticism is almost always a good thing. ......Congrats, you've made a videogame!

[QUOTE]At least an idea guy, game artist and a programmer who all are the same person or can work together properly. You've probably got some idea in your head of what you want. Write it out first, make drawings, plan the whole thing out. Then when you're done with that, start planning it in a professional tool (I use MS Project) If you're anything like me you really want to be working on your own idea rather than someone else's or you'll get demotivated half way through[/QUOTE] The answer to that is that I have all those thing & my engine has a sprite editor built in. I am working on my own idea, although this is my first title, so I don't expect much. [QUOTE]Do you have any previous experience with programming or game dev? Which engine where you going for? The best way to see what your game needs to be fun, is to just take a look at your favorite fighting game. Ask yourself what makes it fun for you, or what makes it your favorite? How does it work? [/QUOTE] I do have a fair experience with this, in fact I'm making the game based on a physics framework I made inside my engine. This may be a bit embarrassing, but I'm actually using MIT's Scratch. It's easy to use and surprisingly versatile. My favourite fighting game is Mortal Kombat (2011). I love it because it uses a stupidly excessive way of keeping people alive, has great story & characters & a fun arcade aesthetic. [QUOTE]Fighting games need extremely good collision handling and really good input responsiveness. You can add a ****ton of combos and fatalities, but if the regular fighting isn't any consistent with the graphics then your game falls apart.[/QUOTE] Collision handling isn't something that particularly intrests me, as I [B]want[/B] a broken physics engine, as this delivers more on the fun, silly mechanics. Combos are set to appear, but drastically altered compared to a regular fighting game. My arcade style half-animated moves I think do work well with the 8-bit graphics. [QUOTE]Yeah, fighting games are a pretty big undertaking. I'd suggest looking into M.U.G.E.N. It's a free 2D fighting game engine, so all of the necessary systems like input and hit detection are already setup, allowing you to go right to the gameplay stuff and character/stage creation. It's only for non-commercial use though. I haven't used it personally since I wanted to try doing it myself, but it looks pretty alright for what it is.[/QUOTE] M.U.G.E.N is something I've looked into, but I think that's something I can leave for now, I'll need a bigger team to work on that sort of stuff. [QUOTE]If you have no programming/game making experience, just try building the absolute minimum that your idea needs to be playable, and see if that's fun. You can flesh out a bad idea all you want but that's time better spent on a good one. After that, sit down for a good while and put your whole idea in writing. It'll expose any huge flaws and give you a better idea of what you actually need to be working on. After all that, get to work. Implement important features first, then "juice it", then add in the secondary features. Post a video or two in WAYWO, we'll give good feedback. Probably :P Take people's advice and don't get too attached to your work. It's easy to do. Taking criticism is almost always a good thing. ......Congrats, you've made a videogame![/QUOTE] I am working on the minimum viable product, which at the moment seems to be this. Primary: -Roster -Animations -Stage(s) -Hit Detection -Physics Secondary: -Interactive Stages -Secret Characters -Story Mode/Ladder Mode -Character Exclusive Stats Triary (I dunno): -Graphic Effects (Shadows, Lights etc.) -Extras Option -Minigames

[QUOTE=LoganMorpheus;47940444]I do have a fair experience with this, in fact I'm making the game based on a physics framework I made inside my engine. This may be a bit embarrassing, but I'm actually using MIT's Scratch. It's easy to use and surprisingly versatile. My favourite fighting game is Mortal Kombat (2011). I love it because it uses a stupidly excessive way of keeping people alive, has great story & characters & a fun arcade aesthetic.[/quote] I meant more in terms game mechanics or the way it plays, rather than aesthetics/story. What makes the [i]game-play[/i] fun and enjoyable to you. [QUOTE=LoganMorpheus;47940444]Collision handling isn't something that particularly intrests me, as I [B]want[/B] a broken physics engine, as this delivers more on the fun, silly mechanics. Combos are set to appear, but drastically altered compared to a regular fighting game. My arcade style half-animated moves I think do work well with the 8-bit graphics.[/quote] I don't think he meant physics collision handling. Regardless of how you want the physics engine to be, you still need accurate collision detection for detecting if a character hit their opponent. The usual solution for 2D fighters is a set of hit/hurt-boxes for each animation frame. Something like this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/LTyekpg.png[/img] Where if one character's red hit-boxes touches one of their opponent's green hurt-boxes, then a hit was successfully made. [QUOTE=LoganMorpheus;47940444]I am working on the minimum viable product, which at the moment seems to be this. Primary: -Roster -Animations -Stage(s) -Hit Detection -Physics[/QUOTE] You're also going to need an buffer that holds all of a player's inputs for the last few seconds, so that you can check for special move commands.

[QUOTE=Jacen;47940898]I meant more in terms game mechanics or the way it plays, rather than aesthetics/story. What makes the [i]game-play[/i] fun and enjoyable to you. I don't think he meant physics collision handling. Regardless of how you want the physics engine to be, you still need accurate collision detection for detecting if a character hit their opponent. The usual solution for 2D fighters is a set of hit/hurt-boxes for each animation frame. Something like this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/LTyekpg.png[/img] Where if one character's red hit-boxes touches one of their opponent's green hurt-boxes, then a hit was successfully made. You're also going to need an buffer that holds all of a player's inputs for the last few seconds, so that you can check for special move commands.[/QUOTE] Specials break from the usual formula. Rather than a move being V<P, it would just appear as S1, a single button press. Fighting moves- 0: Punch 9: Kick 8: EX Kick 7: EX Punch P: Special 1 O: Special 2 I: Special 3 P+O+I: Super Move Specials, etc. run on a "combo meter", which deteriorates without inputs. After, say 20 combo, a "SuperReady?" variable will be ticked, making the character ready to perform their super move. Also, an buffer? An buffer? That's hilarious.

[QUOTE=LoganMorpheus;47940444] I am working on the minimum viable product, which at the moment seems to be this. Primary: -Roster -Animations -Stage(s) -Hit Detection -Physics Secondary: -Interactive Stages -Secret Characters -Story Mode/Ladder Mode -Character Exclusive Stats Triary (I dunno): -Graphic Effects (Shadows, Lights etc.) -Extras Option -Minigames[/QUOTE] Minimum viable product for this game would be two copies of one debug character with basic attacks, a health bar for each, and the special combo system. Also the difference between fun Goat-Simulator physics and broken physics is that the controls take precedence over the physics, and in this type of game that means concise hitboxes.

[QUOTE=chimitos;47941399]Minimum viable product for this game would be two copies of one debug character with basic attacks, a health bar for each, and the special combo system. Also the difference between fun Goat-Simulator physics and broken physics is that the controls take precedence over the physics, and in this type of game that means concise hitboxes.[/QUOTE] I have got concise hitboxes, hell, my engine has a "touching ___" option. I'll take your advice and start working on a minimum viable product with the character I've made.

I'm moving the thread to the general one about my game. [URL]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1473326&p=48071756#post48071756[/URL]