Only a few days left!
I was hoping to have 4 levels done for the competition. I think I’ll have 1 or MAYBE 2 by the 31st, but I will keep working during the comp and get it up to 4 levels.

Made a lot of big decisions lately. My drawing teacher always said to make big broad strokes for your final moments during a drawing.

Decided on a way to implement “Wild” which is a system I’ve been messing around with to power up moves. I’ve landed on a simple formula. Each cancel, your Wild increases by 1. Each attack’s damage is increased by the Wild. Smash attack damage is increased Wild^2. So the idea is to do as big as possible combo, then end with a smash attack since it’s lots harder to combo them together. BUT! Finding those elusive times where you can combo from a smash attack–using the environment or enemies–makes them even more powerful.

The movelist is simpler too, but you can still do lots. The combo button has two strings and a dive kick. One string is longer and ends with a hyper punch with lots of hits and you can move Ace around during it. The other combo is short, but has moves that move upward and can hit multiple enemies.
The smash button has an attack for each direction–up, up-forward, forward, down-forward,down–as well as a neutral attack which is really slow and you cannot cancel out of it, but it hits all around and sends enemies flying far. So using all these smash skills in conjunction with combos will allow you to power them up.

I have the first level built except for enemies, which I’m doing today. Enemies still need a lot of work so I’ll be working on them until the deadline. I also have the first boss, Mr. Leslie, done. He dashes around a lot and throws strong long range punches. He can also punch cars and crates at Ace. The level itself, has lots of platforming and introduces several enemy types. I hope to really blend the platforming and combat here.

The second level is a bit simpler, but has more unique events. You’re riding on the back of a semi down the highway. It’s very dangerous with not much room to fight, but you can also punch enemies into the passing highway. Lots of flying enemies. The placeholder boss is a stronger version of the flying mechs. He fires lots and lots of missiles and can summon more mechs. The real boss is a giant robot. He’s a mix of lots of giant robot cliches. He fires lasers and missiles and tries to punch you. You have to punch is punches to stop them.

The other two planned levels are a warehouse and scaling a building. The warehouse will have much more variety in it’s room layout, lots of environmental hazards like lights and oil drums, and some narrow passageways. The rooftop level is precarious like the semi level–lots of pits and buildings to fall off of. You’re mainly working your way upward so it will add a new dynamic to the fighting. It also has lots of stronger enemy fights where you have to use dueling strategies as opposed to brawling strategies.

Really working hard lately. Getting a lot done some days, not so much other days. It’s really stressful either way.
I wanted to have a demo by tomorrow, but, of course, it didn’t work out.
BUT! I will have one ready by the competition on the 31st.

For the past few months my mouse has gradually been losing it’s mind. It would double, triple or even auto-fire clicks when the left button was held down.
So I finally bummed one off of my sister. Not really that exciting of a story, except that I put up with it for so long. Finally had to stop because it was full on turbo mode.

I’d also like to note that I have two musicians working on the music! It is quite incredible, honestly. I’m thrilled to have them a part of it and they are making some really fantastic tracks.

Lately I’ve just been working hard on the combat. Spent a few days making assets I thought I needed, then didn’t. But that’s how this crazy biz goes sometimes.
FINALLY, got down to making some boss fights. I studied a lot of games (megaman, godhand, bayonetta, hero core, iji, noitu love) for a long time the past couple of days and spoke with a few designers. I think I have a good idea, now, of what a basic boss fight can be and how to create variety and implement them into my own engine and mechanics. That got more jargony than I had anticipated.

TECHNICALLY, I’m still on track with the schedule in my mind, but each day is going to be more insane than the last. I’ve learned a lot in just the past couple weeks about game design and am REALLY excited about working on new games with a million percent more efficient design process. Plus I’m networking tons and want to start on some colabs as soon as I can!

Back to the grindstone.

Just posting an article from Platinum Games about designing Bayonetta and other beat ‘em ups. Will remove and just have a link when I can find it on their site again.

Hello everyone. I’m Don-san, otherwise known as a third-rate programmer. On Bayonetta, I was mainly in charge of the player and enemy character interactions.

Bayonetta was the first project in a while where I once again teamed up with Kamiya-san. Our previous collaboration was on Devil May Cry, where I was first put in charge of player/enemy programming. Back then, I had no understanding of 3D, so I remember drilling myself in the basics of three dimensions. It was also my first time working on a completely original game, so I guess I didn’t really have a grasp on how to make enemies back then.

However, making an original game was incredibly fun, and I remember making lots of things just because. I remember adding things simply because I had a few extra moments – I would change up the grunt enemies, give them new traits, or increase the number of their variations, or I’d increase the variety of swords that would fly around our “rival character.”

I don’t know if it was because they liked me just making things on my own, but after that, I kept getting asked to program the enemies. I guess I chewed through things too fast, but every time I would be placed on a new team, the number of enemies I was in charge of kept growing. On Devil May Cry, I was in charge of maybe 1/3 of the enemies; however, on Resident Evil 4, I was in charge of them all. On God Hand, I was also placed in charge of programming the player as well as all the enemies in the game. With Bayonetta, I handed off a couple of the enemies to some new programmers here, and thus I wasn’t in charge of everything, but I did take care of 95% of things. And of course, I was in charge of Bayonetta herself. Since I’ve been in charge of enemies for something like 10 years now, there are a few things that I pay particular attention to when creating enemies, and I’d like to share them with you.

1) You Don’t Need a Design Doc

When making enemies, one would think that you need a design doc, but in reality, there ends up being so many changes in the end that it doesn’t really make a difference. (Other than setting a direction to work from in the beginning.) So I don’t really ask or depend on a design doc, and instead I talk with those involved to get a good idea of what needs to be done, and then I take over on my own and make the enemy my way. Especially with Kamiya-san, who tends to not be someone who is very specific from the get-go, opting instead to just shoot ideas at you on the fly, you have to be ready to adapt and adjust at all times.

2) You Should Get Things On-Screen ASAP

Making enemies is frequently about trial and error. If you are able to get things moving on-screen at an early stage, you can figure out if you are off-course and get back on track without much damage. One may think that because one hasn’t thought things out entirely before starting that there would be quite a bit of trial and error; however, as the fundamental game design is prone to change, I need to be able to react quickly to these changes. If you are able to get things up and running early, you are able to conduct even more experiments, which are directly linked to increasing the quality of the work.

3) Don’t Make Enemies That Behave Irrationally

For instance, I absolutely hate enemies that automatically evade or counter at the exact moment the player hits the attack button. The player has done nothing ahead of time to warrant it, so I do often wonder what in the hell the enemy is reacting to that he is dodging all of a sudden. I tend to get cold towards things that make me feel like I am fighting against a computer.

When I make an enemy, I treat it as an extension of myself, so if I feel that I myself couldn’t react and dodge in a certain amount of time, I am not going to allow an enemy to do that either. Nor will I ever let an enemy do some sort of attack that can’t be dodged even though the player is reacting to it. I may be an old man, but I’m a pretty hardcore gamer, so I think I’m pretty good at reacting to things.

4) Do Your Best to Avoid Patterns

Making things pattern-based does allow players to create strategies easily, but I think it ends up feeling more like work than fun. Even when you think that a pattern is fun, there is probably something else to it that is making you feel like you are having a good time, don’t you think? If I am making an enemy, I want people to enjoy what I am creating, so I try my best to avoid patterns.

Furthermore, if a player can block, it becomes a hot-bed for patterns or for the kind of passive gameplay that I am not a fan of. When we made God Hand, only the enemies could block, and I often hear that this was unreasonable. However, I feel that if we would have let the player block too, we probably would have ended up with a monotonous game. So to counter, you can Guard Break in God Hand. It wasn’t made to be unreasonable, instead it is an opportunity.

Of course, in Bayonetta, there is no block.

5) Watch Closely and Stealthily How People Play

When you watch someone play, places where you are overdoing it, or places where things aren’t there yet will become clear, and this will become a great reference. However, when being watched, people try to hide their “go-to moves,” so I try to watch them play in secret. (I’m an expert tip-toer.)

If I spy someone on the development team completely stuck in a groove with a go-to move, this is when I secretly work up a counter to their addiction. (Unforgivable, right?)

Just like patterns, go-to moves spoil gameplay by making it a simple work mechanism, so I tend to counter these moves, especially in the case of powerful enemy characters.

Of course, I don’t find it a problem if a user finds a go-to move in a released game and uses it. That is a matter of an individual’s efforts, and I am happy if they work hard to find these techniques. However, if I catch a developer doing this, I can’t let it slide. (This too, is unforgivable!)

That is all I can really think of right now… Well, actually, there are tons of points I can’t tell people, the kind of glib lines about how I want to do this and that; however, if I get in trouble with everyone here for spilling our secrets that would not be fun, so I’ll leave things here.

In Bayonetta, I’ve based things on the points I listed above, and I made it with the intention of having plenty of things to sink your teeth into. Whether it is Bayonetta’s rival, Jeanne, the giant claw wielding Grace and Glory, or the beast-like Fairness and Fearless, I think they are all “walking the walk” so to speak. Even though the game is tough, Bayonetta’s abilities as a player character are great as well, so I hope that as a result you will all be able to experience a new kind of thrilling, high-speed battle!

Took it easy this weekend. Wanted to continue with enemies, but couldn’t do it. Designing a bit of the first level today and hope to have first and second level done by end of the week. Then… PLAYTESTING! During that time I’ll work real hard on the enemies, bosses and third level. Stay tuned!

Just crankin’ away. Time is slipping through my fingers. I must make haste!

Been working hard every day. Here’s a quick vid teasing at one of the levels.
I plan on designing one enemy group (and all their sub types) each day this week. Then I’ll start designing the first two levels.
Also spent a bunch of time the past few days fixing collision detection. That nonsense will never get away from me. Makes me want to just plug in a physics engine… Which is highly likely after I submit for this first comp on the 31st.

Goin’ has been a bit slow these past few weeks, which totally sucks honestly. I can’t really remember what I’ve gotten done even though I spend at least 8 hours a day working on this game. I did catch a cold, which hindered things a bit but I’m over it now. Just been fiddling with enemy AI and Boss ideas. Not much else to report!
Only one month left. Gotta push!

So I’ve finally gotten back to working on the enemies. Admittedly, It’s something I’ve always shied away from because it’s really unfamiliar territory for me. But… all of the articles I’ve read on it say it’s an iterative process (what isn’t?!) so I’ll just keep chugging away at it until I get some really fun enemies to fight.
I’ve had lots of feedback on what it needs and I’m addressing those things as well. Things like idle enemies needing to seem more threatening and the “enemy corral”, as I’ve been calling it, which is just how to organize enemies and enemy groups to maximize fun and aesthetics. Also working at making enemy approaches and tells more interesting.
Here’s a quick vid showing some new camera stuff.

Maybe “finishing” is the wrong word, but basically only a few more steps before I get the editor to where I’ll start playtesting levels. But I need to finish up enemy AI first and I will expand the editor so that many game types are possible.
An arcade experience is what I’m initially after, but I hope to use this engine to create an adventure mode as well.
The 3rd indiePub (formerly 2bee games) independent games competition begins on July 31st.
Stay Tuned!

Just finished up with the character editor and boy is it awesome!
I mean… Its just animations, but it makes working so much faster and has allowed me to do palette swaps (of a non-indexed color sorts) too!
That happened a few days ago and since then I’ve been redoing the animations, which only took a day, plus I animated all the new stuff I’ve drawn over the past few months, which is great time IMO.

Today I finished up implementing it into the main game and got rid of all the old animation data and sprites which reduced my runtime memory by a TON.
It has also taught me a lot about managing memory better and the overall speed of the game has improved. I mean… it was always at 60fps, but you’d get some slowdown in rare occasions as well as some mysterious random frame dropping.
Now I’m working on the event editor and have decided to bulk up the map editor just a bit more so that end user editing will be much easier.

Character assets are about 90% done… well maybe 80% is a better number? I dunno. It’s just that in the past I’ve done TOO MUCH with my animations. Now I’m equipped with better animation techniques as well as sprite production techniques. So while there’s sorta a lot to do, it’ll be done faster. Either way it’s only a tiny fraction of the animations I’ve already done. Just a couple more bosses to be specific… and kinda general too.
From there, I just have to finish up map assets, then…

ACTUALLY START DESIGNING A GAME! (hopefully in time for these new contests!)