Been a bit busy this week, and I'm gonna be back in Omaha for the next, so I can't really post too involved of an update tonight as I need to pack!
Most recently I've been primarily wrapping up some art tech stuff - I've improved the blood splatter code significantly, and have done some other procedural art stuff that should make levels both look more varied while also being easier to make!
I've also finally gotten around to fixing the Brawler's melee attack animations. His punches looked a little derpy, so I've given him a much more dynamic "kung fu" series of attack. The basic idea behind his attack is similar, but he now has 4 different animations that he randomly cycles through. His momentum also functions a bit differently to feel more natural.
There actually is a lot more that I want to show off, but it's either not quite there yet or would take a bit longer to go into detail than I have tonight! So you'll have to wait a bit. It'll be worth it tho!
Anyway, cheers!
Character Preview - The GUNSLINGER
Barev, zinyalner!
Last week I talked about how and why the Vanguard is getting a redesign. Well, that's old news - today I'd like to talk about something NEW.
So, let me reveal the new character that will be released in Update 1.2: the GUNSLINGER!
The Gunslinger is a new ranged character who wields a rapid-fire revolver that can be fired at any angle, and uses his whip to fling himself across the terrain.
He has a few interesting features that set him apart from his compatriots:
1: FREE-AIMING, QUICK-FIRING BULLETS
First on the list: the Gunslinger's revolver is fairly unique in several ways.
First, it can be aimed in ANY direction, instead of being locked to 8 directions like the Sniper or Rocketeer.
The Gunslinger aims by holding down the attack button - an aim indicator (displayed by a slowly narrowing triangle) will appear, showing the direction he will fire. (He can move around while aiming, making him harder to hit!)
The bullets are initially rather inaccurate, but the longer he aims, the more precise he will be.
The bullets that are fired by the revolver hit their target instantly, and can be fired EXTREMELY quickly!
However, the Gunslinger only has 3 shots in his gun before he must reload. Reloading is fairly fast, but you'd best be careful while in intense fights.
All in all, the Gunslinger requires a lot of skill to use correctly (especially against large groups of enemies). He can only hit at most 3 enemies before he needs to reload, and it's fairly easy to miss a shot if you're not careful! However, with proper handling, the Gunslinger can snipe opponents who get anywhere close to him, and is capable of laying down a blistering barrage of death when pressed.
2: YOU MUST WHIP IT
The Gunslinger's "Mobility Ability" it also a bit unorthodox. Instead of the conventional dodge roll or dash, he instead pulls out a whip and attempts to pull himself towards a distant target.
This move does not help him dodge attacks, but used properly it can actually move him around at terrific speeds. He can repeatedly use it in the air, allowing him to traverse great distances as long as he has a ceiling or wall to pull himself towards!
If used against an enemy, the foe will actually be pulled towards (and probably behind) the Gunslinger, while still propelling him forwards! Useful if you need to swap places with a target.
3: WHIP WITH PISTOL IF NECESSARY
When in a pinch - surrounded by enemies, out of bullets, and with no opening to escape - the Gunslinger is not helpless! His Defensive move allows him to rush forward, smacking a foe with the butt of his revolver, knocking them away. This can often create the opening needed to turn a bloody death into escape, then victory!
4: ULTRAFOCUS
Finally, the Gunslinger has one last move. An ace up his sleeve, if you will. By using his Special move - Ultrafocus - the Gunslinger slows down time, allowing him to aim more precisely and weave through incoming attacks to line up a perfect shot.
Be warned, though - time slows for EVERY player. Depending on if you are comrades or enemies, this might be a good or a bad thing...
Anyway, that's it for this week! To those in the US, Happy Fourth of July!
PS: The above images were captured within an early Adventure Mode level! It's still coming along :)
PPS: Not sure why, but my GIF capture program seems to be saving clips at like 2x speed? So actual gameplay isn't as fast as the above images show (it's a bit more manageable than that).
Six Months Later, Still Going Strong
Hallo, kämpfer!
It's been around 6 months. Sorry about that! I've been busssssssyyyyyy
Since the last time I posted, I have:
Accepted a job with Google
Moved to New York
Found an apartment
Had my desktop computer damaged in the move, requiring me to repair it after moving in to our apartment
So there hasn't been much time for LOTS of work. But I have been doing what I can.
So here, let me formally announce: the next update will NOT be Adventure Mode. It's going to take me a bit to give it the polish and love it deserves.
HOWEVER, in order to not let the game just go forever without more content, I am happy to announce the ARSENAL UPDATE, which will focus on expanding the existing character options.
Over the next several weeks, I'll go over various things that will be in the update (to give myself time to finish it!) First, I'd like to talk about one thing in particular though.
The Vanguard is Getting a Redesign
I had a striking realization a while back: I didn't really enjoy playing as the Vanguard, or playing against him. In his current incarnation, he's really not that fun.
The basic problems (as a quick overview):
If players don't know how to fight him, they just hammer away at his shield forever. This will NOT work and they get frustrated.
If players DO know how to fight him (his attacks have specific openings you can exploit) they still can't do anything about him deciding to turtle. (Passive play is NOT something I want to encourage.)
Since he crushes enemies, optimal play (the concept Blast Brawl is designed to encourage) involves him NEVER attacking and just running over enemies. So he is encouraged to NOT use his actual moves.
Since his collider is so deadly, his movement abilities (another thing the game completely revolves around) are shit. So he feels terrible to use.
To sum it up: the Vanguard is slow, clunky, encourages the player to not actively use his moves, and STILL is broken and annoying to fight.
I did some hard thinking, and have given him a complete overhaul. The major changes are as follows:
1: HE NO LONGER CRUSHES ENEMIES
This was the most obvious thing I needed to change. I originally made him crush enemies to go along with his theme of being "heavy," and to counterbalance how slow I wanted to make his attacks.
However, him crushing enemies allows him to not require his abilities. It makes getting close to him WAY more dangerous than it should be. It also forced me to make him much slower and hard to maneuver than all the other characters in order to balance him - a direction counter to the core design of the game.
So he doesn't do it anymore.
2: HIS BLOCKING IS NO LONGER INFINITE
Secondly, I wanted to make his passive defenses less powerful. As it stands, basically nothing can get through his shield while attacking from the side - even if the player literally drops their controller and walks away from the screen
Additionally, the blocking felt a little bland, as enemies would just bounce off a little bit and the Vanguard would just slide backwards a short distance. This is a little unexciting.
I want the Vanguard to have strong defensive abilities but I don't want him to have PASSIVE options. So, I changed how his shield blocking works.
Now, when he blocks an attack on his shield, he is pushed much further back. Additionally, his shield is knocked to the side during his "stun" animation, making him completely vulnerable.
Each time he blocks a blow, his stun animation grows longer and longer (slowly resetting over time). This means that an aggressive foe can actually hammer through his defense, with their successive attacks eventually becoming faster than his block recovers.
The Vanguard's "reinforced" block (his defensive move allows him to strengthen his block and rotate his shield 360 degrees) now will inflict knockback on melee foes who strike the shield. However, it has a cooldown after doing so, and the Vanguard can't endlessly camp a corner against hordes of foes.
All this sounds bad, right? Well, not really, since
3: HE IS NOW MUCH FASTER AND MORE NIMBLE
Since his PASSIVE options are far less broken and ridiculous, it allows him to have MUCH better active options!
His movement speed has been improved a bit, and his acceleration/responsiveness is much better.
He now can use his shield as a hang glider! It drastically slows his fall speed, and allows him to move left and right and fairly ridiculous rates.
Instead of his old Sprint ability (intended to let him move more quickly while suffering his defense being dropped, he has a "dash" move which allows him to dodge in any direction (much like the Ninja, though it's noticeably slower). This both lets him weave through attacks he doesn't want to block, as well as just letting him reach areas he couldn't otherwise.
4: A BUNCH OF OTHER MINUTE TWEAKS
There's more, of course - I've gone over all of his abilities and adjusted/tweaked them to make the more responsive and more balanced. But the big changes - the ones that REALLY matter - are all listed above.
Anyway, that's pretty much it for tonight! I'll try to do weekly posts like this, I REALLY can't let things go for another six months like that.
Hmm, I wonder what I'll talk about next week...
Adventure Mode: First Details
Bonjour, Lutteurs!
Adventure mode progress continues, somewhat slowly. This update is going to take a while.
In fact, it's looking like it might take such a while that I'm considering taking a short break to put together a new character and release a micro-update. So that might happen in a couple of weeks, give or take.
There are a couple of pretty big reasons for the slowness:
1 - DESIGNING CORE GAMEPLAY
I spent some time figuring out the core "idea" behind the adventure levels. I mean, I knew the gist of everything, but testing the ideas and making things more "right" takes time.
Originally, I thought I would make each level rather small and self-contained, like a little Wave Mode level you could finish. This would jive most closely with the existing gameplay. However, this kind of felt unsatisfying, and didn't allow players to fully play with the movement options in the game.
In the end, I decided to open up the levels and make them much more in-depth. They're now more like Super Mario or Donkey Kong levels, albeit with buckets of blood being constantly splattered everywhere.
This however raised the question of difficulty and frustration. People die in one hit! As levels grow longer, the likelihood of accidental death grows extremely probable, even for experienced players. I've dealt with this in two ways:
FIRST, and most obviously: There will be a new checkpoint system, where players can activate "portals" in the levels they find. Each portal gives the player an additional "respawn point," with points adding up as players find more and more portals. If you find a section of the level particularly hard, doing well on prior sections (and finding hidden checkpoints!) will give you a much better shot.
SECONDLY, and a more game-changing decision: Killstreaks now serve a purpose. While you have a killstreak active, IT WILL ABSORB ONE HIT and send you flying away, resetting your killstreak to zero. Killstreaks will continually, slowly run out, so you must maintain your carnage if you want to keep your protection.
This change is game-wide, occurring in both Wave Mode and Versus. It should make Wave Mode much easier for confident players, while I don't forsee it having a significant impact on Versus Mode except in A) really chaotic multi-player fights, where it's probably a good thing, and B) scenarios where one player is just utterly destroying another, in which case no one can help them.
I think this change will help a lot in Adventure Mode, while also encouraging aggressive play. I'm looking forward to feedback when it eventually goes live.
There's been plenty of other things I've been finalizing, but they're much less important and this update will already be too long to read. So, moving on!
2 - PATHFINDING
This is the biggest purely technical/programming hurdle I'm facing. Prior to this update, there has actually been NO pathfinding whatsoever in Blast Brawl 2.
Hopefully this surprises you! Currently, characters attempt to move towards whatever enemies they "see," and they make "best guesses" with their inputs (you may notice that many enemies jump randomly as they approach, this helps them get over incidental obstacles). I've designed the wave mode arenas (the only place you can currently fight AI opponents) to disguise this fact - note how they're all fairly large open rooms.
With the much more complex, winding, multi-path levels I'm creating, this will not suffice any more. So I have to code a pathfinding engine that satisfies several requirements:
Find traversal paths with a potentially huge number of factors, such as surfaces to jump on, walls to wall-jump, realizing when jumps are too far, know when it has to attack destructible terrain that blocks its path, etc.
Be SUPER dynamic and allow for rapid path recalculation, as every character can basically zip through levels at immense speed.
Be extremely efficient, as I kind of need to support dozens+ of characters all fighting each other at high speeds to really achieve what I'm trying to do.
Currently, I have a fairly decent idea of how I'm going to tackle this, and the basic pathfinding engine is in-game. However it's NOT finished, and a LOT of very specific works still needs to be done before it's release-ready.
ON THE PLUS SIDE: Once I get this working, it actually will finally let me add bots to Versus mode. The lack of pathfinding has literally been the reason they're not there, pretty much everything else is ready to go.
3 - CREATING NEW MECHANICS
Currently, Blast Brawl 2 focuses quite heavily on character combat, mostly in rather blank arenas.
In addition to adding more enemy variety, I am adding numerous mechanics to make each adventure level have more distinctive gameplay and interesting environments, with hopefully each level bringing something new to the mix.
A brief list of some of the new things in the early levels:
Lethal spikes that kill any characters who touch them
Powered doors operated by switches/other power sources
Enemy detectors that require players to kill all enemies in an area before doors open.
Mounted turrets that fire a variety of projectiles
Land mines
Areas with infinite spawning enemies
etc etc (you get the idea)
All of these things will make levels more interesting to traverse, no just more difficult. However, they all take time to code and do art/sound for.
ADDITIONALLY, I have to make level hazards register themselves in the pathfinding engine, and have the path solvers take them into account. That shit be hard yo.
4 - THIS IS THE LONG HAUL
I have a pretty big goal for Blast Brawl 2, and I want to make this game as awesome as it can be. Adventure mode is really going to be the capstone/culmination of the game, and I want it to actually be fairly meaty.
To give a rough overview of what the "end goal" of Blast Brawl is:
I want 8 specific different regions of the game. They will each have a specific theme and fit together as an "overworld," similar to Super Mario World or other similar games.
Each region will have 3 bosses, spread out with ~10 "regular" levels between them.
Bosses will be HARD. (My favorite games are Dark Souls/Bloodborne, so extrapolate.) However, if you beat a boss in a region, you will gain an additional "boss life" against other bosses in the region (you start with 3, and have a max of 5).
Regions will NOT be linear, or even connected to each other in a linear fashion. For example, I intend for players to be able to reach the "second" region - the Sewers - without needing to face a Boss.
Certain levels will have "secrets," where players can find hidden items and must take them to the end of the level to unlock them. The majority of these will be skins, gear, or lore information.
A few level secrets will actually open up hidden levels, where players can complete a challenge to unlock a new character. (When the game is "done," money/coins will no longer be a thing and will be removed from the game. All unlocks will be achieved via secrets in adventure mode.)
So yeah, that's a lot. Hopefully after I finalize everything this update I can go more quickly on the future regions, but right now I'm still getting everything together.
And let's be frank, each level takes about a week to make/play/refine/polish. So yeah, this one is going to be in the can for a while.
Anyway, just wanted to give you guys a heads up! If you found any part of this long rambling update confusing, just post a comment and I'll try to explain better!
Anyway, cheers!
Working on Adventure Mode - big things ahead
Hola, Peleadores!
Happy 2017!
I am currently working very hard on the first adventure mode update. I was planning on doing a preview post, but am still messing around with the core mechanics/design tweaks to make adventure mode as great as possible. So let me figure out those things first before I post any big preview.
It's worth noting though that this update will be VERY much bigger than 1.1, though early progress has been pretty good!
I'll leave it at that for now, and finish up by showing off two small preview images: the current rough draft of the world map, and a glimpse at the second adventure level!
Update 1.1 - THE FROST UPDATE
Hello again, Brawlers!
It's been a while since I've posted anything, and sorry about that! I have NOT been slacking, however - as of right now, Update 1.1 is LIVE, and it is a doozy!
As a quick overview, it features:
A new character - the ROCKETEER
2 new unlockable CHARACTER SKINS
A new set of levels - the TUNDRA
A Wave mode stage set in the Tundra, with a set of NEW, UNIQUE ENEMIES
A new game mechanic - FREEZING
A slight redesign of the CHARACTER MASTERY process
Various rebalancing/tweaks
And finally, the most exciting feature - a BOSS FIGHT that previews the upcoming Adventure Mode updates!
I'll go into more detail below, but for now, go play it! Tell me what you think! Particularly on the Boss fight - I'm pretty proud of the Swordmaster and would like to fix any issues players find. :D
The ROCKETEER
The Rocketeer is a flying ace who wields a blaster pistol while zooming around the battlefield in his jetpack. He is EXTREMELY mobile, but lacks a dedicated dodge move, and must charge up blaster shots for them to be more effective. But don't underestimate him, as his Pulse Shield and Freeze Grenades make him extremely flexible.
2 New CHARACTER SKINS
I've always been planning on adding character customization options to Blast Brawl 2 - both purely cosmetic skins, and slight moveset alterations to add even more depth to the roster.
In this update, I added the basic code to support these skins, and added 2 to the game: a "formal" skin for the Brawler, and a traditional "Ronin" skin for the Ninja! Currently, they can each be unlocked in the Warrior's Hall for 10,000 coins.
A New Region - The TUNDRA
The Tundra is a cool new region that suits the spirit of the season! This winter wonderland features 4 new Versus Mode levels, and also has a new Wave Mode stage.
Speaking of which...
Wave Mode - NEW ENEMIES
As we have a new level region, we need a new Wave Mode arena to go along with it! And that arena needs new enemies!
I think it's pretty fun, but be warned - the deadly foes you will find in the Tundra are quite vicious, and some of them even wield a strange ice magic unlike anything else you've seen so far...
CHARACTER MASTERY/Wave Mode Changes
So, after watching lots of people's first impressions with the game, I realized most people would just play the Wave mode on Neon City, never tackling the other levels. This was primarily due to the fact that they could get the achievements without tackling the harder levels.
This, combined with people worried about the current lack of content, led me to make a design change:
To "master" a character, players have to beat EACH Wave Mode level solo as that character. This is now much more visible, with the progress you have made visible both on the Character details page and the Wave Mode level select itself.
This is significantly harder to pull off, but should be doable, and lead to more variety when getting the achievements. I have also adjusted the difficulty of the more problematic stages (The Wasteland and the Factory are now a bit more manageable in various ways).
The New BOSS DEMO
FINALLY, and the feature that has pushed this back a week or two: there is now a Boss Fight in Blast Brawl 2. It is accessible from the Main Menu, and can be played as any character with any number of players.
Its purpose is to preview the upcoming Adventure Mode! The boss is an early/mid game boss that is intended to be fairly hard for beginner players, but I expect that players who are familiar with their character can learn to master the fight!
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Whew! I'm not used to writing patch notes.
Anyway, that's the bulk of the new content! If you're still reading this - go out and enjoy the update! I hope you think it improves the game! Blast Brawl 2 still has a long way to go, but on my end it's starting to come together.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to be focused on getting this update through Microsoft's Xbox certification process, since I ran into some issues in the first update submission.
Once I get that done, I will begin on update 1.2 - the NEON UPDATE.
It will be a big update, and I don't really know how long it will take to get out, since it will feature the first "region" of adventure mode - the Neon City levels.
Anyway, once I have a better grip on the timetable for the update, I'll do a preview post! Cheers!
Quick bugfix!
Hello, Brawlers!
I realized that people have been having issues with the button prompts on Steam where the game only displays the keyboard prompts. This should now be fixed (along with a few other minor things that you hopefully won't notice, but that's the big one!)
Also, I am hard at work on the first content update! It should arrive next month on both Steam and Xbox One. I'll give more details later, but it will include a new character, a new set of levels (and corresponding Wave Mode), and hopefully some other improvements. I will shed some more details on that stuff next week!
Until then, just know that I am paying attention to all suggestions/criticisms/suggestions I see, so if you feel like something in Blast Brawl 2 needs to change, give me a holler! I'm trying to stay alert on the discussions here on Steam, but I also suggest contacting me on Reddit, Facebook, or Twitter!
