While I'm still working on getting some wrestling into CPW, here's an update containing more or less random goodies!
Additions
Input: It is now possible to slightly change the direction while running by holding Left Stick (WASD on keyboards) in the desired direction.
The direction change speed is governed by the wrestler's speed.
Pressing against the current direction, as before, will cause the wrestler to stop running.
Input: You can now slightly steer your wrestler when they are ragdolling by using holding Left Stick (WASD on keyboards) in the corresponding direction. This will apply a small force to the upper body, which can be used to somewhat control the direction in which the wrestler is falling.
Rules: Added a Time Limit match rule.
When the match time reaches the time limit, the match is ruled a time limit draw.
If a time limit is in place, the match time display will show the remaining time rather than the already passed time.
Time limits are not available for matches where new participants enter after the bell (e.g., for timed battle royals).
Changes
AI: If applicable, AI will now rotate moves towards a direction prioritized in the following order.
In battle royals, when inside the ring, moves will be rotated towards the nearest ropes as an attempt to eliminate the victim.
When inside the ring, if the victim of the move is ready to be pinned, the move will be rotated towards the center.
In case there is a nearby bulky weapon (e.g., stairs or tables), it will be targeted.
If none of the above applies, a random direction is chosen.
Arena: Removed the Christmas trees from the stage.
CAW: Attires are now selected from a grid dialog featuring thumbnail previews.
CAW: Split up Arms & Hands and Legs & Feet categories into separate categories (Arms, Hands, Legs, and Feet).
CAW: When adding a new attire (or editing an empty entry), the attire selection dialog is shown automatically.
CAW: When saving a wrestler, the old CAW file is now backed up before for the case that saving fails.
The backup file will be contained in the wrestler's directory and have a .bak extension. Already existing backups will be overwritten.
Restoring a backup is done by removing the .bak extension (the file should then have a .caw extension). If this is ever necessary, please contact the developer.
Logging: Log entries now contain a timestamp.
Logging: The game now keeps the 10 most recent logfiles and their filenames contain their creation timestamps.
Menus: The pages in grid selection dialogs are now sorted alphabetically by the category.
Moves: The Fingerpoke of Doom is no longer selected at random when randomizing a moveset. This behaviour may also apply for future moves that are more iconic than serious.
Fixes
AI: Fixed AI failing to slide into the ring from running, e.g., when entering a Timed Battle Royal.
AI: Fixed AI sometimes "charging up" a grapple but then going for a strike anyway.
Input: Fixed being able to springboard (and also technically slide) right after hitting the ropes. There is now a small delay like for halting.
Patch 0.15.5
This patch fixes a hard crash related to destroying weapons or getting them from underneath the ring.
Anniversary and Update 0.15.4: CAW Stuff
Well, would you look at that? It's CPW's first anniversary!
A year ago, after deciding there's no good reason anymore to hide CPW from the public and that its further development would benefit from a release, I finally pulled the trigger on that. Even in lack of a great fanfare (referring to my marketing budget and effort of near-zero) and considering how much things have been and still are missing for this to be a complete wrestling game experience, CPW has far exceeded my very low expectations. To give you some numbers, back then I would have been happy if the game sold a hundred times. That number was crushed before Christmas was over and as of right now, make that times ten and then some! That threw my motivation off the charts and for that, thank you!
Across 17 updates over the past year - some very small and some much bigger - I can safely draw the conclusion that my idea worked out and CPW's development did benefit from an early Early Access release. Core gameplay has improved plenty, and at the same time I was able to deliver (at least one part) of a major update to add more moves to the game, which is what players seemed and still seem to want most. Despite its pretty early stage still, the game has received surprisingly positive reviews here on Steam, which seems to confirm my go at things. Trust me that makes me very happy and keeps me motivated! Thank you!
Talking about things keeping me motivated, I had been working very hard to get the Create-A-Wrestler mode fully integrated with the Steam Workshop for the Early Access release and man, did that pay out. The workshop counts over 1,000 creations from rebuilds and caricatures of real wrestlers next to totally crazy creations. A big shout out and honorary mention goes to JJ_Strife who outdid themselves by creating hundreds of those, most in jaw-dropping quality which I didn't think possible myself given the resources. Playing timed battle royals with a random selection of these CAWs is nothing short of funny and that's exactly what Casual Pro Wrestling, in its core, was supposed to be. So yet again, thank you!
Now I'm sitting here at the game's first anniversary - and also Christmas, by the way - and I don't have that massive update to throw out there that changes everything. Overall, I couldn't provide as much new content in this year's second half as I wanted. I have been stating and I will keep stressing that this is a one-man freetime effort. Until last year, that was next to an actual job and a little family with a baby boy. Since about halfway into this year, add to that that we're building a home for this little family, which by the way grew by one person in the meantime! Free time is a very limited resource right now and that's really the main thing holding me back from working upon the game. So please, never take the lack and sometimes small extent of updates as me "phasing out" on the game. The opposite is the case, I'm still kinda "phasing in", and, even if slowly, CPW will be developed for many years to come.
So I'll be very direct here: I've been unable to finish the update adding more wrestling-type moves such as headlocks and wristlocks and transitions between them. I hope to be able to release that in winter still, about 2-3 months into 2025, before going for the next major update. However, I am very happy to be able to provide an update that's definitely been missing in the past year. How does that meme go? It ain't much, but it's honest work!
Update 0.15.4: CAW Stuff
Let's hit 2,000 wrestler creations in 2025! What do we need for that? Right - more content for Create-A-Wrestler! So here goes.
This update adds some Create-A-Wrestler items that have been requested. It also greatly alleviates the problem of placed stamps going completely off after editing a wrestler's body shape, especially their height.
Additions
CAW: Added eye skins.
Full Color
Iris (default)
CAW: Added eye smoothness slider.
CAW: Added heterochromia: wrestlers can now have differing left and right eyes.
CAW: Added new attires and hairstyles.
Male
Medium Hair 3
Short Hair 3
Female
Pigtails
Short Hair 2
Short Hair 3
Both
Bandana
Bandana Mask
Foot Wraps
Kneepads (Open Back)
Leg Wraps
Luchador Top Mask
Shoes
Options: Added Show Kickout Bar option to enable or disable display of the kickout bar, or enable it only for human-controlled wrestlers.
Changes
Arena: Placed Christmas trees on the stage!
CAW: Eyes are now edited in a new submenu in the Skins menu. Depending on whether Heterochromia is active or not, you will see buttons to edit each eye individually.
CAW: Placed stamps are now smartly repositioned on the body after editing body or attire morphs. This greatly mitigates stamps going off when editing the body after placing them to the point where it should only be possible to notice in very irregular places (due to technical limitations and the lack of a proper definition as to what is "perfect" here, there always remains some small amount of error).
Menus: Rearranged settings in the Settings screen so everything fits.
Fixes
CAW: Fixed additional attire parameters sometimes visually disappearing below the scrollable area.
Technical
Engine: Updated Unity (to 6000.0.29).
Stay tuned and to those who celebrate it: Merry Christmas!
Patch 0.15.3
This is a small update fixing some AI logic as well as other minor bugs. It also adds a tiny bit of content.
Additions
Counters: Added Victory Roll pinning counter from Electric Chair positions.
Music: Added background music theme "The Bomb".
Changes
AI: Prefer rolling the opponent into the ring when grappling outside and there are reasons to get it back inside.
AI: Slightly increased the chance of going for a lock-up.
AI: Slightly increased the chance of going for a heavy strike.
Fixes
AI: Fixed AI estimating a too low counter chance for opponents, causing them to go for grapples almost all of the time.
CAW: Fixed submission holds stopping immediately in move preview.
Music: Fix match music not turning on when setting the volume from 0 to anything else in the Pause Menu.
Netplay: Fixed the Import content pack being required for clients if it exists on the host.
Update 0.15.2: Kickouts
This update adds a kickout system for pinfalls, submissions and similar scenarios such as mount. It also changes grappling to be collision-based, stabilizes ragdoll-based pinfalls and fixes a bunch of bugs.
Additions
Kickout: New kickout system for pinfalls, submissions and similar.
You now have to actively kick out of pins and retaliate against submission holds by tapping buttons.
There is a progress bar that tells you how close you are to kicking out.
The maximum allowed mash rate is 8 taps per second - the closer you get to exactly that, the faster you will kick out.
Pins will default to just last, so you can now also opt to let yourself be pinned. Wrestlers can no longer simply stand up from a ragdoll pinfall.
Submissions may still alternatively be escaped by moving towards the ropes or end automatically if the holder's energy is exhausted.
Mounting: Added the ability to kick out of a mounting situation. This uses the same kickout system as for pinfalls and submissions.
Changes
AI: Updated AI evaluation of whether or not to go for a pinfall.
AI: Will no longer simply stand up while being on the good end of a ragdoll pinfall, but wait how it turns out.
Grapple: Grappling is now collision-based. When you go for a grapple, your wrestler will play a grappling animation. Only if and once the hands collide with another wrestler, they will be grappled. This should completely fix cases where wrestlers temporarily freeze shortly before being grappled or turned around, and it also makes it possible to anticipate and quickly dodge a grapple attempt.
Mounting: Sped up the animation to leave a mounting position.
Fixes
Moves: Fixed springboard Coffin Drops freezing and ultimately ragdolling a wrestler trying to execute it.
Moves: Fixed the awkward behaviour of the Standing Sleeper Hold counter.
Moves: Fixed the Superkick's hit detection.
Physics: Fixed being able to perform ground moves through barricades.
Ragdoll Pinfall: Fixed ragdoll pinfalls being stopped prematurely when involved ragdolls move slightly. They are now much more stable.
Roll: Fixed roll attempt (block + direction while ragdolling) success evaluation being done every frame while a direction is held, unreasonably boosting the success chance. It's now down to at most one check when beginning to hold a direction, as originally intended.
Delays Announcement
Hello casual pro wrestlers!
I had planned to fully release all three parts of the moves update by late autumn. However, I'm facing a few changes in my personal life at the moment. All of them are rather exciting and nothing to worry about, but they require quite some special attention. Since CPW has been and remains a pure hobby project, this immediately has an impact on its development and I won't be able to make my schedule.
The second part of the moves update focuses mainly on updating pinfall and submission kickouts. The new system works and is in a fine-tuning stage, but other than planned, I have not been able to add any new moves to the game at all since the update from late July. Basically, this nixes my plans to release the second part the way it was planned and course, this also has implications on part three, which will focus on wrestling maneuvers.
I'm therefore forced to reschedule things a bit. On September 29th, I will release an update with the new pinfall and submission kickout system, but without any new moves. From there, I will focus working on new moves as my time allows it to finalize the moves update by the end of the year. Even though it was not planned this way at all, this shall make a nice anniversary update. Sorry for making you wait!
tl;dr things are going slower than planned due to life, all is fine, but updates are delayed
Thanks!
Apart from all of that, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for playing and supporting CPW. I will write a bigger retrospective for the first anniversary on Christmas, but let me tell you that I had very low expectations, and saying that they were exceeded would be the understatement of the millenium. Even though I'm pretty quiet most of the time, I see comments and notes on game stating on how people are having fun with it, and those make me very happy to say the least. The game is arguably still in a rather barebones state, and yet there are people comparing it to titles whose budgets exceed mine by several orders of magnitude. That's just awesome and also very motivating, thank you!
Shout-Out
In different news, if you enjoy physics-based wrestling but with what looks like way more realism, you should definitely have a look at another indie wrestling titled in the making called Neckbreaker: Visceral Pro Wrestling. I'm not affiliated with the author, but I will say that his Twitter/X development posts dating several years back really encouraged me to go for more ragdolling in CPW than was originally planned. Kudos and good luck to Steve for that project!
Patch 0.15.1
This patch fixes a netplay issue and applies some minor improvements to moves.
Changes
Moves: Move rotation now centers around the instigator and no longer the centroid of the involved wrestlers.
Moves: Revised depenetration timing for Electric Chair Drop, Electric Chair Facebuster and Powerbomb Throw for improved environment interaction.
Fixes
Moves: Fixed move rotation not updating precomputed additional motion. This caused wrestlers to go very off in some situations (e.g., the victim of an Electric Chair Drop when rotating while being lifted up).
Netplay: Fixed being unable to join a network game if the host has too many active Steam Workshop content items.
Update 0.15.0: Moves Update #1
Alright, here it is! This is the first part of CPW's first major update. It focuses on adding many new moves, individual movesets featuring a move selection in CAW mode, springboard flying attacks and a set of new entrance themes.
This sets two big milestones for CPW: First, and most importantly, not all wrestlers share the same moves anymore but they can have their individual moveset. Sure, the selection is still sparse compared to other games, but slowly we'll be getting there. This is by far not the last update adding new moves! Second, all stock wrestlers now have their individual entrance themes, some possibly sharing them with their future teammates.
The springboard flying attacks are a neat new gameplay feature that should really add upon the madness. Your flying attacks are now available to be performed from the top rope to the outside or from the second rope to the inside (backward).
The full changelog follows below.
Additions
Back Grapple: Added counter to back grapple of own.
Back Grapple: Added new moves.
Atomic Drop
Back Breaker
Electric Chair Drop
Electric Chair Facebuster
Reverse DDT
Russian Leg Sweep
Side Slam
CAW: Added a move selection menu for editing the wrestler's moveset.
Includes a preview.
There's an option to copy an entire moveset from another wrestler.
Only moveset entries where there's actually a choice right now can be edited. More moveset entries will become editable in the future as more moves are added to the game.
Wrestlers created before this update will simply default to the original moveset.
CAW: Added new themes.
Absolute
Drunk On Junk
Going For A Walk
In The House
One Leg Man
Party With Molly
Punishment
Renegades
Sacré Bleu
Sweet Love
The Pain Will Thrive
Tropical Island of Relevancy
Flying Moves: Added new flying moves.
450 Splash (against laying opponents)
Coffin Drop (backwards)
Shooting Star Press (against laying opponents)
Front Grapple: Added new moves.
Alabama Slam (with Canadian Destroyer counter)
Chokeslam (with Elbow Strike counter)
Falcon Arrow (with Knee Strike counter, also counterable as if entering a Suplex)
Fallaway Slam (counterable as if entering a Body Slam)
Falling Powerslam (counterable as if entering a Body Slam)
Front Facebuster (counterable as if entering a Standing Headscissors for a Powerbomb)
Piledriver (counterable as if entering a Standing Headscissors for a Powerbomb)
Powerbomb Throw (counterable like Powerbomb)
Powerslam (counterable as if entering a Body Slam)
Ground Moves: Added new moves.
Catapult
Wishbone Legsplitter
Lock-Up: Added new moves.
Fireman Carry
Snapmare
Roll: Added the ability to roll out of the way when laying on the ground.
Hold Block (LT on gamepads, C on keyboards) while moving left stick (W A S D on keyboards) into any direction.
The success chance depends on how long the wrestler has already been laying. If an attempt fails, it can be attempted again by moving the left stick back to the middle and trying again. If fully rested, success is guaranteed.
Rolling requires energy and is not available if the wrestler is fully fatigued.
When laying supine, the wrestler rolls over in the corresponding direction to an all-fours position.
When laying prone, the wrestler rolls over in the corresponding direction to a sitting.
Running Moves: Added new moves.
Cannonball
Front Dropkick
Pump Kick
Springboard: Added rope springboard attacks.
When running towards ropes, tap Climb (Y on gamepads, Q on keyboards) in time to leap onto the top or middle rope, depending on where you targeted opponent is located at.
From there, you can perform any of your flying moves.
After a very short time frame, the wrestler will jump automatically.
The distance from which a wrestler can jump onto the top rope depends on their weight, speed and current condition.
Springboarding consumes energy and may be botched.
Strikes: Added new moves.
Fingerpoke of Doom
Giant Headbutt
Roundhouse Kick
Superkick
Tutorial: Added a lesson on springboard attacks.
Changes
AI: Increased chance of using heavy strikes against dizzy opponents when over-the-top rope eliminations are in effect.
Corner: Wrestlers receiving repeated weak strikes will now collapse into a sitting position rather than simply ragdoll.
Counters: Irrelevant / misleading counter feedback is now suppressed: "Perfect" is no longer displayed if the counter fails, and negative feedback is no longer displayed if the counter succeeds anyway.
Flying Moves: Reduced the number of different flying moves any wrestler knows for each specific scenario (standing opponent, grounded opponent, backward) to two.
The choice is done by leaving the analog stick in the middle or moving it into any direction (W A S D on keyboards). It no longer matters which direction is chosen.
Input: In favor of springboarding, tapping Climb when running towards will no longer cause the wrestler to slide into or out of the ring. It is now exclusively done by holding the button.
Irish Whip: Countering an Irish Whip will now reverse it into an Irish Whip of own rather than blocking it. This may be made optional in the future.
Mounting: Drastically reduced the damage and momentum exchange happening during mounted strikes.
Roster: Changed entrance themes for some stock wrestlers.
Roster: Changed movesets of stock wrestlers.
Running Moves: Reduced the number of different runing moves any wrestler knows for each specific scenario (standing or grounded opponent) to two.
The choice is done by tapping either Strike (X on gamepads, SPACE on keyboards) or Grapple (A on gamepads, E on keyboards). It no longer matters whether the buttons are tapped or held.
Fixes
AI: Fixed AI not interrupting pinfall and submission attempts in first fall matches.
Match: Fixed match never ending in case a human player takes over control of a wrestler while entering the match.
Moves: Fixed wrestlers rotating back to their original facing after perfoming a Body Press Throw.
We Got The Moves - Part One
It's been a while since the last update here!
I believe I've stated numerous times that I'm a solo dev and work on this project next to a job and having a little family. In that regard, don't ever worry if there's a month of silence. ːsteamhappyː
Casual Pro Wrestling was released last Christmas and its reception really exceeded my expectations. It's a small game and the community is definitely still small, but that's fine, because the small amount of content doesn't justify advertising it as a huge game that's on par with the many other wrestling games we all know and love. I really want to thank everyone so much for supporting this game!
One type of content has been lacking in particular: moves! Currently, all wrestlers share the same moves and because there simply aren't any more in the game, there is no move selection in Create-A-Wrestler. Well, I'm happy to announce that this is finally about to change!
As announced in January, the first major update to CPW will feature new moves and the first batch will come by the end of July. From that statement you may be able to extract that there will be more batches - and yes, there will be. I'm splitting the update into at least three parts.
We Got The Moves - Part One
The first part will release on July 28, 2024.
It will kick off the major update by adding a total of 16 new front and back grapple moves as well as a bunch of others. I will be sure to show some of these off until then.
The update also adds springboard moves off the top rope! You can trigger this while running towards the ropes - your wrestler will jump on the top rope and perform any of their flying maneuvers to either the outside or the inside, depending on whom you are focusing.
Finally, it introduces a move selection to Create-A-Wrestler mode. Even though the selection will still be small compared to other games, this will allow you to do first adjustments to your wrestler's fighting styles.
We Got The Moves - Part Two
The second part will release by the end of summer.
It will focus on enhancing pinfalls and submissions, because the lack of control over what's going on - especially to the victims of a pinfall - has not been very great. With this, a batch of new submission maneuevers will be added as well as some new ways to enter a pinfall such as good ol' School Boy!
I also promised that the community would be able to vote for some moves to be added. In my book, it makes sense to put this after some new moves have already been added, so expect a voting process that will launch in late summer.
We Got The Moves - Part Three
The third part will release in autumn.
It will focus on wrestling - and that's when the lock-up / "weak grapple" will hopefully begin to make more sense. I'm talking headlocks, hammerlocks, wristlocks, takeovers and transitions between these and more serious predicaments such as grapples, pinfalls and submissions.
Additionally, whatever moves get voted for in the move vote stated above will be included in this update.
We Got The Moves - Part Infinity (and beyond)
Beyond and between all of that, moving forward to future major updates and even after a full release, smaller batches new moves will be added more regularly for a long long time. Animating these - with modularity and ragdolling in mind - is a somewhat slow process, so this will be something where CPW will constantly grow. Kaizen style! The result of the move votes will definitely help me decide the order.
What comes after that? We will be talking about that when the time comes. Ultra Pro Wrestling is on the radar and given that they have a team and the budget, everyone - including myself - is expecting something big. While everyone's playing with that, I will be cooking new stuff for Casual Pro Wrestling to make it the insane and fun ragdoll wrestling experience that it is bound to be!
In the meantime, take your chance to grab CPW at a discount during Steam's Summer Sale, spread the word, join the Discord server and keep wrestling!
Update 0.14.20: Timing Matters!
Before the first batch of new moves arrives in summer, this update addresses move countering. The way to counter moves so far was "hold LT and hope for the best". The idea behind this was to give something different from the science that other wrestling games make of countering a move. However, this turned out not too popular.
The new system focuses more on timing the press of LT properly, as it is known from many other wrestling games. To put it briefly: the better you time the button press, the more likely you are to successfully counter a move. In online games, the ping of a connected player is respected. You can learn the new system using the new Counter Feedback setting: if you activate it, whenever you try to block a move, you will get a brief message telling you whether you pressed too early, too late or whether you hit it perfectly. The setting is off by default.
You can read more about the new countering in the manual, which also includes some details for the nerds out there!
Here's the full changelog of update 0.14.20:
Additions
Options: Added the Counter Feedback setting that displays a message whether the Blockbutton was pressed too early, too late, too often or (close to) perfectly when attempting a counter. It is also available in the pause menu.
Changes
Counters: Countering moves and grapples is now largely affected by timing the press of the Block button (LT on gamepads, C on keyboards) correctly.
While a move is executed, there are one or more "sweet spots" that depend on the move at which a counter is possible (e.g., right after going into a standing head scissors for a powerbomb, or at the peak after lifting them up for the powerbomb).
The shorter the time between the sweet spot and the press of the button, the higher the chance becomes to successfully counter. Mashing the button is penalized.
Successful counters also depend on the momentum of the involved wrestlers.
