Two Strikes
Next Update on the end of the month will include more lore and achievements
Just to warn you that the next update of the game will be towards the end of this month.
I just finished the lore section of the game, but I need to connect it to the achievements of the game before releasing it.
I hope you all understand. Also, we are working on other things that we cannot talk about it for now.
Cheers,
Danilo Barbosa.
Tie-break mechanic is now optional.
You have no idea how busy I am...
First of all, I went with Entalto Publishing to GDC and it was a blast! Had a great time and met amazing people. I just step back home and I have to catch another flight to Brazil, to visit my parents, since that's the time of the year I come here to visit them. I will be working from here, but soon I will stop for 10 days to actually rest. Very needed. But then, it will be non-stop until release! So bear with me!
This update doesn't bring a lot, since I just finished a big chunk of the game lore and just started on the achievements. Unfortunately they have to be released together, so that's why I can't release them now.
So the changes for this updates are:
- Removed Tie Break as the default decision mode after a tie. (There is an option on settings to activate it back again)
- Fixed bugs like the Quick Guide Showing Achievements
- Added mouse visibility back.
The tie break mechanic was an old one that made sense back in the day where the Duel Clash wasn't implemented. Now, with it, feels redundant and takes the tension that the ties create in fighting game.
New scenario and music! New lore section added!
This is an important update for me! It finally introduces more details about our duelists and all the hard work Eoin Thompson, our historian did for the game. Who were they? What motivated them in life? What could motivate them in... death?
I started building the Lore section of the menu, there you can find each duelist profile and know more about them. For now, only their profiles are available, more in the next updates!
Also, I've finally linked the endgame to the credits scene!
We are also very happy to introduce you the 8th scenario that belongs to Shenyan, still to be released. You can play in it in the versus modes or in the practice mode.
Bug Fixing
- Some characters experienced some annoying behavior after defending, which would need new input to make them move, even if the player pressed the move button before the end of some animations.
- Fixed bugs where the double dash was not working well, especially for scenarios where there would be one tap and then, a hold to the same direction. That was also a very annoying behavior that I am happy that we managed to fix.
- For keyboard players, fixed some scrambled inputs.
New UI and New Input System Update!
I am happy to announce that we moved away from the old clunky UI to a brand new and beautiful one. With controller or keyboard input indications, for Xbox and PS controllers on all pages.
This UI is not just an aesthetic change, it is laying grounds for all the content that is missing in the game, like extras, achievements, story more lore, and even the ability to listen to the OST of the game in the menus. I am excited about the things to come.
The change also includes all menus, in-game included with a very clear way of communicating the information.
I already added a couple of nice things with this new UI:
1. Credits Screen. Here you can see who has already participated in the game creation and the responsible for all the areas of the game.
2. Default Controller Screen. Here you can see the default inputs for Xbox and PS5 controllers.
3. Options to inactivate the dash with double tapping for each player separately.
4. A more interesting and cohesive key binding screen.
5. The duel settings are not part of the flow anymore. You can set the number of duels or difficulty once and not have to setup every time you choose to play a game mode.
6. New quick guide screen. Here you can access each game tip, instead of having to go through them.
7. News section. Here you will be able to access the latest release notes and any other important Two Strikes news in the future.
In other news, I also had to change the game input system from Rewired to Unity's New Input System. The new UI wasn't compatible with Rewired and as per the request of the publisher, thinking ahead for the porting of the game to all platforms, also suggested I move to the New Input System. This New Input System should simplify detecting fighting sticks and even leverless controllers a lot better and without conflicts with XInput with Steam.
A lot of testing was done to find most of the bugs, but I believe that some of them might have escaped us, so I please asking for your help to find them, so we can squash them as fast as possible.
Balance Changes
- Ayai recovery after being defended from her weak attack is getting 20% longer since some characters were not able to counter even with a weak attack, which was very unfair considering how fast and long-ranged her attack is.
- Yasuke's dash back range is being reduced by 50% and the duration is being decreased by 20%. Consider this a buff, since it makes Yasuke more dynamic and in a better spot after canceling his attacks.
We are getting very close to finishing all the art assets of the game. Including ending illustrations. While I can't show the ending illustrations, I can show you the story mode portraits that were just finished. Miyo, the swordsmith!
No updates in January, but is not for the lack of work.
We are working, a lot!
I am basically re-doing the menus for a more modern and interesting UI, that will help me add the achievements, story mode lore and character profiles in a way that will be great to access and collect the information. The problem is that, I also needed to refactor the input system to the "new" input system from Unity and that's a lot of work to understand and apply.
I was using Rewired before which is a really amazing tool, easy to code with it and setup, but also caused problems with some controllers. Also, we are thinking about the porting to the other platforms, which is a lot easier with the new input system, so it was a change that will have to be done, sooner or later.
I thank you for your patience and hopefully, I can show you soon.
Have a great year, everyone!
Danilo Barbosa
Small quality of life changes
Minor quality of life improvements
- Infinite Mode death counter. Now you can see in real time how many have you dueled to the death.
- Last update I decided to remove the Feint (hold) input, but upon requests, I decided to re-add again.
- Getting hit in Infinite doesn't reset at the start of the next match, making it a lot more difficult to reach higher scores.
Day of the Devs is this week! Also some bug fixes and improvements!
Bug Fixes
- Team Duel single player wasn't starting for some reason
- Switch Pro and Joycons should work again
- Yasuke strong feint was not dashing, revealing to the enemies that the animation wasn't an attack
- Bug where Miyo didn't show up in Infinite mode
- Mayflash 300 is also working, let me know if other fighting sticks are still not working
General Improvements
- AI Level 4 behaviour was changed to be more interesting and be harder to exploit
- Controller vibration for Perfect Parried players
Buffs and Nerfs
- Ayai recovery times were buffed. She can now recover a lot faster after being parried.
Road to Release - The Devlog Series
In the last devblog we delved a lot into what all the historical setting of the game meant, as well as the inspirations behind the title, today it's time to talk once again with our favorite creator, Danilo Barbosa, to know a little bit more about where all this passion for fighting games comes from, let's go for it!
Hey there, Danilo! Tell us, when did your interest in fighting games start?
Danilo: My interest in fighting games started way back in the times of the arcade bars. My first fighting game love was Samurai Shodown II. It had so much style, with incredible characters, I can’t remember how many coins I’ve spent in that arcade machine playing Genjuro.
How much time have you invested in fighting games?
Danilo: Well, after that initial phase I’ve continued to spend my lunch money in many fighting game arcades, from Darkerstalkers, to Megaman Power Battle (big blue bomber fan here), Street Fighter Alpha 2 until I discovered King of Fighters 97 and 98. I used to go play everyday after school, beating up everybody that wanted to challenge me. In the console era, I’ve played many games but not for long, for me the true experience comes from beating other players.
Have you ever taken part in a fighting game tournament? How did it go?
Danilo: Never took part in gaming tournaments, which now thinking about it, makes me think why. I imagine that the reason is because I never saw them happening around me. Maybe they did and I didn’t know. And later when we finally could play online, I never really had good internet, and everytime I tried, I got my ass kicked so hard that I basically stuck with playing single player modes with game like Smash Bros, Soul Calibur, Tekken and a lot of Mortal Kombat.
What games were your main inspiration and what aspects of Two Strikes were inspired by them?
Danilo: We have two games that we drew a lot of inspiration from. The first one is Darkerstalker in the art department, not the style of the game but the settings: monsters fighting each other. For Two Strikes, it helped us create a darker gritty environment where all the characters are already dead in the beginning of the game. For game play, my main inspiration was definitely Samurai Shodown II. The fact that combos weren’t that common and spacing and mind games were more important always drew me into the franchise.
What is something you find lacking or don’t like in the most classic fighting games? Did you get to fix it on Two Strikes?
Danilo: Never really liked combos. But I always loved the basic aspects of fighting games, which take their inspirations from real martial arts and boxing. Spacing, understanding patterns, creating situations to capitalize on them, like feints and canceling motions. So I wanted to go back to basics without the things I always thought were very frustrating, like making a mistake and being punished for 10 seconds while the combo lasts. In the end I didn’t even remember what the mistake was. So with a game where one or two hits ends a match, you know exactly what you did wrong if you lost, so right away you can come back and test new strategies and I believe that for me, that is more satisfying than finally pulling off a combo.
What is your favorite character from any fighting game?
Danilo: Ryu, Eddie, Hanzo and Smoke
And your favorite character from Two Strikes?
Danilo: Hozoin has been my favorite for a while, but I am trying to get better with Yasuke and Miyo, the latest characters released.
Did you get inspiration for any character playability from any other game?
Danilo: For the first game, One Strike, I used to see a lot of fighting games to understand better movesets and what would work or not, so for example, Tomoe is based in Genjuro from Samurai Shodown II. But for Two Strikes, since we went back to the main inspiration which are samurai movies, I’ve been taking most of the character moves from real martial arts and movies. I think that it was the right thing to do because it helped me create the unique experience that is Two Strikes. Moves from movies are much more realistic than the ones you see in most fighting games and this means that the moves are also a lot slower. This is quite crucial to the animations in the game because we need to communicate to the players that attacks are coming. So, every move has anticipation frames, a lot of them.
Do you prefer 2D or 3D games? Why?
Danilo: 2D. By far. The reason is that they have much more style than most 3D fighting games. Of course, this has been changing with games like Guilty Gear and SF6, but in general that’s my idea. Or well, it could also be nostalgia talking here, haha. I can say that the change of a game to 3D made me basically forget about Street Fighter, a game that I loved until Alpha 3, and then, when Capcom decided to jump to 3D with Street Fighter IV, it simply didn’t click with me, just making me return to it now with SF6.
What do you think is the main difference between developing a fighting game and any other genre?
Danilo: I would say the community. When you develop for example a platformer, the relationship you have with the players are more normal. What I mean with that is that there isn’t any other community more passionate about the type of games they play and that also comes with a lot of knowledge. Sometimes, people on the communities and discord use terms that are known in the Fighting Game Community but I need to google to get what they are talking about. I don’t think that happens very often with other types of games.
What is lacking/you would like to expand on Two Strikes?
Danilo: Online game modes and more characters, because who doesn’t love a huge roster?
Apart from the mechanics of One Strike/Two Strike, what would the next Retro Reactor game's main dynamic revolve around?
Danilo: I’ll take a long vacation from Fighting Games, but of course, only after finishing all the DLCs we are planning on releasing if the game goes well. I’ve been really loving playing casual strategy games, like FLT and Into the Breach. I believe my next game will be something like that.
That was absolutely fantastic, thank you so much Danilo for taking care of us again, and as always, be sure to follow us on our social networks (@EntaltoStudios and @dmbarbosa1) to keep up with all the news related to Two Strikes, and we'll see you soon for the next installment of Road to Release: The DevLog Series; Part 5 - Eight Vengeful Killers.
Two New Modes! King of The Hill and One Strike!
One Strike is a love letter to all fans of the saga's origins; going back to the roots, in One Strike Mode the rules are the same as in the first installment - one strike is enough to decide everything!
King of the Hill is an endless carnage mode, where armed with only one life you will have to face an unending barrage of enemies, one after the other. How many will you be able to take down before you inevitably succumb in battle? Not only that but you can post your high scores here!
Who can be the best with each character?
Have you ever wanted Two Strikes merch?
Well, now you can!
Look amazing and help us finish the game at the same time!
We ship worldwide!
https://www.entaltostudios.com/category/two-strikes-collection
What are you waiting for? Join the Two Strikes community now through Discord or its EarlyAccess
Two Strikes selected to Day of The Devs!
Two Strikes duels will happen in person for the first time beyond the seas, all the way to Los Angeles next December 8th at the 11th edition of Day Of The Devs!
We want to thank Double Fine Iam8bit for the opportunity!
On other notes, we are still working on the final game modes and two new characters. More news about that soon!