Two Strikes
Road to Release - Devlog Series
Hey hey Danilo, how’s it going? What do you say we skip the introductions this time and go straight for the jugular; Why did you base Two Strikes specifically in the Sengoku period?
Danilo: The Sengoku period in Japan is one of the most convoluted periods in Japan's history. From the country's unification to the cradle of many legends like Goemon and Yasuke. Samurai still ruled and the common folks suffered under endless wars.
And where does the Shinigami Tournament come from? What is its motivation?
Danilo: The Shinigami tournament is an idea from our lead artist, Gerson Oshiro. Big fan of Japanese darker artists and culture, he wanted to bring this to the game and his idea was to basically kill everybody in the game for that to happen. Even the characters from the first game. At the time I thought it was quite fitting and explained why they kept fighting even though they're being killed every 15 seconds. The Shinigami's motivation changed throughout the years. Initially started being just the cliché that was depicted in many manga and anime, from the god of death being bored and looking for some souls to torment, but nowadays is more about bringing more conflict and despair to not only the lives of the warriors in the tournament, but for all those that cross their paths.
Wow! And tell us, what are the references for the artistic style?
Danilo: 7 Samurai is the ultimate reference, but Jojo's bizarre adventure and Darkerstalker are also great influences and to compliment all that, a little bit of Tarantino.
You mentioned that the Sengoku period gave birth to many legends, tell us, are the characters of Two Strikes based on real figures?
Danilo: Yes, Goemon and Yasuke are the characters that were based on real historical figures in the Sengoku era. Of course, our lead artist created his own version of them, and we are crazy to tell their stories in the new mode we are working on at the moment.
What were the main references, both visual and playable, to land the message?
Danilo: Since our main reference is movies, we wanted to keep the gameplay completely without UI. The main reason behind it is to keep the player involved in what they were seeing, a duel. In the movies, there's no life bar for Samurai 1 and Samurai 2. So, if we wanted to create a game that could succeed in creating a movie + game experience this has to be gone.
But of course, removing it and expecting players to simply accept it is difficult and confusing when talking about game design. So, to solve some of the issues, we added some visual cues to help the players understand every that was happening and that it could add to the feeling of a duel. So, for example, instead of a life bar, we added the blood spurts for players with one hit already. This way they know they are about to die for any strike, they have to be careful.
Any character idea you haven't been able to carry out?
Danilo: Coming from my experience in One Strike, one of the things I learned for games with one or two hits is that ranged characters are incredibly complicated to balance, but even this limitation got solved with some ingenuity, making them release projectiles that don't cover the whole screen, like Goemon.
How have you tied the gameplay of the characters to themselves?
Danilo: This is a difficult process. Designing a character and implementing it to be able to make it feel right with his movement set and what he offers to the players is probably the biggest challenge that designing a fighting game has to offer. My biggest struggle was definitely with Yasuke. I ended up designing him to be a very defensive character, so his move set followed that. The problem was that he was bigger and stronger than most characters, why would he be holding back on his brute force if he could overpower the others? That's when I decided to use some discarded animations to make his gameplay very aggressive and change his special ability to be a parry breaker.
Why new characters compared to One Strike?
Danilo: Because I wanted our lead artist to have more freedom with the designs especially because One Strike designs aren’t the best, I created them and I'm no artist. I just asked him for a version of Kenji and Tomoe, my favourite characters from the first game.
And tell us, are the fighting stages based on real places?
Danilo: Some places are. Kenji's scenario has Mount Fuji in the background. Ayai's scenario is also a reference to an old Ainu village. There are many more, but you have to play the story mode to discover, hehe.
What are the main references for the stages?
Danilo: The biggest references are definitely old samurai movie posters. If you look closer, they even have some old marks, like they are old.
And finally, let’s talk a little about the music! Tell us, what are the main musical references?
Danilo: The sound designer Benimaru used especially an instrument called the Sakuhashi to create a unique sound "pallet" for the game. It is delicate but can also be powerful and exciting. Quite perfect for the game. I didn't really have a specific source. When we initially started, Benimaru, Gerson, and I chatted heavily about the styles of Samurai Champloo, Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill's composer), and Sekiro. I suppose those formed a basis.
Well as always, thank you very much, Danilo for answering all our inquiries, and thank you very much to all of you who have read up to here. Make sure to follow us on our social networks (@EntaltoStudios and @dmbarbosa1) to stay updated on all the news related to Two Strikes, and see you in the next installment of Road to Release: The DevLog Series; Part 4 – Born to Fight!
Two Strikes officially translated to 20 countries
Translations
Adding in-game translations for French, Italian, German, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (BR), Portuguese (PT), Spanish, Swedish.. and very soon simplified Chinese!
And that also goes to our Steam page!
SFXs completely remixed.
The game's sound designer Beni finished mixing ALL of the game SFXs and we basically updated 190+ of them, wow! The game sounds and feels so much better with the changes! I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions on it!
Road to Release - The Devlog Series
Hi Danilo! How you doing? Ready once again?
Danilo: Very good! Excited to talk a little bit more about the history of Retro Reactor Games!
Great, let's get started then; for those who don't know, Two Strikes is the sequel to Retro Reactor's previous game, One Strike, a game that was incredibly popular at the time especially on Nintendo Switch. Tell us, Danilo, what are the main differences between Two Strikes and One Strike?
Danilo: Well, One Strike was where it all started. The idea for the game came after watching the movie 7 Samurai by Akira Kurosawa and it was an attempt to translate one of the scenes into a game, which wasn't easy at all, it took me 8 months of hard work at night, as I always made the games in my spare time, until today. It was also my first commercial game, and I did it completely on my own. Not because I liked working like that, but because I had no choice. Nobody believed in a kid who only had ideas. If I wanted to finish my game, I would have to do it myself. So, One Strike is an ultra-casual game with pixel art, 8-16bits, that only one hit finishes the fight. It was released with only 6 initial characters and later went up to 10.
Why did you decide to make these changes?
Danilo: The success of One Strike was quite important for all the changes that were made in the second one, mainly because it allowed me to fund artists, musicians, testers, voice actors and so on, so the production level went up exponentially.
Also, speaking of gameplay, I already had the experience from the first game, so I knew more or less what would work and what wouldn't work, for example, characters with projectiles; in One Strike it was really hard for me to balance the only character that had those skills because, of course, in a game where you can kill with one hit, an infinite range attack is quite powerful.
Other important changes also happened because of the community that came from the first game and actively participated in the development of the second game, thanks to them, I was able to test ideas and make design changes more quickly.
And finally the main gameplay change: different from One Strike which was ultra-casual, to make Two Strikes a medium-casual game because important things of fighting game designs were lost with the simplicity of the first game like the backflips, and moments of tension that are built up little by little in each duel.
What can a One Strike veteran expect when playing Two Strikes for the first time?
Danilo: They will be blown away by what they see at first glance, but after that, they will feel at home. Both games provide the same core gameplay which puts the players in a duel. Your life is at stake, the tension is the same when you are playing Street Fighter and both fighters can die with a single hit. In other words, the game starts, and the tension is already high. What changes is that to get that hit, there are other tools, and to avoid that hit, there are also other tools, so the game feels similar, but it's not, it's much more strategic but it stays fast and tense.
Are there any characters that travel from the first game to the second? Why those in particular and not the others?
Danilo: Tomoe and Kenji are the only ones I decided to carry over from One Strike to the second game. The reason was because the lead artist wanted independence with the character designs and being a great artist, it seemed like a good idea. The second reason was because I wanted the freedom to create new types of characters without just copying the first game. But nothing prevents me from bringing more characters from the first game in the future, with their updated and unique design for Two Strikes.
One thing that really stands out about Two Strikes is the amazing artwork, what is the reason behind the evolution from pixel art to the hand drawn style?
Danilo: Initially, I was looking for an artist to make the second game also in pixel art. My studio was always focused on making retro experiences, but as the graphic quality of the first game was a limiting factor for it to also be a success on consoles with more powerful graphics engines, I was open to try something in HD, that's when I met the lead artist, Gerson. I had the opportunity to work with him briefly on another project that I didn't finish, but I already admired his art. So, the decision was made to have the opportunity to work with someone like Gerson who would definitely do something special.
Is there anything from One Strike that you would have liked to include in Two Strikes, but it wasn't possible?
Danilo: Mechanically nothing, but I would definitely like to bring more characters to Two Strikes in the future.
From the launch of One Strike until now it has been almost 6 years, what has been the most difficult thing you have encountered in the development of Two Strikes during these years?
Danilo: Definitely running a team. Although they all worked as freelancers, organising their tasks, accompanying them, making changes, knowing how to interact with their problems and availability was quite difficult. It took me a long time to understand how to solve problems and how to improve our process. But there is no way to do a project like that, with that quality and the help of good people, so it was a process that even though it was very difficult, it was a great learning experience for me, and I would not go back.
It's probably too early to ask, but... seeing the evolution from One Strike to Two Strikes, what do you think you would add for a "Three Strikes"?
Danilo: 3D hahaha. I wouldn't make another 2D fighting game. Animations are expensive, take a lot of time to make and once you have them, adjusting them to the game is often impossible without making more changes, meaning you have to be very creative with what you have to make it all work.
As always, thank you so much for your time, Danilo, and thank you so much to all of you who read all the way through!
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 in the next installment of Road to Release: The DevLog Series; Part 3 - The Bloody Sengoku.
Miyo arrives in the eternal fields of battle!
Who is Miyo?
Miyo originally did not intend to become a swordsmith. She originally wanted to join the Shinto priesthood. Due to the war, this proved to not be possible. As an emergency backup, Miyo ended up working with her father, swordsmithing. This went on for several years, and they slowly dragged themselves out of poverty through superior craftsmanship, specializing in creating tanto and tachi for middle-class samurai. However, due to a freak accident, Miyo was forced to step in to become the only smith of the family.
For the rest of her story, you have to find out when the Story Mode is ready!
Miyo's Gameplay!
Miyo is a master at dissimulating her attacks. For each of the swords she owns, comes a different attack, but they all start with the same animation, making it impossible to predict from the few initial frames what is coming out next! Mixing that with her above-average combination of cancels, she can't be very hard to anticipate.
Miyo's move set
Weak Attack [Little fox]: This is a very basic sword slash with a short-range but fast delivery. This uses her mid-size sword named Little Fox.
Strong Attack [the sword of ten fists]: This attack begins with her jumping backward and can be used quite well against overly aggressive characters, and while having quite the long range, this attack can be used in many ways with the canceling and feinting. I will let you all find out by yourselves. This attack uses her longest sword the Sword of Ten Fists, named after the swords owned by Shinto gods.
Both of his attacks can be canceled.
DashForward [The sword of life]: This is also an attack. Can be used in many ways to cancel both weak and strong attacks. Miyo uses her smaller sword to perform this attack called The Sword of Life, inspired by Susanoo's sword.
DashBack: Miyo is an aggressive fighter, always putting pressure, because of this, her dashback is a dash forward that can be used to cancel both weak and strong attacks, setting up new weak attacks or the dash forward attack.
The feints also work a little bit differently for her. I invite you to try it out!
General Changes:
New voice actors:
Miyo comes completely voiced and this time, our old friend Hozoin will finally be able to speak his mind as well! Super happy with the results for both of them!
New scenario and music!
Miyo comes with her stage, named the Paper Furnace, and a brand new OST gives life to it.
A new stage selection menu and random selection were added!
Since now we have 7 scenarios, the old selection was too small. For that reason, I decided to redo it with 10 spaces now. Two for the last scenarios that are missing (Shenyan and the Shinigami) and a space for random selection of the scenarios.
Game mode description added!
One of the things I noticed could confuse some players was the fact that even though the game modes have simple names, it wasn't 100% clear to the players exactly what they did. Now they have a small description that will help them navigate better.
Round Counters Replaced
The green flames were removed and a newly animated, bigger beautiful flames were added in place to make the round counter clearer to all players.
Nerfs:
Ayai was the only one affected this time around. She was heavily nerfed thought. Both of her attack recuperations are now 40% longer. The reason for this is that she was able to come out unscattered after being perfectly parried since her recovery was so fast, so no risk and all reward for her.
Let me know what you think of this change in the comments, please.
Bug Fixes!
Not a lot of bug fixes in the version. Some sound effects were fixed and pressing confirm does not play them twice, which was pretty annoying.
Road to Release - The Devlog Series
Throughout this series of posts we'll be discovering together more about the best 1v1 fighting game set in the Sengoku period. Let's get to it!
Before we dive into the bloody fields of feudal Japan, let's delve a little deeper into the mind of the man behind the work; today we have with us the one and only Danilo Barbosa, director of Two Strikes.
Hey Danilo, how's it going? Ready to get started?
Danilo: Fantastic! I've got a lot of work to do on the game, but I'm really excited to be in the final stretch of Two Strikes development with everything to come!
Great, let's get to it then; tell us, Danilo, how long have you been working in the video game industry?
Danilo: I've been working in the video game industry since 2015. I started making educational casual games that taught physics laws, evolution, mathematics. It was a great experience and even though they were small games, I had a ton of fun. Luckily, they didn't pay badly, considering that I didn't have any previous experience. Then, after a few GameJams, I finally decided to try something authorial. That's when I put into practice the passion I had for Japanese culture and the stories of samurai, monks and ninjas and developed my first game called "One Strike".
Why did you decide to start developing video games?
Danilo: After graduating in electronic engineering, I couldn't find a job in a difficult time for engineers in Brazil, after the political instability that was the result of the political coup that deposed the former president. At that time, luckily, I started working as a software analyst, a job I liked and for years I was looking for a change back to engineering without success. Besides, I was not doing very well in my personal life either! To distract myself I started to study videogame development in my spare time and well... After "One Strike" and "Two Strikes" I still make the games in my spare time, but I can say that for many years now it is no longer a hobby but a second job that I really love.
Looking at your track record, it's easy to assume that fighting games are your favourite, aren't they? Which one is your favourite?
Danilo: Not really! My favourite games are roguelikes like "Hades", "Faster than Light" and "Into the Breach", but of course fighting games have always fascinated me since I was a kid! My favourite is definitely Samurai Shodown II. Its theme and gameplay are certainly one of the many inspirations for my games.
Do you practice, or have you practiced, any contact sport or martial art?Has your knowledge influenced your game?
Danilo: Yes, I did Karate for 6 years, I had the green belt when I was a teenager. I wouldn't say it didn't directly influence the development of "Two Strikes", but it indirectly contributed to my obsession with Japanese culture and my interest to immerse myself completely in part of Japanese history.
If you weren't making fighting games, what kind of games would you like to make?
Danilo: I really want to make roguelike strategy games like "FTL" and "Into the Breach", I think that will be my next project!
Awesome! And tell us, what advice would you give to someone who wants to make their own fighting game?
Danilo: To make other types of games, hahaha! I'm joking of course, but, in reality it's not easy. Although there is a lack of games and it's not a saturated market, fighting games are seen as big risks by many companies. Online multiplayer is also another critical point, it's expensive and you must have it. So, if your dream is to make a fighting game, go ahead! But know that it will be an “interesting” journey.
Sounds about right! Now to finish this first DevLog tell us, why did you decide to call your studio Retro Reactor?
Danilo: Because I always imagined myself making retro games, my first games and "One Strike" have very simple visuals and gameplay, the Reactor comes from my background in electronic engineering. Even if I didn't practice it, it's part of me and I didn't want to forget it!
Thank you so much for your time, Danilo, and also to everyone who has been reading all the way through to the end!
Be sure to follow us on our networks (@EntaltoStudios and @dmbarbosa1) to keep up with all the news related to Two Strikes, and we'll see you in the next installment of Road to Release: The DevLog Series; Part 2 - Striking Twice!
Play the DEMO now!
Play the Demo now!
In the spirit of celebration with our new partner Entalto Studios, we decided that more people needed to get their hands on the game. So, if you are still unsure if you should buy or wishlist the game, now it is finally your time!
We are dropping a Two Strikes Demo for you to try the game for FREE!
Right now you can play with both characters from my first game One Strike: Kenji and Tomoe! Play with friends, challenge yourself against the AI, and if you haven't done it yet, please wishlist the game! I hope you enjoy it and let me know what are your thoughts!
Release Notes:
That's not the only news today, if you already own the game, here are the latest changes:
New killing effect:
Now every time a round ends, the game will stop for some milliseconds and invert colors to give some players a better idea of where they were when hit and to give a phantasmagoric feeling after each death.
Reformed Menus:
Now you can cancel the selection of your character by pressing the "back" button. Especially for versus and practicing against the AI, some players complained that they had to go back to the main menu to re-select fighters. Also, added some effects to make the selection screen more cohesive.
More Fighters Names:
Fighters' names on the round counters were added for all the game modes. Some players have been complaining that they couldn't see the names of the characters once they start fighting and suggested I add them in some more places. So here you go.
Bug fixing:
- Fixed a bug where the stage selection would appear in front of the fighter selector screen.
- Fixed bug where second player couldn't select "Character Selection" in the menus after a fight
- Fixed glitches that were triggering some weird effects also on the after-fight menus.
Two Strikes joins forces with Entalto Publishing!
It is with great joy that I come to announce that we finally found the perfect partner to bring Two Strikes to the greatness it deserves.
It wasn't easy, and it wasn't fast, and that's why I thank you again for the patience and the support many of you showed to this game throughout these years.
What does this news mean, and why Entalto Publishing you ask?
With Entalto, the game will finally receive the features all the fans have been asking for! I couldn't be more excited about the future! For now, we won't be revealing that much, but stay tuned, more announcements are coming in the near future!
With that amazing news, we are just waiting for Steam to approve the new Demo that will be available for everyone this week on the Steam page!
Demo:
What can you try with the Demo? Two characters and two scenarios will be available. You can play them either against the AI in the practice mode or versus your friends with local versus.
Road to Gamescom: New features!
I bring you all INCREDIBLE updates today! Alongside a nice 10% discount!
While I was preparing the game for GAMESCOM COLOGNE, that takes place this week, I was working super hard to bring you tons of new quality-of-life features such as:
In-Game Control Mapping
I know this is one of those features long dues, but it is finally here! Now you can change all the inputs of the game: keyboard and controllers. This will probably fix also all the problems with unconventional controllers. Please let me know if you have any problems with it! Since it is a new feature and there are so many different controllers, we might face some. This can be accessed by the Options menu.
In-Game Pause added
Initially, my idea was not to allow the players to pause the game because of how fast the matches were and that it could lead to some players annoying others with this feature. But after some consideration, I decided to go back on my decision to allow it and leave it to the players to decide not to use it. And the implementation of a pause menu was very important to our next big feature:
Training Mode
Now it's finally possible to go to the dojo to practice and uncover all your favorite character secrets. Now you can pause in the training scenario and choose the behavior you want from the AI. For now, I added 3 different behaviors and planning to add more! Defense, Weak Attack, and Strong Attack. This way you can train how to overcome defenses, how long the attacks take, and get that perfect perfect parry.
The idea is to add more and more behaviors, let me know the favorite ones you want to have in the comments!
Two New Difficulties
Today the game receives two brand new difficulties, a Level 0 and the Level 4.
I noticed that a lot of players were still struggling in the level 1, so I decided to create a less "blockly" AI for them.
Level 4 promises to be the best difficulty so far. The idea behind it is to use better the feint mechanic to take advantadge of turtle players waiting for perfect parries. Also, we new behaviors that I created after this last couple of months of watching a lot of great gameplay videos sent by the community, so for that, thank you very much.
Buffs and Nerfs of the Month!
Yasuke
I am still unsure of the final stats for Yasuke in the current version, that's why I'm buffing him for the second straight month. The idea here is to give him a boost in mobility within his dashes, so he has more chances of using his unique technique: the defense breaker.
Also, his weak feint is also bigger now, to draw more defenses.
Bugs Fixes
Again, a lot of bug fixes, to be honest I was hoping I could tackle more but the events are getting in the way. Here are the bug fixes of the month:
- Fixed the AI behavior repeating the last action it was doing before being perfect parried or duel clashed.
- Fixed Discord link, that for some reason I cannot imagine it was expired... I was sure I got one that never did... but well.
- Fixed Hozoin behavior that wouldn't punish players after some obvious mistakes
- Fixed also some AI behaviors that were not stopping after reaching their best range for attacking, creating a weird gameplay.
Buffs, Nerfs and Bugfixes
Buffs
Yasuke defense breaker has been proved quite difficult to use by most players, that's why I am speeding up the initial part of the animation, this way the Yasuke player can have more time to connect with the defending opponent.
Nerfs
For today's update, I decided to nerf Goemon because he wasn't being punished after being perfectly parried by opponents, this would allow him to keep spamming kunais and didn't seem very fair.
Also for the same reason I'm slowing the weak attack animation by 10% so we see less spamming and more strategy.
Bugs
- Ayai was sliding after the defense of the second strong attack.
- Fixed Goemon Kunai missing after he is perfectly parried or after a duel clash.
Removed Bug Tech
- I decided to remove a bug that allowed players to cancel attacks in the middle of the active attack frame. This could lead to some interesting gameplay but after further analysis, it proved very complicated to rely on and just a few characters could do it. Also, the main reason is that it was just confusing to see. With all the canceling and feint happening, I want to continue to have cohesive, strategic, and clean gameplay.
What to expect next?
I will continue working on bug fixing. It is time to make the gameplay fluid and flawless. But also, I continue working on Miyo. So stay tuned!
Another HUGE update! New gameplay mechanic! Difficulties, Localization!
Well, I've been working very quietly this last month. There are some reasons behind it. The main one was that May was a very stressful month. I've been to 3 gaming festivals with Two Strikes, and by the end of it, I was basically dead! haha! June brought no updates until now because I needed some resting, although, working on the game can be a nice way to rest as well, so I continue working this whole month without telling you much. The result wasn't bad, I must tell. I'm very excited to bring to you everything I did this month:
Feint Mechanic
This is another game-changing mechanic! Just like the perfect parry it gives the players a whole new range of options. Differently from dash canceling, the feint mechanic doesn't move the player. Allowing a brand new range of mind games.
The feint mechanic seems very simple. The broad idea is that it will fake an attack. How does it work? it plays half of the preparation animation for the attack and stops, going back to idle, and releasing some smoke. This creates new opportunities for baiting defenses and new attack timings making the fighters even more unpredictable.
Not all attacks can be faked, though. The rule is: all the attacks that can be canceled by dashing, can also be feinted. So for example, Tomoe's strong attack cannot be feinted, but Kenji's strong can.
AI Defense Completely Redone
I've spent the last week completely redoing how the AI defends. It was a tough job, but now I have full control of this aspect, which means I have a lot more freedom to create new difficulties and new behaviours. Are you excited for bigger challenges?
Game Difficulties
Another thing is long overdue, but it is finally here. The game will count initially with 3 CPU levels.
Level 1: No dash cancels and feints. The CPU shouldn't perfect parry.
Level 2: Can dash cancel. No feints. Small chance of perfect parry.
Level 3: Dash cancels and feints, considerable chance of perfect parry.
This idea is to continue building on it and teach the new player without overwhelming them. In the future, I will be creating more CPU levels and adding new behaviors. I'm very excited about this because the perfect parry and the feint mechanics gave the game so many new layers to the CPUs as well.
Quick Guide
A game guide was long overdue... I decided to start with a simple version of it to show newcomers especially all the secrets the game holds, since I was seeing on my trips, in short gameplays they were being difficult to find, giving the player the impression that the game was too simple.
This is only the first iteration, the idea is to add videos and practice gameplay to it in the future.
Game Localization
This was supposed to be added later. But the guide, even though I tried not to make it too lengthy, it ended up having a reasonable amount of text. This ended up pushing me to get this over with. You can now head to Settings and change the language to Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese (Brazil). Soon more languages are coming, like Portuguese (PT), French, and Catalan. Remember to restart the game once you changed the language to see its effect.
Voice Acting
I continue to add voice actors to our beloved characters. This time around, Goemon, Ayai, and Tomoe received their voices, not only in-game but also when winning matches. They are all in Japanese and they tell you a little bit more about their lives and death.
Discord Menu Option
I want to build the best gaming community there is. So I added this menu option to work as a reminder to old players that aren't still in the channel and for the newcomers that always add much life to the community.
Bug Fixing
As always, there were a lot of these to be fixed. But I ask you to be aware that I might have added some more with the new feint mechanic. If you find any new ones, please let me know. Some of the bugs fixed:
While trying to fix some problems with Ayai, I ended up creating some distancing bugs between other fighters. This should be better now, but not 100% fixed.
Yasuke no longer gets weird hits while walking.