Robert Wolf Game Design Notes

 There is something amazing feeling about having your combos chain together for the actions, not just a simple "I click one button" auto combo but rather going from one combo, cutting off end recovery of a combo into a mobility action or an attacking action. The addition to these features have been small in scope but amazing in execution with what you can do. How a game feels doesn't translate to what you're playing and vise versa; this is why mobile games become built the way they are, for the average player it'll translate simply. However in my case; having it where you can go from having to wait and cutting off end lag on moves, you feel rewarded for playing smart and for keeping up the execution of your inputs. Hopefully I'll make more chaining mechanics but it does really feel fleshed out compared to a normal movement system.

 Someone rightly pointed out games already take this approach but not the same approach for stringing together combos to remove end lag but rather giving more choices and approaches for the same set of moves. I only realize now that adding depth to mobility = good as long as it feeds towards the goal for the character to be moving towards. No one said I was smart, that and this should've been obvious to me from the start. There are a lot of design elements you don't even think about when playing these games until you reach that point of understanding with what the game is giving you in hand to work with or until you actually study games and how they function. This would explain why it tickles my brain to naturally aim for adding depth to how the player moves and acts but not knowing why until now with the answer being out in plain sight, that and over thinking things being a pain in my ass it would seem.

 Inspired by; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5g9r2N738I When it comes to combining the gameplay loops as I wanted to do from Mario, Zero and MegaMan X series into one character. I now see what the guy is talking about when it comes to gameplay loops. How does it feed into the core experience? Combining gameplay The gameplay can be combined as long as the game elements feed into one another; that or have separate sections but as long as one of the gameplay loops connect into the other it should be fine. An example; you have a room that's dedicated to you jumping around and other a bunch of obstacles; instead of ignoring one gameplay loop for another, do what Hollow Knight does and combine the movement challenge with your melee weapon. When combining gameplay loops you have to merge said loops together; loop A has points it merges with loop B and loop C has points it merges with loop A and B. Examples of bad gameplay loops? Things that don't merge nor add to the experience for...

 This will be a series of collecting info on players and using said info to understand player behavior better and how to build a good tutorial. Due to my lack of professional behavior I have a hard time stomaching idiotic gameplay unless said person is funny and or charming. That being said; said results can be helpful from the first level. Player 1 (male) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwqfWuEsq8&t=543s Player 1 performed the worst of them all; effectively sucking at the game, player 1 lacking intelligence; very hostile to audience members and not understanding basic logic as of how the water works until it was too late. Player 2 (female) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8l0UfKKH8&t=1362s Player 2 dealing with her audience but still trying to do the gameplay, having trouble for the given level at hand and avoiding parts where she instead jumped over said parts. Player 3 (male) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vsWQeAgUY LV1 From the players I have studied only 1 out of ...

 From what I've seen with TF2 from it's MVM to payload and other games such as Stalkers I see a common design rule. Hell even Super Mario Odyssey I see this design rule; single player games make a great multiplayer experience. For TF2 that is odd to say but keep in mind; the game was designed around the player themselves, not around teammates or allies. It's core focus was focusing on the player only, the one who plays said character. Other games such as Overwatch and many live service games don't take this approach and even the design of the abilities of the Borderlands Series was a question of, "is this fun?" and not "is this balanced?" That then brings the question around to games like Stalker then. MMO Stalker-esc games where they steal the Stalker gameplay elements and throw it into a MMORPG environment being a common trend but said lazy games dying. A game that is fun to play itself and by yourself will always be valued over a game designed aro...

When certain tools or restrictions come up that people seem to find ways of using it in an effective manner. This is from things like hiding drones near the slot machines at a casino to things like spamming voice lines in Overwatch 2 in order to turn their voice lines mute and make their heroes not make a sound when ulting for the enemies being unable to hear it. Players will find anything and everything to optimize play from the smallest of details to the largest of details and even speed runners do this. The more competitive the game and the more players for said game; the more info is found for small exploitable aspects and the same can be said for real life competition. List of games where small exploits were found I will be listing/ documenting said exploits to small gameplay aspects that aren't bugs but info that is used. TF2 Using paid for taunt content in order to look around a corner to see the enemies position without having to peak your head.

 Players desire basic things like a variety in game loops. What variety in a game loop means the core game mechanics having many different ways to interact with the given objects of the game. These can be anything, mech upgrades, new enemy types, etc. The type of variety you add is based on the game loop itself. Enemy types In PVE to 2D platformers the spice of different challenging foes to overcome are important to keep up in a unique and interesting way, even the most simple enemy types like the ones from League of Legends are important to spice up gameplay wise. You need enemies that do shock attacks, wide swinging enemies, etc. Not just "oh this enemy big, this enemy got big HP bar" Dead Cells did this quite well with giving a unique combination of enemy types and no this doesn't mean overwhelm the player with so many different enemy types it makes their head spin but you have to have a variety. League of Legends sticks to a simple 3 type unit creeps to spice things u...

 From what I learned from Cup Head and other games that I applied to my own game that I can see why smaller bullets are made faster and why the MegaMan ZX games series chose to go for the idea of having it where the bullets transform and then turn into the correct size for the given bullet. The combined use of both the speed aspect and the transforming bullet aspect felt, impactful for the speed effect making the bullets feel fast for what they're able to hit. If I do choose to use the charge bullet like from the Megaman games series then I best be sure to make the bullets 2nd and 3rd stage slower but more powerful. The more I make this game and the more details I pay attention to, the more the little mistakes annoy me.

I know this is the least of the worse mechanics I've studied but this series is to tackle the small to the large blunders performed by games and how they function as a whole. This is to teach game developers what to do and what not to do. Making a game mechanic moot How is this done in Five Night at Freddy's: Security Breach? For one; keeping the lights on, this is idiotic because the flash light becomes useless and you're wasting light resources along with the fact it doesn't make sense to have the lights be on. When using mods to turn the lights off is when the game starts to look like an actual horror game and makes use of the one game mechanic they brought into the game. You need to have the game mechanics make sense to the purpose of the given system in question. If you have game mechanics that are there being used with little to no purpose then what was the reason to add it? An example; a character that passively heals and you have a med kit mechanic, what is the ...

This is to tackle the issue of collectables in games. The reason to use them and when not to use them. Genre and purpose? Each genre needs to give it's items it's own purpose; the items players are collecting need to be given a reason to exist for the player to be using. Otherwise the player won't care about using said items, people need to realize why this is the case; there is a time and place for everything, that time and place is genre dependent. It's a question of how does it connect to the game loop in question, you need it to connect to the game loop in a way of it working properly. A should lead into B and B should lead into C. One result should feed into another. Examples of genres and what you should be using for items for the player to collect or not. Horror games Horror games need the player to pick up items that have use, that have a function of helping you survive. When picking up resources that don't help you survive they become pointless and pull awa...

 When in a market of strong competitors it's clear to me that the people you can see overtaking the gaming landscape are people who can come in and force their way in with appealing to what the market is leaving in a hole. It's clear to me that it's not what people say they want such as flashy abilities and all that but rather what people do want is being delivered and now people are flocking to it. Example of games doing things right The strong competitors being Battlebit with the fact the game has rewarding gameplay with it's gunplay, no focus on flashy abilities and are giving people exactly what they've been asking for at the end of the day. TF2; even the smallest of small updates such as TF2 had people come flooding in to check out the new updates and enjoy the game for what it is worth for the given content in hand. That the fans were given what they wanted and so people come rolling in. TF2 is an example of proving me wrong, to an extent; Valve looked at what...

People often think they can't coexist but the truth of the matter is, they're a balancing act for one another. That something that looks pretty needs to have good readability in a fast pace game, in slower pace games you can afford to have visual complexity. It all depends on the type of game you're making, the more visual elements going on the screen, the less pretty and the more readable things need to be, try to greyscale your level and see if it's readable. The following genres that need to follow this rule ; Fast paced FPS RTS MOBAS Battle Royale 2D platformers Twin Stick Shooters Bullet Hells Action platformers Action PVE Racing The following genres that don't need to follow this rule; Chess Turn Based RPGs Puzzle games Turn based card games How many games actually follow these rules? Oh boy not many I will tell you sadly. The list of games that don't follow this rule; Overwatch 1 & 2 Warframe I don't play many games that have visual complexity Gam...

 This may seem like an odd thing to talk about but game devs do tend to put higher resolution things on things that they'd only pay attention to or the people who like art stuff and aesthetics (like me); here is the thing, so many times from rookies to games made by AAA studios make this mistake, you have to make sure you're putting high res info on the important stuff, yes even I was guilty of this at one point in my life. What to put on high res? Anything the player is looking at for a long time, the longer the player spends looking at it, the quality should be good and easily readable. Examples of games that had lower res surrounding items? One huge example being Final Fantasy XIV the devs chose to make the plants a lower resolution to have more players in said area, this allowed for more players to exist on a server and bring down server cost. People talk about how they want good graphics when in reality they only care about the polycount on things they're spending time...

 After looking at old gameplay of Security Breach the game doesn't give you clear goals nor clear use of items such as the security badge. Security badges When having a badge that is a LV2; the item in question is useless, unable to be used in any meaningful matter for getting from point A to point B. The use of said tool doesn't become clear and the level of security clearance isn't clear. Sure you have the player getting a key for X level but that must be made clear through the gameplay, not through the usage of notes. Places to go When you have enemies cluttering an area, hard to see spots, etc. When your character is short and in a complex/ messy environment, that doesn't help give a clear understanding of where to go. When things visually blend for point A to point B, players will get loss, 3D games have a harder time telling the player where to go unless it's a straight forward path and in this case is no different for the given level design. What about open e...

 This isn't even just about setting them with a time limit but rather setting them and acting upon them; giving yourself the, "to do" it's easy to get lost in things you enjoy and not find the time where you need to work on your important project and you end up not thinking about the other important ideals and systems to be building up, what kind of system to go for. When it comes to understanding yourself and your goals the question are what follows; Have you broken it down enough? Are you committing yourself to what you told yourself what you'd do? Are you thinking about one goal at a time? You cannot keep overwhelming yourself in these systems, otherwise you'll hurt yourself and your engagement with how things are tackled at the end of the day. Each and every cog in that system is important for how you act and react for any given situation to know where you're going and how things are coming along. It is so hard to hold yourself accountable game design ...

       It's hard to make/ understand systems that you don't really care about. When the given system in question is boring the question becomes then, "why are you playing it then?" You ask yourself this question more and more until you realize "yeah, why am I playing this?" or even "why am I building this?" It sucks because what you want to make doesn't line up with what people often want. You end up asking yourself, "is this worth spending time on?"     I enjoy RPGs and 2D platformers, action platformers; I enjoy Rogue-Likes.     It doesn't make sense for me to build a fighting game if I don't enjoy what makes a fighting game a fighting game. You have passion, understanding and resources at your disposal for the given systems in question. Those with passion chase what they love and understand the system better than other people, passion will bleed into your work but a lack of passion won't.     When you're passionate ...

What went wrong What went wrong was the fact that I decided to focus on active play, making players think about the weapons they were using and how often they used them; the limited use and depth for the given weaponry with a passive regen system and a jetpack system that took time to refill over time. Passive systems and mechanics made the more top down space adventure game boring. What I learned Different genres fall into different game types for passive and active play; for active play slower games benefit more from a chess like approach while passive games with more hold down button for fun gunplay benefit from more active, aggressive cool stuff going on the screen approach. The reason why a more hold down and fire approach works for a game like Bullet hells as the such is the chaotic nature of these kind of games with dodging and everything. People value the more fun, run and gun style gameplay for a reason. How to fix it Change it to more active firing system, no reload system an...

When it comes to coding in items the best method to making an item is to give it more purpose/ roles it can fill. This is useful for games with crafting especially, making each item crafted important in a limited resource game and or in a game with a lot of resources. Game examples; Amnesia: The Bunker In this game you're given a number of tools such as bandages, bottle, gas, etc. That can be used in multiple ways. Each item isn't just used as a one purpose use but has multiple purposes of use. The trade of use of a torch versus making more healing items or a damaging item. Each item forces you to reconsider how it's used. Minecraft Sure Minecraft has this same level of functionality as well where a limitless game can use this to your advantage of making better items to get to better items and at the same time be helpful to build structures, the ideas and functionality aren't the same here however. Minecraft does have you think with your resources but in a limitless way...

For game systems as a whole you have to think about how X or Y fits into your system. The feel and behavior of the game should game mechanic wise be different from other games, give a unique flavor to your game with how said game mechanics interact. Why do this? After looking at the tower mechanics, open world and crafting a lot of Triple A games do where the games become a "hey this character in said environment with these kind of powers with the same kind of system" becomes boring. Yes you know what you're getting yourself into but at the end of the day it has the same flavor as everything else for what you're getting unless you're Spider Man where some kind of flavor change can happen. What if I want the same systems? If you desire said systems then I would advise making other unique ways of tackling problems. In Deus Ex you're able to hack and it's much different from other games with how hacking works, heck even lock picking works differently from eac...

When playing defensive in a fighting game you have to do the following; patience, control whatever space is the most valuable being ground or air, punish mix ups and spacing. Patience Tools that force you to play slower and wait for a moment to strike, you have tools that can't be effective aggressively. Movement control For controlling a space versus spacing to cover this first; whatever option is the most important to control, defensively you need to hold your ground on. This means building a fighter that's based around reactive play, not active play; reactive play meaning reacting to what your opponent throws out. Punish mix ups You need to find an opening like defensive boxing and hit your opponent fast and hard. You need to get in and punish when an opportunity arrives. Spacing When playing defensive, you need to use your zoning tools to keep your opponent at a distance, the less close your opponent is, the better. Spacing tools aren't even meant to hit your opponent a...

//player making hurt box code //action (also to make sure I don't make a bunch of hit boxes) if (thrustHit == false){ //note, kept putting code in hurt box instead of hit box for how it wasn't working XD var hitbox1 = instance_create_layer(self.x + (10*image_xscale),self.y+50,"Instances",hitBox); hitbox1.x1 = 100; hitbox1.x2 = 100; hitbox1.y1 = 100; hitbox1.y2 = 100; thrustHit = true; } //@description create event code allyCheck = "n"; lifeTimer = 0; lifeTimerMax = (1 * room_speed); x1 = 0; x2 = 0; y1 = 0; y2 = 0;  /// @description step event var instGrab = collision_rectangle(x-x1,y-y1,x+x2,y+y2,enemyParent,0,0); if (instGrab != noone){ instance_destroy(instGrab); } //follow x = x + oPlayer.x; y = y + oPlayer.y; lifeTimer++; if (lifeTimer > lifeTimerMax){ instance_destroy(self); } // You can write your code in this editor /// @description Draw event draw_rectangle_color(x1,y1,x2,y2,c_red,c_red,c_red,c_red,true); // Y...

Perks Perks are defined as gameplay elements that are removable passive and or active abilities that you can place on X object in question. A perk can be traded out and sometimes at a cost. Should you use perks? it depends; perks are useful for replaybility, however at the same time people do over relay on perks and can make or break certain builds that need to be ran with the fact of making a good build in the first place. In the COD series the ammo pick up ability from corpses made going the assault rifle build fun and focused on aggressive stealth tactics fun. For multiplayer games some perks become the most optional way to play. The perk system can really add a lot of depth and care. For Dead Cells, perks are one of the most important tools for you to use; if you don't use them, you will lose. This is entirely a double edge sword for designing play, they can become a crutch and not create replaybility but instead be the most important thing for your character to run.

Core mechanics The core mechanics of the study focused around how they're dealt with; your buster is expanded upon in Megaman by getting more tools while in Shovel Knight your given more synergy based tools. Synergy focused Synergy focused gameplay makes it where the other tools you use with your weapon combine together. This changes the game loop where you're focused on chaining your main tool with the side tools for synergy of play. Have a shovel? Make the player dig! You need the player to travel from point A to point B as a challenge? Pull a Mario and go for a jump focused style gameplay or instead; do the smart thing and focus around that tool. Have a Knuckle Duster? How are you going to make it combo with the shovel? This system you can't go too in-depth with the shovel, otherwise the support mechanics become useless. Core focused Core focused is where the gameplay loop is brought back to how you loop the gameplay to your core mechanic into itself; ice shot? It better...

Core mechanic The core mechanics are built area the shovel; the simple actions of side hits and down strikes. They're given a simple action and interaction with the levels and for good reason. I do truly believe Shovel Knight would be broken as a concept if you had back air strikes with the shovel and other forms of strikes with the shovel making it too useful. You can upgrade the shovel but only as an optional thing, making it where your depth of the shovel is only optional, it's the other tools that you use with your shovel as in Synergy focused. Your support mechanics are built to prop up the main mechanic.  Beginning area This is the area where the basic mechanics are taught to you with how things are performed. The simple step of teach A then B then C, then combine A and B, then combine C and B; so on and so forth until you combine all the mechanics together. This isn't a bad design idea. Lich Knight For the lich knight area you're combining Side shovel hits and po...

       According to one of the developers of BattleBit; the looks of the game made people think it was an arcade shooter, as thus it had to change accordingly. The style of the game must match how it looks and after playing Super Metroid, I agree with this statement.     That going forward I have to ask does the gameplay match what kind of audience I'm going for? The hardcore audience only wants to play games that look more like an actual hardcore shooter as in realistic.     I'm wondering if that rule is the same for other genres.     I know for Bullet Hells this is true considering the pixel art bullet hell looks much better and catches my eye much more than a 3D bullet hell looking game.

Mechanics needed Capture Six party System Move list limit Items in battle Enemy encounters Creature Stats/ status Level HP (hit points) MP (magic points) Endurance - size of ATB bar Attunement - a limited list of moves (every 10 stat points = 1 new move said creature can learn) Strength - physical attacks Nimble - avoid damage Dexterity - improves your attacks magical and physical chance to land Body - physical defense Willpower - resist magic Spirit - magical defense Mind - magic attack Focus - mana regen amount per second Agile - affect ATB bar fill Luck - Improves damage Creature Nature - effect the creature's stats Multiple abilities - passive things that trigger for the creature Hold multi-item types; weapon, shield, accessory and consumable hold-able items. Weight and height Capture rate Able to evolve if X condition is met Possible status conditions a creature can have Burn - deal fire damage overtime unless hit with a water move. Confused - will hurt itself, do nothing or h...

Here we go; my first 2D Super Metroid game. Intro cut scene I don't usually study the intro cut scene but just... it sets the tone. What the intro cut scene did for me personally and keep in mind, I had background noise playing as I listen to this; 1. It grabbed my attention with distractions going on around me, why did I have distractions going on around me? It's simple, a good beginning can grab my attention; an amazing beginning can grab my attention through the distractions. 2. Set the mood that this is going to be horror. 3. The creepy piano music along with the other musical elements setting in, soft, not trying to jump scare you like modern horror. 4. The menu for the beginning tells you EVERYTHING that you need to know (I think anyway). This beginning is much better than Axiom Verge 1 & 2 combined. This is a chef's kiss on how to open a cut scene. 5. It didn't rely on dialogue to grab your focus. It did the show, don't tell method! This is one of the bes...

 The player being given other kind of attacks and attack patterns made me realize how overpowered and underpowered you can make a character based on their tool kits with having the ability to thrust attack in the air makes it an insanely useful tech move that the player can stab a target and chain into another air stab with the player keeping the chain of actions going with little to no effort.     This means that the attack needs to be nerfed or that I add an energy system. That both systems are flawed, by having a timing of the attack before the player can perform it again will be waiting on a time and not be rewarding the player for being skilled and having to delay inputs just like in a fighting game.     This also shows me why useful but simple techs are tied behind key presses that are far more complex than they need to be.     On the note of the usage of the energy system that the player is put in a spot where they're going to be waiting for the...

Elevator pitch  - what if we combined the movement of Mario with the gunplay of Megaman, took the combos from Zero and made it into a 2D platformer Metroidvania? Genre - Mega 2D platformer RPG Megaman platforming Mario platforming movement Zero's combo system Short term Goals Goal 1 - Introduce the Uppercut Slash Overarching Goals 8 Bounties Fun dynamic gameplay Agile platforming Bullet hell Made so far Game mechanics 1 - jumping 2 - Shooting 3 - sliding 4 - wall jumping 5 - Wall slide down 6 - Melee strikes (1 added) 7 - soft ammo system 8 - ammo regen Input depth Space Controlled 4 frame jump slide jumping Left & right key player facing Slide pivot D key shoot Delayed shooting Down key Slide Frame data Melee thrust - 7 frames (might add more) Jump - 3 frame (can be sped up) In air fall - 1 frame Combos Character archetype Slide = down key + left or right key slide shoot = down key + left or right key + shoot Slide Jump = down key + left or right key + jump slide jump shoot =...

 This series of game design notes will be to cover the different aspects and gameplay loops that games focus on/ approach along with the common design patterns. Average bullet hell 1 - Shoot 2 - Dodge 3 - Avoid 4 - Kill Repeat Improve on muscle memory Other games use things like different ships to use for each play through for different experiences to enjoy.

What makes a good bullet hell boss from what it seems is the following; 1. Lots of bullets 2. Unique gimmicks 3. Good attack patterns This may seem simple but by far it's far more tricky to do than people realize. The lack of knowing when too much is too much, when it's not enough; how to properly set up the attack pattern, etc. The game must be given a balance between these three elements. Too many gimmicks or a boring gimmick and it's stale. That being overly focused on attack patterns make it a snore. Too many bullets and it's not fun. You need the correct balance between these three elements. The genre maybe simple on paper but it's far more complex and difficult to craft a good game around these concepts at the end of the day. The fewer the game elements you're working with for a concept the harder you have it when needing to come up with something new and unique for said system. This would perfectly explain why there aren't that many bullet hells out t...

So far from what I am seeing that different game communities are more or less toxic depending on the type of game. Games that have it where kill stealing takes place; more toxic type of gamers. Games where you have different spectrums of skill/ playstyles with an insanely hard to deal with skill curve you got fighting games having two polar ends of players. Bullet Hell players; helpful/ nice so far with a competitive edge to them. 2D platformer community? All over the place depending on genre, context, etc. Deep Galactic Rock? Wholesome community and nice place to be. Rainbow Six Siege? People are toxic/ kill their own teammates. Dead By Daylight? People can troll, camp, teammates can sabotage you, etc. It's not just based on difficulty but rather how hard can you screw over your own teammates. The harder you can screw over your teammates, the more you're rewarded for running out the clock; the more likely you are to deal with trouble makers. An example; why are people less tox...

 Here we go. Note to self; for the love of god clean out coffee bottle of protein powder before drinking from it. Chose the speed ship type with middle difficulty AI The enemy AI is little to none instead focused on attack patterns Attack patterns The attack patterns on the first level started out simple and slowly grew more complex. The game actually eases you into the difficulty with things as long as you're not reckless like I was. Number of ships The game does give an insane amount of ships to choose from at first and as someone who is a casual of the genre I do believe this was overkill for what was given for the number of ships for the game. Bullets For a bullet hell you're firing off a lot of bullets and are holding down the gun fire with the gunplay being very simple but giving different ships different attack patterns. Depth and complexity The game lacks any actual depth and lacks any actual complexity so far; the main aspect of the gameplay comes from your ability to ...

 Here we go again! Gun play A limit ammo system making it much more difficult for the given levels, however this is a prototype system. The given system at hand being related to dodging but also changing to the correct type to be while being shot at so having it where you're in the correct form with the same kind of bullets hitting won't deal any damage. This is a unique system in the fact it does add depth to gunplay, all though not much. Different bullet hells have a different area of focus with some more focused on unique ship types and attack patterns while others have a focus on more unique mobility versus gunplay focus. This game takes the focus on shooting and movement to be made simple but focused on when and how to take the hits. The gameplay not being as fast. More defensive games slow down the gameplay it seems for bullet hells while faster games speed up the gameplay. Depth These kind of games lack any actual depth to their gameplay. The depth is put in the level de...

These gun topics will cover from simple to complex, unique to not and be given it's own compressive list depending on the gun and it's purpose along with the topic of guns being covered from a variety of subjects in it's design. Gunplay must affect these given elements. 1. Change how you're interacting with the game as in dodging, getting hit, etc. 2. Must have an affect on the environment; breaking walls, hurting things, etc. 3. Each gun must be given it's own purpose, it's function. 4. Must add something new; it cannot just be the same as another weapon on this list. So no a car with a rocket launcher attached doesn't make it anything new. Some weapons break the rule such as having a switch role function like a buster cannon. Gun classes Each gun must have a different class as in role it plays. 1 - Shotgun; great for defensive combat and for getting into buildings. They're meant to keep people at a distance even though the real life counterpart of the ...

     The difference and when to know when to use one over the other for any given level design at hand. For Super Meat boy I got the idea for wall sliding and not only using the wall jumping mechanic. The difference has been made clear to me why I should be using wall jumping for a Megaman clone at the end of the day. Wall sliding Wall sliding is one of my favorite mechanics because it encourages the player to time when to get off the wall and having to deal with a build up of speed, usually paired with wall jumping. However, wall sliding only works when the given levels are large/ more open in design, not so small and cramped to deal with enemies. Now traditional slow down your descent wall sliding isn't bad to have for a Megaman like game but it's meant more for timing/ slow down of play. When performing wall sliding you're more worried about timing yourself and your movement as in the level is more of an enemy than the enemies being a threat. This design would be great...

     Once getting a hold of what felt "wrong" I seen the visual indicator for a split second that was the thorn in my side, when running, it didn't make sense your character would be crouching before a slide, solution? Remove 1 frame! This goes from making the slide a 4 frame to a 3 frame and it looks beautiful!     Visual elements are important to tell the player when something is "done" before having them do another one. I did nerf the sliding so the slide dancing from melee is gone. To me it was pretty cool but too easy to perform and didn't fit with the game. As more visual elements come along that I take in hand, the more I understand what fits with the flow and the feel of the game overall.     Why was slide dancing nerfed? The slide dancing would allow the player to slide everywhere and make the mechanic too useful because of it's speed and distance it's able to travel, it's not a bad game mechanic; however it's powerful. The added acc...

Resources Once the player is made aware of the fact they need to ration that the player starts to overly ration and hold more than they need with the game instead later on flooding them with said resources in hand. Depth of play Taking simple game systems but adding depth to them! That the game systems are simple in nature and yet go far more in depth gameplay wise than most games.

  Attacking A simple 3 hit system where the last hit deals the most damage. When going from a bow performing two hits then a hammer, you'll hit the last hit off performing the third hit animation. Blocking Blocking a hit will reset your combo but not switching to another weapon in hand. Enemy attacking Enemies are designed to charge up the red area before hitting you. Healing items? Anyway of healing yourself is designed for punishing healing, making it where the game doesn't encourage you to use healing items even if you have a lot. Dodging This is the main bread and butter of the game even though it lacks depth, the dodge system is made the most effective way to avoid damage in this game. Armor Armor is useless with it not protecting you and with enemies performing so much damage it is, the armor is made useless. Conclusion It's a combat system that discourages getting hit while having armor/ other defensive options made useless, it's not a game that rewards passive d...

     To get this out of the way for controversial takes on this (or not, who knows anymore). The use of the DPS is to deal damage, however that has turned into an offensive role as of recent years with the type of abilities/ play styles able to be set up.     Offensive classes or the DPS class being allowed to set up mobility boosting/ mobility helping and why is that? Well for starters the offensive class is designed as a way to create/ poke through an enemy choke point or really force the enemy on the back foot, so having it where an offensive role is being useful in helping funnel more fire power makes sense, not a direct damage dealing but rather help bring more damage dealers to the fight.     Teleporters, being let up on an Ice Wall, a flower pedal players can get on top of, etc. These useful tools/ techniques are meant to be a way to help your allies. Now yes I'm talking about Overwatch 2 but what about TF2?     In a game like TF2...

When it comes to the roles of tanks that often you have to think about the mobility, how fast they move and how they're getting into a fight. That with many gameplay mechanics designed around stopping and or taking a tank head on, you have it where tanks are going to be stuck in a position of being the team's shield or hold down of fire power. Only as of recent are tanks less focused on being only hold down fire power to deal with in fights but rather also defensive lines with shields and barriers. However, because of this role change up you have it where crowd control affects tanks more. A solution would be to do an old Doomfist style gameplay where in Overwatch 2 at one point Doomfist (a tank mind you) had an insane amount of mobility options making the class fun to play and get into a fight. However, that level of dedication of balancing a high skill ceiling hero would be a nightmare for a more simple game so bringing down the level of skill for Doomfist players. When it com...