Robert Wolf Game Design Notes

Melee combat greatly benefits from visual strikes/ visual moments showing a hit land with the impact point striking down. Also to note it's better to show the impact happening from the weapon rather than the enemy actor point. The power of the strike shown by a hit landing in the moment then sparking off. The visual affect being quick and hit hard. Use colors that'll stand out and keep shapes simple and easy to read to have the player understand the hit landing for how and when along with applying the dmg after the fact. The strength of the hit means bigger/ stronger hit mark.

Playtime  - 1 hour total Genre I'd label it as  - 2D action platformer fantasy Story Insanely clever; an amazing story unlike any other story I've seen with how it's presented/ done. It's clever in how it sets up the events of the story with making it clear at least each of the half genies suspect something is up and without outright giving the answer telling the player a hint from their perspective with their power. This making sense in story for the characters without revealing too much. Gameplay Melee with hair Core mechanics; jump, melee with hair and transform (I haven't gotten to the actual dance mechanic yet; I just like to watch Shantae dance so far) Simple melee gameplay that feels enjoyable/ fun. Combat Like Hollow Knight relies on spacing between you and your opponent in order to make combat fun. You can't rush down your opponent and even have a long wind up on your melee however, no hit stop and a short melee act. No hit stop in this game; it feels p...

Please note  - use place holder images for now. Please just have the said place holder things just be generic shapes and images. Also I will be noting some things down for myself if I have someone else reading this. Core Combat mechanic  - connecting hex gems together to perform attacks. Hub area Shop Hub Area When in a shop the layout like this; Then for said items to buy; have it where the player can filter by class and element for said weapons. Quest area to quest The idea being areas being connected for points the player clicks on to go to the next mission and have each mission be locked until you beat the mission from before. When clicking on the mission show what they'll obtain before going into battle. The blue Squares are the battle parties to choose to show instead. No Star system. Have it where the player can click on the profiles to show the stats instead of having the stats cover the images like this. Party members 1 - A team of 4 max, up to 12 slots of max loadout...

For trying to learn how to make impactful projectiles I am looking at multiple games and multiple genres to get an understanding how to make a good projectile system. Falco  - study source; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ221izS1bk The stun from the bullet leaving the target unable to move for a small amount of time and seeing a small after affect considering the lack of damage. This hit knocking the target off the ground a little and knocking them back a little. The sound design being good. Street Fighter VI  - study source; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld3a2oiYOgc&t=15s The hit having it when shielding it causes the defender to hold out for a bit longer. When the hit lands on a non-shielding target because of the damage it deals you can feel the hit and the feedback from said hit. An actual feedback from the hit with a minor amount of time it lingers with it changing in form. A weak hit of the same projectile form last for a short amount of time and acts o...

  What made it not work? Level design - Overly simple, straight forward and yet big levels you get loss in with no clear rhyme or reason. That nothing felt good to traverse through. The level design feels all over the place for the 2nd level, the 1st level felt fine. Combat - it was ok, nothing about the boomerang combat felt all that unique or interesting with him charging up the attack sure but it didn't add to the gameplay in any meaningful way. Gameplay is too easy; nothing difficult and challenges require little to no effort. Why doesn't the charge attack work?  You are entirely safe when using, it is powerful and slows down the world around you. The whole point of a charge attack is to leave you open and not to easily fire off. The fear of it being punished and having to avoid the enemies as you're charging up your attack and keeping the distance away from the enemy mean while here you are actively held still in a position which works! However; it can be done in the a...

Video that gave me the idea for the subject - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrMqzPj31jo I was 110% correct about the fact good movement combined with gunplay makes for a fun and engaging experience with the fact that from what the video shown being able to get right into the gunplay and find enjoyment from doing so. The different actions combined together of movement to gunplay and ready stance to fight causes the game to become more engaging. You switch from a point and shoot to a synergize and shoot system with where and what actions you are taking to engage the enemy. A control of positioning and pivoting your actions to create unique fire fight moments are used to keep players hooked and keep them on their toes. Too much of a focus one way or another turns it from a movement shooter to a shooter with mobility. Shooter with mobility These are tools an aspects that don't synergize together, an example being Halo 5; yes both systems exist together under the same roof but not ski...

 Josh Strife Hayes in an old video made an excellent point; polish can make your game feel well made/ good when a bunch of small things are working, not just the big things. Once you have everything running well together, you cannot have too many small issues stack on top of one another. The small issues that keep stacking become an actual problem and make players leave the game. This reminded me of my experience with Megaman X Dive; it was a neat little experience until all the problems started to slowly stack and the same with Elsword. The problems seem small at first but as the game designer you need to experience the problems first hand, not just brush them off but feel the problems and see them for yourself with actual moment to moment gameplay experiences. You need to not only have problems not be there but build up your polish and build up your systems to give said aspects about your game actual value, actual weight and depth to them. The small gunplay polish for the mechani...

 So many games and set ups of play having it where fighting games and platformer fighters both rely on positioning but by is positioning so much more important in a platformer fighter and why does this shy away traditional classic fighting game players? To break down the issues into areas/ things to consider how and why into multiple parts. Positioning advantage When positioning you have multiple states for a game; negative, neutral and positive. When your opponent is on the back foot against the wall being bad for them so negative, both of you on the center of the stage so neutral. Then you have negative which is you being pinned against the wall. However; in a platformer fighter and other genres, the positioning isn't as simple as that for a stage/ fight. When pinned against the wall in an FPS game you still have other routes, flanking, etc. In other genres you have multiple positions you could be in which changes the dynamic of the game; for fighting game players they don't ...

An uppercut needs to be a safe anti-air on shield or off shield. The combat needs you to leave the player valunerable (usually). However, I am taking the opposite approach; with an air attack or side attack combo or even neutral slash. A use case of each part of the combo stringing together.

 This is a series where I learn a number of different fighting game mechanics/ concepts and share them/ try to explain them. This way I have info I can look back on later and info I can share. Option Select; for OS you have it where you're using the branching combo/ change of tactics knowing your opponent is going to perform x or y action in response and with changing up or switching mid combo you can switch from something dangerous to something safe. A safe response being the thing you changed for said use case in the fight. A jump into sword slash and instead switching into a kick would allow you to switch from the risky combo to the safe combo and not get punished. Other ways of using it? The way I'm using this idea is to have it where the player can string their combo into other action such as going from a neutral slash into a fast falling neutral slash (mostly because I'm lazy and low budget) way of creating mix ups against the enemy.

 I have barely made any progress. The game I have been working on for only 29 hours and I feel like I have barely made anything. Slide shooting, shoot jumping Wall jumping Thrust attacks Air Attacks Chaining Melee attacks It feels like I'm hitting a tapering off point at this rate. Who knows; maybe this will be a wall of knowledge to climb. At least I've done some bug fixes/ quality of life changes to the game.

  Problem The problem I ran into; making guns too useful compared to the other tools I have introduced, with this system in place no one has a reason to use the other tools at hand. Solution The solution is the reload system and use the melee system to restore energy; ammo pick up and passive pick up don't encourage the player to use other tools so creating a symbiotic relationship between two or more tools is how I get the player to start combo-ing the melee into the gunplay. You must create relationships between your tools to encourage players to use other forms of tools/ tactics if you desire an outcome where the player is going to do more than just passive play versus active play. The increased complexity does force players to consider the next choice for their actions.