School Project - 2 Dimensional Fighting Game

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[skati]

I mentioned this in both my intro thread and the third page of my Atemi thread, but I'm working on a 2 dimensional fighting game for a school project at the university I'll be attending this year.

I decided to make a thread about it, since some people in the Atemi thread were interested in it. So any discussion about it, compliments, advice, whatever will be posted here.

I mentioned Street Fighter in the atemi thread, but the engine is a bit more similar to the Guilty Gear X series.

Here's a clip of some pros going at it in one of the latest versions of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z53NuNcHJlg&feature=related

It will, however, be more grounded than that game is. With the exception of maybe one character (and that's tied to what she is), there won't be any air dashing. There won't be any double jump period, unless you're jump from the corner of the screen (like jump back into it, then jumping forward, which is typically called a triangle jump)

At the moment, I'm using a six button layout with it (weak, medium, and hard versions of punches and kicks). Special will have some change, depending on the strength of the button. It'll be anything as simple as being done faster or adding extra hits, even where a move pops up at.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. Next post, for the interested, I'll go into some of the characters for it. Some of you are already aware of my Aikidoka girl, but for those that don't, I'll bring her up again in my next post.

[skati]

Sorry I never go a reply up. I got really busy since my last post. I've changed a lot of stuff around and busy working on other characters.

The main thing I changed was dropping it from a six button layout to a four button layout: weak attack, medium attack, hard attack, and special attack. Special attack has two functions. If done in the air or while crouching, it'll knock down. If done while standing, it'll be a special attack unique to the type of character. If the character is a mage, it'll be another spell, ki will be a type of short ranged ki blast or attack with ki energy, and elemental will be an attack related to their element. For the normal people, it's a standing knock down attack. These standing special attacks require a bit of super meter to perform. In addition to that, the special button is used for ex moves, which are basically enhanced versions of some of her specials. It's done by the special motion and the special attack button, so not every special is an ex move. These cost half of the super meter to perform.

I have typed up thirty different character backgrounds. However, not everyone will make it to the first version...or at all (will depend on whether or not my team, if I'm able to get one together in school, will be willing to add the rest). One character that will for sure make it to the cast is the aikidoka girl.

First off, I want to thank everyone that posted in my atemi thread. Thanks to the info provided there, as well as on this site and youtube, I think I have made a decent enough move list for the girl, that I hope is half way decent, given the nature of the game.

The girl is a high school senior with the ability to manipulate and generate light into concentrated blasts that she can use to attack with. She's capable of forming a blast at almost any point. Normally, she uses this as a warning and to keep attackers at bay. However, she does practice Aikido and resorts to that if an attacker get in close. She is a calm and quiet girl. She's not shy at all, just quiet.

Gameplay wise, she revolves around her use of light. Lots of her specials have a forward version and a backward version. The forward versions are light blasts that form in front of the opponents and travel towards them. The backward versions are light blasts that form behind the opponents and travel towards them.

In addition to them, she has a counter that allows her to intercept an incoming attack and counter with a throw. In addition to this, she has a barrier special that has one of three outcomes: absorbs projectile and gives super meter, reflects projectile, absorbs projectile and counters with her own projectile.

Her normal and command attacks consist primarily of several long range attacks, used to keep the opponent at bay. She also has at least one overhead to punish people crouch blocking all day and to help with certain mix ups.

The following are her attacks that are supposed to be derived from Aikido. It won't be exactly true to the real version, mainly cause of the type of game. Everyone, this girl included, has to have at least eighteen attacks and at least two normal throws. With some of these, I didn't include any of the numerous movements I saw in some videos, where the artist is spinning around the opponent a lot, controlling them. That might be too difficult for a school team to try to imitate. I figured I could off set that by saying she's still a beginner to moderate, or something.

Standing Normals

w: diagonal knife hand (right)
close m: palm thrust to the chest (right)
m: straight thrust punch to the face (right)
h: spear hand thrust (left)

Crouching Normals

w: palm thrust (left)
m: straight thrust punch to the stomach (right)
h: spear hand thrust (left)
s: horizontal knife hand (right)

Air Normals

w: vertical knife hand (left)
m: spear hand thrust (left)
h: mid sidekick (left)
s: down angled palm thrust (right)

Special Normals

Pursuit: vertical knife hand (right)
Counter Attack: front kick (right)
Wake Up Attack: horizontal knife hand (right)

Command Attacks

vertical knife hand (right) f w
mid round kick (right) f m
stepping horizontal knife hand (right) f h

Throws

Ground back: Kokyu nage -- grabs opponent's wrist and flips him past her.
Ground Neutral: Juji Nage -- grabs opponent's wrist with her right hand as she steps back, pulls her opponent towards her and grabs his other wrist, crosses both arms in front of the opponent's chest (in an x shape), then pushes the opponent into the ground.
Ground forward: Hiji Nage -- grabs the opponent's wrist and turns him to where his back is somewhat facing hers, places her foot in front of his rear foot and, while still holding his wrist, uses her whole body to push him forward, flipping him.
Air: Koshi nage -- grabs opponent's wrist and flips him over her back.

Specials

Intercept -- intercepts an opponent's attack and counters with a throw.
...button pressed determines level

w: low
m: mid
h: high

Low: Kaiten Nage -- grabs her opponent's wrist and bends them over, free hand on back of her opponent's head, lifts the arm up high, then with both hands, pushes her opponent forward.
Mid: Shiho Nage -- grabs her opponent's wrist and steps back, lifts the wrist straight up as she pulls the opponent towards her, bends the arm backwards at the elbow and flips her opponent.
High: Irimi Nage - grabs her opponent's wrist and steps back then, as she pulls him forward, shoves her free arm into his chest, pushing her opponent down.

Everything else are various types of light based energy blasts that, with the exception of one super, are done via subtle movements. These are ranging from placing a hand on the ground, holding it out, raising it, etc.

The throws, I may have wrong. I tried to describe them the way it looks to me and others like me, who aren't practitioners and don't know all the terminology. Same with the normals, I used more layman's terms to describe them. If some of it is confusing, let me know and I'll try and find the name on here somewhere or explain what it is supposed to look like.

Hope you like her and think she's representing your art well enough :p.

If you're curious for more info, please let me know.

[Shany]

Why not just using MUGEN as your game engine core, and just spend time on Coding & Creating your characters ?

[tobiasfelipe]

Hi Matthew,

If you look for aikidokas in games:
Kasumi Todoh (Art of fighting/King of fighters series)
Ryahaku Todoh (Kasumi's father), both uses the Todoh Aikido (fictional)
Geese Howard (Fatal Fury/King of Fighters series), villain, end boss, and inspired in Steven Seagal!

[skati]

Shany, cause the school I'm going to is expecting us to do our own, not use mugen. At least, that's the impression I got. Do our own engine, do our own programming, everything.

Tobias, I 'm familiar with them all. I never thought of Geese Howard as an Aikido practitioner though...everything I looked at always listed his, as well as his son's (Rock Howard) style as ancient martial arts...figured that was just referring to Aiki Jiu Jitsu, traditional Karate, etc, not Aikido. Besides, he always seemed to just be too...violent for Aikido.

[Shany]

skati,
if this is a final project for the school, i can accept the madness of writing a game engine. but if it's just an entry to the school, than it's just plain 'stupid' to write a complete game engine + chars + collision detections + sound + 3d and more.

at least that's just the way i see it,
though, there's nothing like a good challenge.

[skati]

Naw, it's a final project. We learn how to do this stuff and we're expected to use our knowledge in the creation of a game. I'm just trying to get the stuff I know I can get done ahead of time. This includes pretty much all of the story info: characters, plot, what the characters can do, etc. Apparently I'm a pretty decent writer, at least according to friends, family, and random people on the internet here and there, so I feel I can handle the story aspects here. My logic behind all of this is that if I can get done what I know I can do ahead of time, that'd just be less work we'll have to do when I get a team together. That way, we can focus more on the more technical aspects of the game (graphics, programming, etc).