Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
As some of you may or may not know I am currently working on a third person swordplay game called The Ithia Chronicles. I call it a swordplay game rather than a hack n slash because that's what I intend it to be. The idea is to capture the nuances and excitment of sword fighting to an extent or at least in a way that it has never been potrayed before, at lease in independant games. I would, however like to know your opinions on certain matters. A good way to make your own project better is to build off of the good ideas of others. What is/was your favorite hack n slash or swordplay oriented game? Why did you like it? What mechanics did you like? Which ones did you hate and why did you hate it? I'm looking for anything and everything that you, as a player and a person consider either good, bad, or ugly in this genre and type of game in general. Please try to be as detailed as possible, I REALLY value your opinions, and they'll help me to work out some of the game mechanics. I thank you in advance for all your help. Ereon P.S. Any advice that you might have also would be exceptionally useful ------------------ "I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind |
kiwee Member Posts: 578 From: oxfordshire, england Registered: 04-17-2004 |
What is a swordplay game? ------------------ |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
I call it that because its kind of an improvement on hack n slash. Instead of simply button mashing your way "hacking and slashing" you way through hoards of enemies I'm planning on using a special game machanic, the details of which I don't wish to release yet, to give the player greater control over the character and even, over a period of time, develop their own individual "style" of swordplay based on the moves they prefer and the way and order they choose to preform them in. In addition to that the character will attempt to "think ahead" of the play in what I like to call an "Adaptive Character Reflex AI". The character will be able to make individual reflex descisions on its own working within the parameters of the player's commands and take advantage of enemy position and state, and the environment around it. The result is a more controlled, more exciting, and more engaging version of a hack n slash. I made this post to kind of gather advice on hack n slash and similar games, what you liked, didn't like, and hated, that way I can build off other people's experience and make an even better game. ------------------ "I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind |
pigpen98 Member Posts: 41 From: Indiana Registered: 03-29-2006 |
you know what would be cool? a way of controlling the action, with either a joystick or one of those mini-joysticks on controller pads... and that would be how you move the sword... ------------------ |
pabloaiz Member Posts: 48 From: Tulsa, CA, US Registered: 12-06-2003 |
Buttons that allow you to block a left/right/middle hit, and other buttons to allow you to attack left/right/middle hits would be awesome. Then again, I've never taken sword classes so I wouldnt know anything about technique. Im sure there's a lot more to it than just that. ------------------ |
HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
What you're describing reminds me a lot of Determinance.quote: Basically, you control your sword in real time with your mouse. Iirc, it plays a lot like the Highlander series, with all these super-dudes sword fighting in their own styles. You might gain some education by looking at what they've done right, and what they've done wrong. Cheers! --clint |
buddboy Member Posts: 2220 From: New Albany, Indiana, U.S. Registered: 10-08-2004 |
tha's what i was saying... (BTW, that post by pigpen was by me... lol..) only not with the mouse... didn't think of that... lol.. ------------------ |
CoolJ Member Posts: 354 From: ny Registered: 07-11-2004 |
quote: Determinance does look cool! I don't really know anything about the game, but it seems like one BIG area of improvement over that game might be to actually have your characters grounded - not floating through space. I would think swordplay would be totally different if you could fly around everywhere, would it resemble true swordplay at all? You probably have source material, but this book looked cool! |
bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
i really like your idea, the reflex ai thing. ok. here's some of my like's and dislikes of hack in slash games. dislikes: likes. 1. i really enjoy customization in any game. several weapons to choose from, several fighting styles, and several abilities. it is easier to get into a game when it is YOUR character in the game, and not someone the developers that would be cool. ...i know you're prob'ly looking for more of the mechanics we liked/disliked, but what i listed are important to me on hack 'n' slash games. one other thing is have it mouse/keyboard controlled, don't have 50 options on the screen clogging everything up. as far as the mechanics of the actual fighting goes i think your idea is good, i would just about buy the game just to try something different and original. anyway, hope this post helps somehow. ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
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Ereon Member Posts: 1018 From: Ohio, United States Registered: 04-12-2005 |
Yes, that was very helpful, I'll take that into consideration. Two customization idea that I am considering after your post are blade customization mechanic and a custom combo mechanic. In the story you have to forge your own blade over a period of time through the game, a symbolical representation of how we as Christians forge our sword (the Word of God) throughout our lives as well. So, the idea is to be able to pick out materials and things you find, gold, silver, gems, different types of steel that have different properties (firesteel anyone?). In theory you'll be able to choose your blade shape (and possibly even draw your own blade if I can figure out how to make it work). Choose from some basic hilts, grip, and pommels, add knotwork, etching, gems, ect. The idea is to include everything that people enjoy about swordfighting, you can make a japanese katana, middle eastern saber, european longsword, or a scottish claymore, or mix and match to create your own unique weapon (which is the main idea anyway). In the custom combo area at certain points during the game you can take time to "train". You can take certain combos and change their style and method within the style. So, for instance, the classic quick-quick-strong attack could be a vanilla one handed left, one handed right, dual handed finish, but then you could take that basic move and change it from that to a flowing middle eastern style or any other style you wish (even rapier  )) ). So, let's say that you chose a largely longsword style for that move, you could then change the way in which each step of the move is executed. What about a one handed slash, spin, another one handed slash and then a backflipping uppercut slash? Just switch the options around and boom, you're in business. The idea is to keep the controls simple but still allow you as much control over your character's action as possible so you feel a real link to him and really want to make him look cooler when he fights. By the way, your descions on your combos also effects the reflex AI. If you choose a flowing, more oriental style and your character sees an opportunity for an instant kill during a quick attack it will take it, whirling around behind the enemy and cutting its throat in one fluid motion, however, if you choose a rapier style and the same event happens, the character would then whip his sword quickly across the enemy's chest a few times and then thrust his sword through his heart (if demons have hearts that is.....). It will take alot of balancing, but the end result will hopefully be an exciting and original game that allows you to control the character and mesh with him in a completely new way.------------------ "I am very good at hiding, so if you don't see me, that's where I am." Orc Outlaw, TES III Morrowind |
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HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
That all sounds really neat, Ereon! I look forward to seeing where you take this -- I think that's a really good idea. So by letting people "draw" their own sword, are you thinking of just starting with a basic flat 2-d long rectangle that is the generic sword shape, and then just texturing that rectangle with their sword shape? It would be really hard to generate a custom mesh from a person's drawing, but as long as the collision detection can afford to reduce every custom sword to a basic rectangle/triangle shape (you could have different sized custom swords), then I think that just doing it that way would work really cool! I don't know how hard it is to import and apply textures dynamically in your engine though. About your gameplay and customization ideas -- that's pretty cool! I think that'd be a lot of fun.
quote: I dunno', Benny -- the Diablo style games I actually found really fun. Repetetive sometimes, yes -- but there were skills and auras and various other things that could be advanced that brought some nice variation to the simplicity of the game. I really enjoyed Diablo and Diablo II -- I've been pondering making a better version of that kind of game. Almost all graphical roguelikes I've seen have a lot of bad context with them (scantily clad women, heavy occult influence) -- it would be fun to make a cleaner multiplayer graphical hack-n-slash that one could just sit down and play with friends for fun. All that to say -- I sometimes like the simple and repetitive hack'n'slash, as long as there's some moderate amount of variation, strategy and risk in there. --clint |
crazyishone Member Posts: 1685 From: Registered: 08-25-2004 |
But...But... We like scantily clad women. What other kind of women even exist? :-| In all seriousness, you're game sounds like alot of fun. You'll have to be kind of careful though. I had a game for my ps2 called "Jet Li: Rise to Honor" and the fighting was all controlled via thumbstick. Seemed cool at first. But soon I was getting sick of seeing the same attack over and over. This is common of hack-and-slash, but I was expecting more control if they were going to let me use the thumbstick. So if you can help it, don't let it become a "mouse moves up: upward slash; mouse moves down: downward slash" type of thing. ------------------ |
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buddboy Member Posts: 2220 From: New Albany, Indiana, U.S. Registered: 10-08-2004 |
lol... i have a boxing game that uses the thumbstick... i love it!! lol... it's a little more complicated than what you just described tho... lol... cool ideas Ereon!! ------------------ |
