I'm having an incredible amount of difficulty deciding how combat will work in game, and I'd be interested to hear your ideas, since I haven't mentioned it yet. How do you guys see combat here?
- I had an idea to do something similar to how they do in the Pokemon games, except not turn based. Basically when you get into a fight then entire game-state changes to a close-up of the characters, where you would have specific button combinations to defeat the enemy.
- Another idea was to simply heavily-animate the player sprites and have combat in real-time, this way I'd have the camera focus/zoom on the player if they get into a fight, and try to dramatize/animate the batter from there.
Let me know what you guys think, its hard to think of a way to keep a game like this interesting and this is one aspect that I want to be solid.
- I had an idea to do something similar to how they do in the Pokemon games, except not turn based. Basically when you get into a fight then entire game-state changes to a close-up of the characters, where you would have specific button combinations to defeat the enemy.
I think it depends on how important is the combat in the game. For example, Pokémon is a game of mainly combats. There are some puzzles here and there but the main asset is combat other people, combat and capture pokemon, combat gym leaders.... On the other hand, we have Zelda. Classic Zelda games focused more on exploring dungeons, using different weapons for different bosses (who also had weak spots and you had to use strategies), roleplaying with NPC's, and overall story was more important.
"a close-up of the characters, where you would have specific button combinations to defeat the enemy"
This sounds cool, better than the usual turn-based system of choosing a skill from a menu. When I think "button combinations" I remember Street Fighter combos (instinct and speed) and the songs from Ocarina of time (pattern memory), and I liked both so I'll like this idea whatever you do
umm, it depends if you want to break the smooth one camera system and go for different views.
Fighting in the normal view with some view would probably seem best to me cause then that leaves the fight more open to players, objects can be used as obstacles for AI and running away can be made an option.
although im not much of a fan of the pokemon system so i might not be the best to say.
I cannot really give you a direct answer but an opinion on combat systems:
I don't like them.
99% of them seem boring to me in RPG related games where they are not the absolute core of the game. In the most common combat systems (from turn based to real time and everything in between) the player just has to cycle through abilities in the right order (which the player finds out in a very short time) and the combat success is purely dependand on gear-check.
99% of the more action oriented games where mouse-keyboard mechanics are asked from the player it is basicly the same thing but in a more stressful manner.
I find combat systems only well designed in one and a half cases:
1. The combat system is compelling, hard to master, intuitive (, possibly simple) and gives the player the possibility to evolve a personal fighting style (which is only possible if perfection is not reachable = very high skill ceiling). Some good examples of these I find: the street fighter series, demon's/dark souls, magicka. Actually all those games focus (almost) entirely on combat.
1.5 the combat system is just a feature to tell the story and/or to influence the player's decision making, so it is kept either very simple or is even automatised. The combat itself doesn't try to be more than for example the question "should I fight or should I not". Or it's even just there for telling the player that he made a mistake. I find good examples for this are: Terraria, Abe's Oddysee, Civ 4.
If you don't often think about combat systems then do some research. Check out your game-collection and search for combat systems, that you like. Ask yourself why you like them and if it's really the combat itself you like about it or just how it works with the rest of the design.
the art is beatyful and the camera interesting. But I'am not sure if such a spinning camera could cause some discomfort after a certain time? If your not sure either then I suggest you test it for a while and look on something in your room after you stare on the display. To see if things are starting to move. I don't know how to call it in english but it happens when you look at a monotonic movement for long enough.
Seeing it in motion is awesome. Keep up the good work.
Might I suggest making your camera sway either significantly less powerful, or a fair bit slower?
Earliest Love2D supporter who can't Love anymore. Let me disable pixel shaders if I don't use them, dammit! Lenovo Thinkpad X60 Tablet, built like a tank. But not fancy enough for Love2D 0.10.0+.
so i might not be the best to say.
