Ninja vs. Ninja Kumite.

I think the obvious final training task to learn to play the game is a practice fight against a skilled opponent.

In this case, Daisuke's opponent is one of his fellow ninja. Using wooden swords, Daisuke and his classmate are equally powerful (although Daisuke seems to be a bit quicker on the draw).

This is a simple 5 point match. So first to land 5 hits on the other wins.

Of course this is not a serious match. The whole point of this test is to prepare the player for enemy attacks and give them a sense of how the game works. It will prepare the player by teaching them how to fight before jumping into the first level.

Compared to this ninja opponent, regular enemies will not be much of a threat but Daisuke may run into some even more challenging opponents down the line.

This opponent is not completed yet. I still need to figure out how to work parring in, both for him, as well as Daisuke. Also, I may give him the ability to jump and use super attacks like Daisuke as well. I have not yet decided for sure. I may actually just keep him simple. We'll see.

Here are some pics:

Training Mode.

So I started working on a training mode. This mode will probably be the "learn to play" stage that will teach players the commands before starting the actual game. I'll probably also add a training stage for people just to mess around or practice or something. I may base the survival mode on this mode as well.

ALSOOoooo .. Once the training mode is done, I think I will release it publicly as sort of a "tech-demo" or a "pre-demo", just so that people can try out my game engine.

So far there are two types of training exercises, "Wooden Dummy" and "Tameshigiri". They're not complete but they kindof work so far. I'm hoping to add more types of training and improve the existing ones.

Here are some pics:

Tameshigiri:

Wooden Dummy:

Hitbox Removal. Lots of fixes.

So, I removed the hitboxes, and the game looks much better, but I realized later that certain things didn't look right, or didn't make sense.

One in particular, was that the snow on the ground was all white all over and looked really boring.

So I added a gradient to it, made it darker the further back it went on the screen, and also a bit darker at the front of the screen. So basically it's lightest where Daisuke walks. It instantly made the game look significantly better! Added a sense of depth to the forest as you walk through it.

I also noticed that the distance between Daisuke and the enemies was all wrong. I guess I just didn't notice it with the hitboxes in the way, but it really doesn't make sense for the enemies to run into Daisuke then stand on top of him.

So what I did instead was make it so that when they get right in front of him, they stop and attack. Right when they're at striking distance with their weapon. And if Daisuke gets too close, they run backwards. They're much smarter now, and I am rather pleased with them.

One other problem that I realized I missed (probably because of hitboxes) was that Daisuke could basically just run through enemies with minimal damage. Keeping in mind though, that the enemies themselves do not cause damage, rather, it is their weapons that do damage to Daisuke. Even still, it just didn't seem right that Daisuke could simply run past them.

So I decided to give enemies a bit of "mass" I couldn't ACTUALLY give them mass obviously, so instead I simply added a little script to their AI that would push Daisuke back slightly (at about his walking speed) in the opposite direction. This would make it easier for the enemies to attack Daisuke, meaning the player would actually have to stop and fight more of them.

I am pleased with this, because now if someone wants to power through everything and run past enemies, they will be forced to take significant damage.

I also dramatically changed the way the Bow Bandit works. Instead of firing straight at you, he shoots arrows into the air (like a mortar) and they rain down on you depending on your position. I like this way much better because it is cleaner, easier to manage and I can reuse it over and over again!

So here is a cool action shot that I happened to take while testing:

I also made a couple of videos. One really crappy one, and one decent one. Both videos were made after hitbox removal, but before corrections. They're both on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbSooFn8EUY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UQ4WWDNGk

Daisuke Testing.

So I realized that I couldn't get a good grasp of how difficult I was making Daisuke, so I decided to start the very first round of testing!

I hooked up my computer to my 46" HD TV so that everyone in the room could clearly see what was going on while I had my roommate test what I have made so far.

After a little bit of instruction on the controls, I began recording video (with my iPhone) of the gameplay, as played by my roommate.

Please excuse the poor video quality .. and also please excuse all the hitboxes.

But enjoy our commentary during this first round of testing!

Part 1/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQ6ZB057R0

Part 2/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0OYpvwCws

Part 3/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Zo_6K_t14

Part 4/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiwEhazPy4w

Attack Redesign Continued.

So, I implemented Daisuke's new attacks. They're a lot more fun than the old ones. His regular attack is a 1-2 chain combo. He'll automatically do the follow up attack after preforming the primary as long as you're holding down the button. He also takes a half step back on the follow up attack which is good for approaching enemies.

The primary attack is 100% as strong as the original regular slash that it replaces, while the follow up attack is at 150% strength. This makes Daisuke much more powerful at close range, so as a trade off, I gave all the enemies a bit more health .. but even still, Daisuke can seriously kick their asses now.

Primary Attack:

Follow Up:

I also changed the look of the parry attack and decreased it's power down to 50%.

Parry:

The Parry attack can be injected in between the two slashes or immediately after they're preformed, acting as a 3 hit combo. The follow up attack can also be used immediately after the Parry as well. Good timing between enemy strikes can allow for some pretty awesome effective combos as well. You can also jump in with Daisuke's mid air slash. And for a cool finish, you can use a super strike! So Daisuke is now significantly more versatile than he was before.

I am however thinking about either limiting the supers to only 1 of the 3, or possibly taking them all out, however I am undecided upon this.

Attack Redesign.

So, I have not worked on Daisuke in about a month, but I'm trying to get back into it. I could really use a bit of help, mostly just someone to toss ideas around with. So if anyone wants to lend a hand, I would appreciate it.

In other news, I realized that Daisuke's main attack looks too stiff and boring, so I decided that I might try and improve it, not only visually, but also make it a bit more interesting.

I thought up the motions the other night and spent this evening animating it.

I've decided to change is main attack from a single attack to a chain attack based on timing. So if you hit the button once, you do one type of attack, and if you hit the button a second time at the right frames, you'll trigger a follow up attack. This could be upgraded later on in the game to be a multi-stage chain attack dealing out multi hit combos and special techniques.

I might actually use this system to change the entire way that Daisuke fights .. but first I have to develop it.

Anywho, here are the motions:

Step 1:

Step 2: