Krabbit System Wars Alpha

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:14 am

Heh, good one. How are you going to get a Linux user to pay for anything?

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:34 pm

For a game in which they can kick windows/mac users butts? A LOT!

Anyhow, this seems incredibly interesting. Fudge, had I even 5 minutes of freetime, I'd give it away however I could freely for this project ^^ Might do so later on.

Good job guys, this might be a big title in the making, you,ve got the ingredients at least

varmint · Post by **varmint** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:47 am

Get'n close to release. Just working on the final touches and tutorial. Here is a link to the latest game play video.

http://www.gamespot.com/users/lordvarmi ... Co5bwFsjXa

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:34 am

Super. I take it that this alpha will be a demo of the basic mechanics? At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any point to moving around the environment, other than that it's very purty.

BlindSide · Post by **BlindSide** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:07 pm

Its very purty indeed. Did I mention that it sort of looks like WoW? Thats a complement. Also in this new video I can see that the fighting animations are very well done. You guys certainly make a great team.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:45 pm

Nice, nice ^^
You are aware that if you want this to be commercial level, it will take a lot of testing and balancing, though, right? Unless you just make all attack the same under the veil, all blocks the same, etc. But then, what's the point ^^

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:07 pm

nice.

A bit of sliding on floor while running, or may have been that I did look at it in a dark crappy monitor, and very fast, +video compression. (didnt put maximized)

krabbo · Post by **krabbo** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:44 pm

A little screenie of how the initial page looks, atm.

rogerborg wrote:Super. I take it that this alpha will be a demo of the basic mechanics? At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any point to moving around the environment, other than that it's very purty.

I love this question. 1) because it's 'purty', thanky very much.

and 2) because, as it happens, yesterday we decided on at least 3 more features to implement before release for testing.

And the lucky features are:
Reward system! Scoring points for damage and publishing to a ladder.
First RPG element! Leveling and building character, earning XP, getting stuff,picking up drops. (ear cuffs and bracers)
System icons above player's head! Auto detection of player's system. Mean's you know who's butt you're kicking, system wise.

BlindSide wrote:Its very purty indeed. Did I mention that it sort of looks like WoW? Thats a complement. Also in this new video I can see that the fighting animations are very well done. You guys certainly make a great team.

W00t! TY!

... We've been told we're kinda American Magee's Alice meets WoW.

Dorth wrote:Nice, nice ^^
You are aware that if you want this to be commercial level, it will take a lot of testing and balancing, though, right? Unless you just make all attack the same under the veil, all blocks the same, etc. But then, what's the point ^^

Heheh.. with our 20 hour work days and all your help, we'll get there.

Btw, these are just the first katas. Many more to come.. Just gotta grow Varmint some more arms and keyboards.

Also, the blocks, dodges, hits etc., are skill based and random. It's not as repetitive as it might seem.

vermeer wrote:nice.

A bit of sliding on floor while running, or may have been that I did look at it in a dark crappy monitor, and very fast, +video compression. (didnt put maximized)

Thanks!

But, nope, no sliding on floor. There is knockbacks though. Might be something else you are seeing other than sliding...

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:31 pm

most probably, as I saw the video in the worst conditions, my machine's fault...

However, I worked in a game of fighting like this , long ago... the artwork is usually quite a pain in the... to make, mostly the anims

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:41 pm

ui design matters, am a designer thes days, but whatever I say is not necesarily valid, is just my view...May you wish to make the screen a bit less crowded/more organized. Play, Quit , another font, better than a Times variant. In dafont.com there are many scu fi fonts available free. Problem is rarely the user would have that one, in that case, if actually really need ttf fonts and not passed as the usual bitmap, I'd recommend at least Arial. I think is the one Ut2004 uses. Arial or Arial Black, probably. is practically in all machines (not in Linuxes, but i can tell u which are the similar in usual linuxes, if you need it) Imo, specially for main menu stuff, a graphic based stuff is wayu more that desirable, to not loose inmersion and ambience.

The logos, I'd put smaller, regular sizes, probably ordered in a small box at right or left bottom corner. Or even just a credits option screen....and put em there, if licenses allows so. i dont wanna say more as seems am always finding stuff to improve, and that must sound dense. I only say as read somewhere is comercial aim, and having worked in both games and design, I know how picky can many ppl be....

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:44 pm

lol!

increased my tft brightness again...is not so messy...a bit, still. Would help to focus on real interesting points etc. Also see now those play and quit arent ttf distributed as is, surely, but bitmap based ones.,..man, then , no excuse...you need scifi or oriental fonts, not so much system-antique like, as those are....at least, imo....

yeh, I'm called "pain in the arse guy" when polishing viusals of a project...
big sorry....

krabbo · Post by **krabbo** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:17 pm

No worries, vermeer, every single time someone has posted feedback we have benefited and made improvements. But do keep in mind, this is alpha and we are improving and adding as time permits, always working with the lowest hanging fruit and often sacrificing due to time and resource limitations. This does not mean the final product will suffer.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:32 am

Good points my coloc (coder, competing video game fighter) brought:

-RPG elements should have an option to be turned off, or maxed, for all in fight so that those not enjoying the rpg grind can still play and enjoy the game. (that, or make the rpg element affect more the look than the gameplay)

-In every fighting game ever, people always find one or two characters that are better, as seen in tournament. This isn't much of a problem in a tournament since the same chars are available to all. Dunno if you plan to make your fighters platform dependent though.
I suggest you
-Have the same on all platform
-Have the same on all platform but under various veils
-Have the same on all platform but maybe unlockable and thus some can start with different ones than others.

-Ah, and, this game looks gorgeous, I am already in a hurry to play it

rogerborg · Post by **rogerborg** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:46 am

Hah! I predict that the very first post to this game's forums once it goes retail will be:

ZOMG UCAN SPAM A UNBLOKUBLE CHEEESE COMBO ON [WINDO$E|LUNIX|WHACKO$] ONLY U SUCK U LAMARZZ GTFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

varmint · Post by **varmint** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:45 am

Dorth wrote:Good points my coloc (coder, competing video game fighter) brought:

-RPG elements should have an option to be turned off, or maxed, for all in fight so that those not enjoying the rpg grind can still play and enjoy the game. (that, or make the rpg element affect more the look than the gameplay)

Level'n is a side effect of our games not the main focus, never has never will

This "grind" started back in 1994 for technical reasons as we were all on dial up modems at the time. The game industry seems to think this is a standard and has dug in hard on this.. For what reason? I don't know.

The RPG element is more for people who don't have a good twitch factor. Most FPS's and fighting games are geared towards people who have good twitch reflexes, and anyone else can't play. This is to open up this type of gaming by helping those who don't have a high twitch reflex to play and have fun.

Dorth wrote: -In every fighting game ever, people always find one or two characters that are better, as seen in tournament. This isn't much of a problem in a tournament since the same chars are available to all. Dunno if you plan to make your fighters platform dependent though.
I suggest you
-Have the same on all platform
-Have the same on all platform but under various veils
-Have the same on all platform but maybe unlockable and thus some can start with different ones than others.

There are 15 characters in total. But we're only using the first two for the alpha demo. Each character will be available on every platform, we have no intentions of doing any platform specific characters at this time

Dorth wrote: -Ah, and, this game looks gorgeous, I am already in a hurry to play it

thx !