Our animator has a following. He’s very popular amongst certain groups and has a fuckload of followers who would just eat this game up, but only if he did it to push this particular style since that’s what he’s known for.
Considering that Ryanide’s animation work seems to have this odd property of collecting fans who previously don’t even care for furries, I don’t think it’s such a far stretch that we could market this to other demographics besides your typical DA crowd.
The OTHER artist who is helping to direct this game also has a ton of fans who would froth over to see that art style put into motion, since his works have never been animated before.
So regardless, there will be people who will at least support this game, and we already have good enough backing and support to go ahead with it. Now what counts is trying to expland.
Also, why would we want to make another fighter that just looks like every other fighter? That’s way too easy and way too common. The art style we’re using here is pretty much only ever used by a select bunch of chinese anime artists and the guy who started using this style has lead a few trends and spawned a few immitators. We’ve got the original thing! We’re not just going to back down now and use some crap old fashioned style when we have this kind of talent behind the concepts.
Also, I haven’t talked about GoF for quite some time. What rock have you been hiding under? I’ve been behaving myself lately.
@ Bucket
Nice suggestion. Our lead programmer is adamant that he wants to build the engine himself. But I’ll suggest this Unity thing next chance I get.
good point on depth ill throw out my views on that.
Depth comes from figuring out good options or figuring out how to use bad options(street fighter jump ins) too much depth makes something confusing and increases the learning curve.
Game engines work because they are somewhat free-form and good ones will generally give you lots of options for offence and defence, using a few universal tricks that are simple to use to start with, but are not shallow and the discovery of the further use of them is part of what makes a game interesting, especially initially. some games do this more with the individual characters rather than the universal engine.
something like street fighter 4s challenge modes are good for showing basically what characters can do. But its gonna come down to what players discover anyway in the end so this has limited use.
Yeah I get it. You don’t want something that’s so technical that it’s inecessable or just outright not fun to play.
I guess the aim is to let the game still be playable and enjoyable at a low level, then allow enough depth for the more dedicated players to rip it open and expand beyond the basics. If you outright cannot play the game without knowing advanced tactics, then that’s no good. Still, a player who has researched the game and tapped into the depth should have an advantage over someone who hasn’t.
A character tutorial mode is something that could be very nice to have in any fighter. It can be updated regularly based on what the players find and submit to the devs. Perhaps we can regularly release little mini-patches that send little messages to your training mode that will give the player tips depending on their character.
Perhaps a little helper who pops up in the background and says stuff like “Did you know that by doing this move immediately after a jump, you can cancel the lag and avoid being punished?” or “character A’s most damaging combo at this time is as follows: 5A, 2A, 5Bx2, 5C, 2C, otg 6D, 3C, jump, 5A, 5B, 623A, air jump, 5A, 5B, 236C! Go on, try it!”
and then if you opt to do the training, the game will pause inbetween hits, and resume when you’ve done the inputs correctly. This will give new players a way to learn the combos step by step.
If players could submit their own combos and tricks via a BBS style function, it would give players the feeling of being able to help each other out and also contribute something to the game.
First off- business suggestion. I’d start with a PC version, then move to console. You’d be using an underserved market. If you’re worried about piracy, I’d suggest protecting your MP not your SP. If your SP is pirated, it’s going to be people who weren’t going to buy your game anyways- you might be able to get some of them to pay for MP. I know in terms of DD platforms, Stardock might be the best place to start- as I know they don’t charge an upfront fee to put a game on, and they are willing to support serials from other companies, such as Valve, for free. You will want to protect your MP.
I think if you go with the XBLA/PSN model- your game will just get buried behind the other stuff, especially if you make a mistake and have to patch.
Second, don’t throw off casual players- that’s where your profits are. That said, the casual player pool will not be thrown off by serious play. Casuals love BB for example. The key is to make sure the casual content is not forced on serious players.
Third- don’t make your dojin Arc-inspired gameplaywise. Every major dojin does that. Try maybe a more traditional dojin- something SF or KOF-based?
Fourth- with the PC model, you’d be better off making your money through microexpansions then all at once. $5 expansions that add 2 chars will sell more and get you more goodwill.
As for the character designs, play them up, don’t tone them down. If a game has good gameplay, people will forgive all sorts of terrible designs. Maybe post some concept design art on here and see what people think? If you can get sales from letting the artists lose, do so. Ultimately, serious players will buy a game that has good mechanics, and the furries will buy it for the animation. The two groups can be satisfied without getting in each others way. I wouldn’t worry about the furry bait thing at all.
That said, I’d suggest “adulting” up the designs a bit after seeing the concept art. Right now I’d say those designs look a little too loli for an American audience, especially with them being anthropomorphic- that may disturb some people.
Thanks. Interesting that you should suggest doing a PC release first.
We’ve already settled on the gameplay, and it is melty blood/arc inspired. However the direction and focus combines some elements from old-school fighters such as a focus on upper/lower body invincibility and countering attacks with other attacks that are strong to various attributes.
I also did post some character concepts early on in the thread. I think around page 2 or 3 if you wanted to have a look.
I just saw it- the Tanuki Girl needs to be older/changed. Right now it screams kiddie porn. I’m sorry to say that, but I don’t think you’d pass standards with that. Rave looks ok, though like a kid’s cartoonn char, Dragon Girl looks fine, I think the Gunners could look ok too.
As for being Melty/Arc inspired, I’d suggest describing the system here, and see what people think. I’d suggest 4 button gameplay if you go PC, but don’t copy BB or melty too much- you’ll not get much traction that way.
The other reason I suggested PC first was the cost factor. The risks are lower on PC, and I think the reward is potentially greater. Just be sure to keep it low spec in order to keep a stable framerate up. Also, you’d be able to use GGPO- which would sell the game well on here.
Edit: aiming your marketing at anime cons/furry cons would not be a bad idea either. A subset of those groups do post on SRK and play fighting games decently. I know a few furry fans who do play fighting games seriously, though not competitively (aka they won’t enter a tourney, but they care about learning the game). These groups tend to like the Arc-style stuff more, so my objections to it are really my objections to it. I would make the execution as easy as possible though. (Generally: on Arc stuff, I don’t mind the systems, but I hate the long combos- I think short, brutal combos look better to me)
Edit #2: avoid “trap” designs. make sure men are men and women are women.
Edit #3: the online is what is going to make you long-term profits. You can’t neglect that.
That seems like it could work. There’s probably enough anime kids to be a worthwhile target audience, I think some people here underestimate how many people might like this, based on their own tastes.
And since sprite work has already been started, it seems wiser to focus on making other areas mainstream appealing rather than change up the art (and possibly having to reqruit new artists).
Boo :tdown:
Don’t worry though… How’s a robot animal gonna be a trap anyway? Robots have no gender, and who cares what gender an animal is… They look the same anyway (except for birds I guess). Also they have no clothes to hide whatever signs of gender they might have.
Edit: Also, being worried about traps implies a potential sexual attraction towards the characters… I mean, why else would it matter?
edit: i could be an enormous dick and tell you million of wrong things in this thread but heres my serious opinion w/o a lot of words:
do not do this.
here is a pretty tried and true method:
the more something offends people (ie, lots of furries, mechas, transexuals, whatever), the less people will play your game. however, people don’t care if something is inoffensive and uninspired, but outright copying something with little originality is considered offensive enough to turn people off.
editx2: its not bad to appeal to niche demographics with non-focus characters (ie one furry character probably wont offend many people), but when your entire focus is a niche, its going to bomb or perform average at best commercially.
Well, I checked with some furry fans I know through various places (including SRK)- they all seem to think that the Tanuki char should be older. One also suggested giving her clothes.
It really looks like kiddie porn bait to me. Gotta remember that just because you say it’s a robot, doesn’t mean it won’t be viewed otherwise.
Edit: the other designs seemed to go over well, but these were mostly furry fans who are casual FG players at most. The bad comment was that one felt they looked a little too Pokemon-ish.
I do feel the Arc fandom and the furry and anime fandoms do overlap enough- look at the amount of BB cosplay recently for example, that this may not hurt all that much.
I think BB fans are more likely right now to be otakus then serious FG players for example (not on this site of course, but in general) I have two friends who want to do Taokaka cosplays for example.
that’s not always the case. I bet there’s millions of people trying to get their hands on RapeLay right now even though sales have been discontinued, and that game has offended the fuck outta lots of people. as for edit #2, from what I’ve heard from him the game is based on Chinese mythology… having ONE furry and a bunch of humans wouldn’t even make sense
I agree with you about the originality thing though. no one wants to play Ryu with a beard or Zangief with a fireball. they want something brand new
That’s a good point. Niche people will be content with something small. I mean, let’s take the most obvious example. Bridget probably helped GG quite a bit (mostly PR, but also possible niche audience draw), but a whole game of Bridgets would probably not have succeeded.
I would say try to be innovative and let people do something in fighting games that they usually can’t. Also really pay attention to presentation. Like sound/visual effects and stuff. Like, when someone blocks a big attack, there should be some kind of big blue thing appearing on them and a loud “KRNCH” noise. One reason I hate 3D fighters is because they don’t have this.
From what I’ve read, it seems your artist doesn’t want to take any criticism on his art direction. He wants to do it his way or the high way so to speak. If this guy is not willing to accept advice from experienced fighting game players that is a bad sign. I would look for project with people who are more open and clear minded.
