Me and a small group of dedicated Dutch fighting game enthusiasts, have been working for some time on a new sprite-based fighting game named Shattered. We’ve recently started a development blog, that talks about the design, and shows of our engine and artwork.
Right now we’re closing in on finishing off our initial first Alpha of the game, with our first character, Julia, fully functioning, and all the gameplay systems in place.
The team currently consists of four members:
Bob Sagat - Our amazing animator, also known for his amazing Red Fight District trailer and several, cool combo videos.
FTPlus - Engine & Tools guy. He makes sure the things that are supposed to work actually work.
Coal - Game Design, Art Direction and Story.
Phoenix - Me, who takes care of game design, and character scripting, hitbox placement, and all those fighting game details thatIaminto.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to lets us know!
For now, I’ll leave you guys with a vid of some Shattered gameplay at the Red Fight District tournament!
The animation is fantastic. If you need any advice I have no problem throwing some experience your way.
You have a lot of work ahead of you. Best of luck!
Game sounds/looks really interesting so far, and generally your design philosophy sounds great.
Any chance of some more in-depth dev blogs as to how you went about either programming or creating some of the assets, if your team has the time? I’m just touching the surface of game creation myself, and learning how all the sprite animations get put together, for example, would be really interesting.
Just wanted to add that your proposed throw data is almost identical to Persona 4 Arena, so if you wanted to see an example of how it works in practice, you could check out that game.
You should paste your design philosophy into the OP so people know what your game is about.
Looks okay but it doesn’t really stand out, especially after seeing the animation you guys choose to use for a throw. Go with something more flashy man just so you can push your limits otherwise you are going to end up with a product that isn’t going to raise any eyebrows.
Also I know you want to make Julia the beginer shoto character but maybe try and incorporate something that might make her also a good choice for intermediate/advanced players as well, some kind of system specific to her that gives her an edge if the player is good enough.
It might cost you guys some money but you need to get another animator, especially with the art direction you are going for, I can see you guys have a really good vision as far as art direction, so find someone that maybe is experienced in portraying that vision. I am really loving it though, like that you have an archer for a character. You guys familiar with Lars Anderson, he is kinda famous for investigating and bringing back ancient archery tech that allows people to do shit they haven’t been able to for a long time.
good luck
Edit: is this a weapon based fighter? getting a strong Samurai Shodown vibe here lol, that’s gonna have to play alot differently
If that’s what people are interested in, I’m sure we can think of some stuff to write about. We are a bit wary about becoming too technical because that might also scare off some people.
Indeed!
I’m not sure if I understand this. Ryu, in none of the fighting games (unless you think having j.MP that juggles counts) has a ‘system specific’ thing to make him interesting. He’s the most basic character in basically any game he is in, nevertheless it’s not like he is uninteresting to intermediate/advanced players. Depth in such a character is knowing his/her ins and outs, and there is plenty of room for that also with Julia. For example, Julia can dodge some fireballs with her cr.HK, and has several counterhit-only combos.
Funnily enough, someone has mentioned him to us before. We are certainly not going to use the archery tech in our game. The point of a shoto fireball is that it has fairly short startup, and long recovery; This ‘bad’ technique is 1. More iconic to players and 2. the ‘bad’ technique’s inefficiency maps better to the frame data that you’d expect from a shoto fireball.
It’s not strictly a weapon-based fighter. Julia fights with a weapon, and quite a few other characters do too. But there are also characters that do not.
Any chance you can make it so that the window is bigger during the startup frames of the throw, before it connects so that it’s better to predict them than to react. IIRC, this is how 3rd Strike handled throw techs (something like 6 frames before and 2 frames after) and this is what inspired Mike Z to do the same system for Skullgirls.
The animation looks great! My only critique is that the idle animation is only 1 frame lol. And while I understand you want the main character to be a shoto I think you guys could spice her up a bit with some bow and arrow tricks… Like maybe different ammo types or being able to shoot different angles etc.
Time for me to stop lurking (have been doing that on and off for some years) and actually sign up. Heya!
As the OP said, I’m also part of the team. Was involved in a big part of the system and character designs, both in terms of gameplay as well as appearance. I tend to leave things unfinished, so I drop my half thought out ideas in Phoenix his lap for him to decide on the intricate details and frame data. He should be the guy answering all the little detailed stuff, other than that, just shoot!
Don’t worry. We actually have a longer one, but for some reason nobody bothered to put it into the alpha mockup engine yet. Should be fixed as soon as we start our first location tests.
Funny that you mention that. She originally had different angles and air fireballs… ehh… arrows. For now we will keep it as it is and focus on other characters, if she turns out to be bland next to the other fighters we will probably reevaluate and change. Or just make some shitty EX-version
Nobody wants to play some basic ass ryu clone these days, and making someone familiar and easy too pick up shouldn’t be a reason to not give a character depth. The way I figure it, if you guys don’t go the whole 9 yards you are gonna be wasting your time. If you need help with the conception process it is probably time to get a kickstarter to procure some funds so you can make a more polished game. That’s a problem a lot of us probably had with that Yagasturu game in that it’s characters didn’t seem to have too much to make them really interesting or stand out even though it is a nice game and they put a lot of effort in it, I can see people dropping it because it didn’t go all the way.
You guys should give your archer a move that lets her hold an arrow in her hand, and if she does her standard fireball it has less start up. Let her stack this move up to three times so she can do a quick 3 shot arrow barrage. And when she has a charge her jabs have increased range lol. If she takes a hit she loses her arrows charges.
Also make it so she can hold her arrow to charge it for some added bonus. None of that would be to hard to incorporate in your current design with the exception of adding actual arrows instead of making her into Hank the Ranger.
Anyways that was just an ideal, and what I mean by giving her a “system” to make her stand out more. Nothing too crazy right?
