I believe my earlier self would say “fewer strikes seems like a nasty thought!” And even my present self would not say that the variety of strikes in a recreation like Rising Thunder is unhealthy. It is effective! However the factor I’ve found within the final yr is that you are able to do a complete lot with little or no. Divekick is actually the pioneer recreation right here. It began as a joke recreation, however ended up proving which you can have a complete lot of gameplay in a recreation with no joystick in any respect and simply two buttons: soar and assault. A very shocking quantity of gameplay. (Shoutout to Keits: good job!) That basically shifted my considering round and I began considering by way of “if a recreation had EVEN MORE stuff than Divekick, simply think about how a lot there might be to it.” By rigorously crafting transfer design and ensuring strikes have a number of completely different makes use of, it seems that radically simplifying the style nonetheless preserves the core of what is good about it. It nonetheless FEELS like a combating recreation with body traps, combos, okizeme (strain in opposition to a knocked down opponent), and so forth. Nevertheless it controls so amazingly merely which you can choose it up and play instantly.
I have been pleasantly stunned to see some gamers who’re typically not that nice at combating video games have been in a position to have fairly thrilling matches with me. The setups, the methods, and even the combos are mainly instantly accessible to them, so they’re taking part in the true recreation inside minutes. Regardless that these identical folks may battle with getting constant particular strikes in Road Fighter, I now see that no less than a few them at all times had the pinnacle for some of these video games, simply not the palms, ha. I am glad to carry them into the fold.
Mac / PC
It appears each Fantasy Strike and Rising Thunder may have a strong deal with the PC platform. That’s, not an afterthought port. We have had Mac builds in addition to PC builds from day 1 on Fantasy Strike, although I am unable to touch upon different platforms proper now. Anyway, one noteworthy factor concerning the Mac / PC platform is keyboard management. Combating recreation tournaments are a sea of joysticks. Taking part in a combating recreation on a keyboard is a typically terrible factor…until you redesign the management system to remove 360s, half circles, quarter circles, dragon punch motions, and so forth. Then you definately’re simply urgent particular person buttons, and it really works loads higher. Fantasy Strike goes even additional by demanding solely two keys out of your left hand: transfer left and transfer proper. You do not even must map up or down, as your proper hand can press the soar, assault, and particular buttons. (We might actually add extra to our controls scheme if we have to, however to this point it is gone over fantastically in playtesting precisely how it’s.)
What’s neat is that these simplified management schemes work very properly on a stick, very properly on a pad, AND very properly on keyboard. So it appears each Fantasy Strike and Rising Thunder have zeroed in on that idea, that making easier controls would not JUST make the attention-grabbing components of the sport extra accessible, it ALSO makes bodily gear it’s essential to play the sport extra accessible. Everybody has a keyboard and it really works nice for these video games!
On-line
Rising Thunder deserves very particular point out right here for having Tony Cannon behind it, the creator of the superior GGPO networking system. I used to be truly one of many first gamers (the very first?) to check GGPO again within the day. I do not forget that my suggestions on his first move which had actually no optimizations and no different testing in any respect was that it was noticeably higher than some other combating recreation networking I had ever used. Tony was very excited to listen to that as a result of he mentioned there have been all types of issues he might do make on-line even much less laggy feeling. He in fact went on to just do that and, utilizing the “rollback” approach, created hands-down the perfect on-line tech for combating video games. If there’s one factor you may be positive of, it is that Rising Thunder goes to have unbelievable networking from a technical standpoint.
And naturally Fantasy Strike will use rollback networking as properly, hopefully with GGPO. There’s simply no different acceptable approach to do it, and it’s very baffling that rollback networking wasn’t already a regular 10 years in the past, a lot much less in 2015.
Regardless that the technical implementation of on-line play is SUPER essential, I believe there’s much more room for enchancment even past that in relation to on-line play. The entire means it is introduced in combating video games is actually very complicated and junky. Any sort of design factor that’s complicated and junky drives me nuts, however this topic actually deserves particular point out as a result of the consequences are a lot greater than if, say, button config is complicated and junky (which might even be horrible!). Anyway when there’s any friction to the way you truly go about taking part in on-line, that reduces the pool of opponents, will increase wait instances, and the cycle can compound till there simply is not anybody on-line.
Different genres are actually miles past combating video games in relation to these items. It is time for us to step up and streamline not simply particular strikes and management programs, but in addition the general expertise of taking part in on-line.
Gameplay
Regardless that Fantasy Strike and Rising Thunder come from such related origins and have such related ideas to them, the precise really feel of the video games will likely be fairly completely different. So whereas it is an attention-grabbing hook how on-the-same-page these two video games are with one another in so some ways, it will likely be equally attention-grabbing to see the place they diverge.
Sadly, I am unable to say far more about that proper now, however I’ll say that Fantasy Strike has a special tackle throw escapes than the remainder of the style and I’ve waited actually over 10 years now to place it right into a recreation. I am going to maintain off on extra gameplay particulars as a result of Fantasy Strike continues to be very early in growth. I am simply completely happy that there is going to be some new entries within the combating recreation style that can every do their half in spreading the love of what is so enjoyable concerning the style to a complete new set of people that have been left behind to this point.
When the group over at Radiant (lead by Evolution founder Tom Cannon, by the way in which) and I are each working so exhausting towards the identical sort of ends on separate initiatives, it actually does really feel like a brand new period of combating video games is on the horizon. An inclusive period that’s going to increase the style whereas conserving their fantastic strategic nature intact. If something, the main target in these video games goes to be on technique greater than ever, and fewer on 1p coaching mode. Whereas some are going to name that dumbed down for casuals, it is truly the alternative of dumbing right down to put extra emphasis on player-decisions.
Patreon
If you would like to assist my recreation growth and podcasts, you may turn into a patron at patreon.com/sirlin. The upper tier patrons are already taking part in my customizable card recreation Codex (tabletop model) and a 1-character prototype construct of the Fantasy Strike combating recreation exhibiting the gameplay with out actual artwork. There will likely be a brand new construct there subsequent week with a second character. I stress to any potential patrons that we’re letting you in on issues means, means early and have targeted solely on gameplay and are solely exhibiting builds with extraordinarily tough artwork for now which can all be up to date with “actual” artwork as we go. Come on board if you would like to assist assist the event of the sport all through.
I believe it is a good time for the style, and the instances they’re a-changin’.
