Month: August 2016

In his latest montage, XusesGB demonstrates the punishing potential of Ken’s rushdown game. Most of the matches in the video end with either stun combos or perfects, and the ones that don’t still show why Mr. Masters is practically the embodiment of rushdown. Another great thing this video highlights is the importance of fundamentals: though Ken’s style is flashy on the surface, most of the damage acquired in these online matches seem to come from hard reads, good footsies and sharp reactions.

Check out these clips that make even the spectator fear Ken’s flaming fists:

Source: XusesGB

 

After a brief break for Super Smash Con, Jason from Wavedash Games is back with another developer vlog. This week’s topic is discussing whether their platform fighter will have an analog shielding system, like the system in Melee, or a digital system similar to holding the block button in a fighter like Mortal Kombat.

With an analog shielding mechanic, players can choose the strength of their shield with a light shield or a full shield. Thanks to the Gamecube controller’s analog shoulder buttons, the controller can detect variances in your button press and give you either a full shield or light shield based on the force applied. This makes the shielding system very easy to understand at first–push button, defend yourself from attacks–but provides added depth once players have mastered the initial system by varying up the strength of pressing that shield button, depending on the situation. This mechanic is consigned to a single button press, making the concept of shielding easy to grasp for a brand new player.

However, with modern controllers dispensing with analog buttons and using digital buttons where your input is either on or off, you lose this extra degree of control. With a digital shielding system, there would be a designated block button, alongside extra inputs like pressing two buttons at once if you wanted a different shield type as the controller cannot read variable inputs via that single button press. As Jason says in the video, this minor input change drastically increases the barrier to entry as the once easily understandable single shield button has to have a bunch of caveats lumped on it for different scenarios.

The team at Wavedash have not quite decided on their shield system just yet and are trying to design something that works whether you use analog or digital buttons, but this video provides a enlightening glimpse into the theory behind crafting control systems for fighting games. The game could end up having a push block system, a parry mechanic similar to 3rd Strike or it may dispense with shields all together, similar to Rivals of Aether.

Source: Wavedash Games