Attack Mountain

ATTACK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPER DIARY 5

GUEST DEVELOPER DIARY: ECHO BRIDGE ON ANIMATION

Today’s developer diary was written by Esteban Valdez, the founder and studio head at Echo Bridge Pictures. We’ll also be debuting another developer diary early next week, so stay tuned!

We could, like most artists and studios, dive head first into pixel painting but we really wanted to bring out the best for Legend of the Time Star. That’s why, as Attack Mountain stated earlier, we’ve done everything by hand, frame-by-frame.  Pixel painting isn’t much different from painting with traditional or digital mediums.  You’re playing with shape, color, values and volumes all in an attempt to capture an idea.  Couple that with animation where you are also playing with shape, volume, mass and weight, plus [!] 8-16 paintings to put together and you’ve got quite the workload to paint all at once.

The problem when diving right in to the pool is that you never really gauge how deep it is, or if there’s any water in it all. At Echo Bridge, we look, then leap. Or, as the old production method goes: “General to specific.”

So, in this instance, what we did was get a general look at what needs to be done and broke it down, allowing us to focus on each step and produce the best animation possible.  And with characters as detailed as this, it was important that took small steps to really capture as much of the original designs as possible.  By doing this, we were able to create very unique animation cycles for each character that really gives the overall world a lot of depth.  

The fungal drudger’s walk, for example, required more frames to slow the it down, and the hands move on an independent time chart that really pops out from everything else. It gives its walk a much different feel and look from other creatures in the game.

Once everyone is happy with an animation, we bring it down to the pixel level.  Because we’ve worked at a larger resolution, we have a very good understanding of the characters volume, mass, weight, etc., and that helps us make a well-constructed sprite. It may seem time consuming, but the results have been incredibly satisfactory so far.

Everyone seems to be in a hurry to find the latest shortcut, hotkey, or animate button all in an attempt to get a project out the door faster.

But, the longest distance between any two points is a shortcut.

-Esteban Valdez, Echo Bridge Pictures

Want this game to become a reality? We need the support of the gaming community to make Legend of the Time Star happen. Back to our Kickstarter today! 

ATTACK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPER DIARY

DEVELOPER DIARY 2 - BASIC COMBAT AND CONTROLS

Great art, great music, excellent animation – none of it means anything if the game isn’t fun to play. In today’s Developer Diary, we’re going to drill down a bit on combat, and explain the basic mechanics and how they’re is incorporated into the game. We’ll also talk a bit about general controls, too. Ready? This one’s pretty long and has a lot of info in it, so you might want to go grab a coffee or a cup of tea before you start reading. Enjoy!

What is an Action RPG?

How does Wikipedia define an Action RPG?

“Action role-playing games (abbreviated action RPG, action/RPG, or ARPG) form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat. These games often use combat systems similar to hack and slash or shooter games.”

That sounds about right, doesn’t it? Unlike a game such as, say, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, everything related to combat in an ARPG happens in real time. Each button press equals an action, and each action has an immediate consequence. For pacing, the difference between a turn-based RPG and an action-RPG is tremendous. You can’t put your controller down and lament for ten minutes about what spell to cast on a boss in an action RPG. If you’re swarmed by ten enemies, they’re not going to wait for you to figure out what to do; they’re just going to jump on you.

Every game is essentially a huge group of spreadsheets put together that dictate its rules – the difference with RPGs is that a lot of those spreadsheets are more transparent, closer to the surface, and players have a much bigger hand in tweaking the numbers in those spreadsheets to provide themselves with the best advantage they can muster. This is the common thread that runs through all RPGs, action or otherwise.

Through and through, Legend of the Time Star is an action RPG. Today we’ll shed some light on how the ‘action’ part of that comes into play.

The Feel and Inspiration

Let’s talk a bit about some games and studios that, collectively, have been a big part in defining the gameplay for LoTS.

The AM team grew up playing all sorts of games, but for Time Star we have focused a lot on bringing back that satisfying, but nuanced feel that many of Capcom’s games of the 90’s so easily captured. One great example, despite the fact that it’s a beat-em-up as opposed to a platformer, is their acclaimed Dungeons and Dragons series. Take a look at the Fighter class in that game – every sword strike felt immediate, yet at the same time they had a ‘weight’ to them. You felt each hit, and it was for a few major reasons;

• Responsiveness - Our mantra for gameplay in general is to provide a 1-to-1 ratio for user input/result. What we mean by this is that when you press a button, you get immediate feedback. It’s really important in games where every second counts that the user doesn’t fight with the controls; they need to be able to pull off any maneuver that they cook up in their mind without having to worry if the game’s going to be able to understand or keep up with them. If there’s even a half a second’s worth of lag between a button press and its resulting action, the entire experience suffers.
• The Details – When you hit an opponent in DnD, you feel like you did some damage. This is because of the way the entire package comes together – the collision detection is excellent, and the moment your blade hits your target, you’re rewarded with a variety of different feedback types – the crunchy sound of steel hitting flesh, the split-second pause at the moment of impact, the brief flash of the target sprite. It gave you a moment, no matter how small, to absorb and register the events currently occurring in the game. If it’s a really heavy hit, all this would happen in addition to a screen shake, and after that moment of absorption your opponent would be sent reeling, tumbling a few feet away.

This game was also unique in the fact that it had moves tied to special commands. For example, players could do a powerful upward strike by using the command down->up->attack, or a what was called a ‘sliding strike’ by rolling the joystick from down to front before hitting attack.

Here’s a video of the Fighter from Dungeon and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara in action. (Feels good just watching it, doesn’t it?)

Their Dungeons and Dragons series obviously isn’t the only one that captured this feel – a lot of their games did. Street Fighter, Final Fight, Magic Sword, Knights of the Round, King of Dragons, even The Punisher - the list goes on for a long time. We want Time Star’s combat to be technical and nuanced while at the same time be satisfying and flashy, with players able to pick it up and immediately feel as though they know how play it.

Square’s Secret of Mana series also had a large impact on how we structured the game’s combat. Where Capcom nailed the feel, Square excelled at bubbling that ‘spreadsheet’ aspect to the surface. Numbers fly each time a strike is made, and it’s hard to argue that anything’s more satisfying than seeing a huge number fly off of an opponent after nailing a particularly juicy critical hit or spellcast. When combined with other heavy RPG elements like stats (HP, MP, Strength, Constitution, etc) and an expertly balanced equipment system that heavily impacted how your character fared in battle, it’s easy to see why Square was at the forefront of the action RPG movement in the early 90’s.

As an aside, we have a special place in our hearts for Legend of Mana. We know that it’s not from the same era as these other games, but it’s one of the last games we all played that gave us that nostalgic feeling we want to bring back with Time Star.

Finally, the Castlevania series had a big impact on us, namely after it made the leap from point-a to point-b sidescroller to ‘Metroidvania’. As an all-around package, games like Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and those that followed had very satisfying progression in terms of your moveset expanding as you advanced through the game. It’s also the only game out of all the ones we’ve mentioned so far that is a true platformer, just like Time Star. Just like LoTS, you’re locked onto a 2D plane in these games, and that has serious impacts on the way the game’s laid out. If you can’t reach a ledge that leads to another area, for example, you can’t go there until you satisfy some requirement in the game world, whether that’s defeating a certain boss or acquiring a certain piece of equipment. Like many other ARPGs (which at the end of the day, the ‘Metroidvania’ games are), you also are treated to damage numbers whenever you deal damage or damage is dealt to you.

Furthermore, Castlevania games did a great job making your weapon decision feel meaningful; you could opt to fight with quick jabs by using a very fast short-sword, or sacrifice speed for raw power by brandishing a great axe with a wide, arcing swing. Not only did it allow you to match whatever playstyle you felt like using at the time, it also allowed you to make on-the-fly decisions based on the enemies you were facing. We’re looking to do this same thing with Time Star’s Forge System by allowing players to decide whether to use one-handed or two-handed swords and customize them based on their needs.

Many other series have impacted the game in certain ways, but when it comes to combat, these are the major ones. We’ll be getting more into these inspiration breakdowns in future Dev Diaries. The takeaway here is that we’re after responsive, varied, pulse-pounding combat that is impacted by your play style, as well as the decisions you make while customizing your character.

So What’s it Like for Time Star?

A (messy) page from the director’s sketchbook, outlining some of the game’s moves and techniques.

Combat in Time Star occurs within the game world, in real-time – there are no cutaways or ‘switching to battle mode’. This means that if you’re outside of a town, you should stay on your feet – anything can happen when you’re in the wild. For the most part, enemies will be spawned as soon as you enter an area, and will respawn each time you return to said area; but there are also chance encounters that will leave you ambushed. You could pass by some bushes, for example, only to have a horde of monsters leap out in an attempt to take you down using the element of surprise.

In case you’re wondering, yes, you see damage dealt on-screen with each strike. If this isn’t your thing, we’ll be making it optional, with the ability to toggle it on/off via the settings screen.

There are two control styles currently, but the main one is keyboard only with the mouse used for UI navigation. We are currently establishing a mode that we’re calling ‘Modern’ mode, which utilizes WASD movement and relies heavily on the mouse for combat. (Terraria did something like this.) However, it requires a lot of deep-dive from a design perspective to determine its viability for Time Star, so we’re going to talk about the keyboard only for the sake of this Dev Diary. We’ve selected a cross-section of controls taken from the game’s Design Doc to show you here. We’d like to stress that this isn’t every move in the game, just some of them, and that we’ve truncated each technique’s description for the doc heavily for readability.

We’ll start off with the basic controls so that you have a frame of reference for the combat moves listed.

(All commands assume player is facing right).

Core Movement

Walk (← →): L + R Arrow keys

Allows the player to walk. Players can only walk left or right.

Jump: Space Bar

Allows the player to jump.

Crouch: Down Arrow key

Allows the player to crouch. If the player is in tall grass when crouching, beasts are 50% less likely to notice them. Players may move when crouching, though their movement speed is reduced by 45%. The user will remain in a crouching position as long as the crouch key is being pressed.

Advanced Movement

Sprint: Double tap and hold → while standing or walking

Allows the player to run at 150% normal speed. This effect is ended when the player collides with any obstacle, such as a wall, door, or enemy, or the player lets go of the arrow key.

Roll: Double tap → while crouching

Causes the player to dive and do a singular roll in the direction tapped before returning to a crouching position. This is useful in combat because it ignores collisions for most smaller opponents, allowing the player to get behind them. It’s also useful – and sometimes necessary – for getting through smaller spaces.

Interaction

Action Button: A or Shift

The action button is the catch-all button used throughout the game. This button’s context changes based on the player’s immediate vicinity. By default, the action button is used to attack, but this is superceded by other available actions. For example, if the player is standing in front of a switch, pressing the action button would cause the player to throw the switch instead of attacking. 

Another page of move concepts from the director’s sketchbook. Note the fifth-grader style font that’s completely intentional.

Combat Techniques, Offense

Technique: Quick Attack

Command: Tap Action Button

The standard and staple technique that causes the player to strike swiftly with their weapon.

The Quick Attack, in addition to being a staple move in the player’s arsenal, also shoots a crescent-shaped projectile out over a very short distance in front of the player. The projectile is destroyed upon first contact with an enemy or obstacle, or when it reaches the end of its lifespan.  When an opponent is struck by both the projectile and the direct strike, damage received is determined by whichever roll was higher. For example, if an opponent were to take 15 damage from the projectile and 25 from the direct strike, they would simply take 25 damage.

Technique: Fierce Attack

Command: Press/hold Action button

A strong attack that deals more damage at the cost of a longer wind-up.

The Fierce Attack’s wind-up leaves the player vulnerable, so it should only be used when the player has an opening. Unlike the Quick Attack, Fierce Attack does not shoot projectiles. If an opponent is struck with this attack, they will suffer knockback. More heavily armored creatures may only be staggered, and the heartiest of monsters may suffer no ill effects at all.

Technique: Jump Attack

Command: Press Action button while jumping

While in the air, the player will draw their weapon and rapidly spin with it in hand, creating a whirlwind of weaponry that damages everything within its radius. The player will spin until they land once the jump attack is initiated.

The Jump attack is an invaluable attack with a variety useful applications, due to the fact that the attack can be initiated from at any moment after the player has left the ground. It can be used to damage and escape opponents when surrounded when activated the moment after jumping, strike an airborne opponent when the player is in the air, or get the drop on an enemy or group by activating it right before landing near them. 

The another page from the design sketchbook – you can kind of see some interesting stuff from the other side of it, wonder what those are about…

Combat Techniques, Defense

Technique: Block

Command: Automatic

The player blocks a physical or projectile attack with their shield, taking only a fraction of the damage. If the player is not using a shield, they will parry instead and will take a larger fraction of the damage.

Block is based on a few variables: the first is the user’s block chance. The higher the user’s block chance, the higher likelihood the player will block the attack. Block chance can be increased via certain item types or skill tree . The second is the player’s action at the time of the strike. If the player is attacking, their block chance is reduced by 90%. If they are casting, block chance is reduced by 75%. If they are moving, the chance is reduced by 50%. If the player is standing and not performing an attack or casting, their block chance is normal.

Technique: Deflect

Command: Action Button (timed)

The player swats a projectile aside, taking no damage from it.

To deflect a physical projectile, such as an arrow or rock, it must first be tagged as an applicable projectile. If it is, it will flash white moments before impact. If the player presses the action button while the projectile is flashing white, it will be deflected once it reaches them. The player must press the action button once for each projectile: if multiple projectiles are incoming, the player will need to hit the action button once for each one to queue up the deflections. There is no theoretical cap on how many projectiles can be deflected at once, but it assumed that eventually enough projectiles would overwhelm the player and cause them to take at least some of the damage. This technique is useful for damage mitigation when under heavy fire and can mean the difference between life and death if used properly.

Technique: Counterattack

Command: Action Button (timed)

The player retaliates after an opponent’s unsuccessful attack with a Fierce Attack. This attack is a guaranteed critical strike with knockback and stagger (on regular opponents only).

When the player successfully blocks an opponent’s attack, the player will flash white momentarily. If the player hits the action button during this time, the opponent will be staggered and the player will immediately and swiftly strike them with a guaranteed critical Fierce Attack. The player remains invincible for the duration of the swing, becoming vulnerable again as soon as the animation is over.

Counterattacks are unlocked through gameplay and are useful when going up against a tough opponent one on one, especially if the player has skewed their skill point spending in defensive trees that improve block chance. It’s also useful when being attacked by multiple weaker enemies, as a counterattack does significant physical damage that can cripple foes.

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That’s it for today’s developer diary update! Stay tuned for our next one, coming next week – trust us when we say you’re going to love it.

Oh, last thing before we go - you’re likely wondering about magic. Well, we felt that magic deserved its own update, so you’ll see a dev diary on it in upcoming weeks.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone, and if you like what you read, reblog it! As always, be sure to check out our Kickstarter and donate if you like what you’re reading here! We need your help to make Legend of the Time Star a reality.

-AM

ATTACK MOUNTAIN DEVELOPER DIARY

ENTRY 1: THE FORGE SYSTEM / HILT AND BLADE

Welcome to the very first Developer Diary entry for Legend of the Time Star! Today, Time Star’s director will take you through the game’s Forge System and give you more insight on how to upgrade and customize your weapons.

“Again I entered my smithy to work and forge something from the noble material of time past.” -Jean Froissart

Your hero will have quite a lot on his shoulders in Legend of the Time Star; there will be no shortage of evil to eradicate or dungeons to scour. It’s good to know you’ve got The Forge System at your back - temper your steel effectively, and you’ll be ready for anything.

Click for high-res

What is the Forge System?

The blacksmith’s Shoppe in each major town in the game contains a Forge, a place where the player can tailor their armor and weapons to meet their current needs. At a Forge, the player can do a wide range of things, from forging (and reforging) their weapons to upgrading them with items they’ve found while adventuring.

Weapon Forging/Reforging

Each sword that the player can acquire is split into two pieces, the ‘hilt’ and the ‘blade’.  Both pieces control different aspects of the user’s standard attacks:

• Hilt controls attack speed, stat bonuses (defensive), and weapon type (1-hand or 2-hand)
• Blade controls damage,  stat bonuses (offensive), and status effects (such as poison, life absorption, and magic damage types)

A cleaned up page from the director’s sketchbook for the original concept of the Forge System – horrible handwriting and all

Break it Up (or don’t)

Unlike other games where you get a weapon and that’s it – you maybe get to upgrade it a couple of times or something – you don’t have to keep a weapon’s blade and hilt together in Time Star. You can use the Forge to take the blade of one sword and attach it to the hilt of another! If you’ve got a one-hander that has an awesome blade, but you don’t want to wield a one-handed weapon, you can combine it with a two-handed hilt. If you’ve got a massive blade you want to wield in one hand, you can attach the blade to a one-handed hilt and wield it alongside a shield. This allows players to be creative and cater their weapon needs to their current adventure.  

The only thing limiting your weapon forging abilities is your coin purse. There’s a small fee each time you forge or reforge a weapon, but other than that, you’re free to customize your weapon as you see fit! There’s no limit to the amount of times you can use the Forge.

Weigh your Options

You won’t always want to split up a sword’s pieces – a lot of weapons will offer some sort of ‘set bonus’ for using their hilt and blade together at the same time. It’s up to you to weigh the weapon’s unique set bonuses against the stats of the weapon forged by you.

Rare Arms

You’ll most often receive a sword as a complete weapon, whether it’s from a drop, a chest, or a quest reward. Others, such as the game’s more rare and unique weapons, may be split up, waiting for you to discover and unite both pieces into a fearsome weapon that will send your opponents running for the hills.

Rare and unique weapons will almost always have a set bonus, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them separately! In fact, one of the great things about the Forge System is that it allows you to use parts of weapons without having to have the entire weapon in your possession. That means that if you acquire the blade of a rare sword, you can start using it right away, even if you don’t have the hilt.

Upgrading Items

Perhaps there’s a sword you’ve put together that you really like, but you’re starting to notice it doesn’t pack the same punch if did a few levels ago. Or maybe suddenly your armor isn’t giving you as much protection against some heavy-hitting opponents. What can you do?

Upgrade them, of course! Using items that drop off of enemies or purchased in shops, you can upgrade and improve your weapons and armor to boost their stats and add special properties!

Let’s use an Iron Sword for an example scenario. Perhaps the Iron Sword’s stats break down like this:

Iron Sword

• Iron Blade: 20-29 damage per strike, 1.2 attack speed
• Iron Hilt: 1-handed; +2 Defense, successful counterattacks do 2% more damage

The Iron Sword was great at level 4, but now that you’re level 9 it’s taking a lot more to chop down your foes. After a fearsome battle with some Iron Skeletons in a dungeon, you obtain 4 iron chunks and a scrap of leather. After returning to town to stock up on items, you head to the Forge to give your Iron Sword a much needed shot in the arm.

To review what you need in order to upgrade, you simply go to the Upgrade Weapon option at the Forge and select the Iron Sword. You’ll get a detailed chart that defines what you’ll need for each upgrade level!  Here’s what it looks like for the first level of upgrades:

Iron Blade +1

• Requires: 2 Iron Chunks, 30 coin
• Upgrades: 20-29 damage per strike -> 32-41 damage per strike; 1.2 attack speed -> 1.0 attack speed

Iron Hilt +1

• Requires: 1 Iron Chunk, 1 Leather Scrap, 30 coin
• Upgrades: +2 Defense -> +5 Defense; Successful counterattacks do 2% -> 4% more damage

You don’t have to upgrade both at the same time – you can upgrade just the blade, or just the hilt. If a player wanted to use their crafting materials to upgrade the blade of one sword and the hilt of another, that’s up to them.

As the player increases the level of a weapon’s blade and hilt, the requirements will increase as well. In most cases, the amount of resources the player will need to upgrade an item will double with each level, but this isn’t a be-all, end-all rule.

Armor functions in a similar matter, but has some nuances that we’ll be going into in a future Developer Diary.

Thanks for reading!

This is only the first of many developer diaries that we’ll be doing – we hope that these will get you as excited about the game as we are!

Remember, if you want to support Time Star, you can do so here – we’re 26 days away from the end of our Kickstarter and we have a long ways to go, so spread the word to everyone you know who is looking for that next great retro Action RPG – and, of course, be sure to support the Kickstarter yourself!