Player controls

What are we doing today?

We're going to work on something that I kind of stupidly haven't yet thought about in much detail.  How the player moves and attacks and what kind of abilities they have.  Yep.  Just the minor stuff really. Not like anyone really cares about that.  People are going to play this game for the gratuitous panty shots.  No, I jest.  50%.  Lets jump into the storm of braining.

How do we do this?

I have no idea.  

I guess we look at other games and say "Yes, your idea is good enough to steal." In this case that would be MegamanX and BlazBlue and Zenonia.    Because although Bottle Smasher! is a small game, don't forget we've got our eyes on expanding it to be a much larger game... ..next year. 

So lets ask a question, we have to focus.  "What do players need to do?"  

*Raises hand* They need to break bottles and dodge other weapons and navigate the terrain.  

The need to dodge gives us related movements like jumping, ducking, sliding, dashing. 

The need to break bottles gives us attacks: Attack.

Is this going well?  

No it feels too basic to do this kind of analysis.  We've got the shield ability, attacking ability, healing ability.. woo maybe a time slow ability?  Hooo boy.. that.. hm.. mm.. i dunno.  For attacks, something like.. hmm we could have 'left attack' and 'right attack' buttons or we could make them be 'front attack', 'top attack' and 'back attack.'

How about combos?

Yeah it would be good to have combos!  Definitely pressing the attack button two times should do a different move.  I'm not sure about combining moving with attacking.. But without it maybe it will feel too clunky.  Not being able to move and execute an attack at the same time..  Right now the attack I've been using has an auto move built in and it locks the keys.  Perhaps there should be two kinds of key lock, one for moving and one for attacking. That way some moves will let you be mobile during their execution.

How many buttons do we need?

So far.. 3 attack buttons, plus two special buttons.. that's 5 buttons.  That's way too many.. right? Maybe the special abilities are scrollable.  just swipe to switch... okay it's time for a mock up!   

What's next?

Now we need to design the attacks.  They'll all be kicks because that's her style.  They all need to be useful too.  A question we have to answer is.. does the character's facing direction affect the kick?  For example if she's facing right, and the player hits the left button, does it do a back attack?  Or does it do the "left" attack..  Let's answer that later.  Now we need a mock to show kick hitbox ranges.

The inner bands represent the first attack, with the outer band being a double tap.

I'm not sure yet but I'm leaning towards having different attack animations when the player is moving.  Though to be honest it might be best to have only two buttons, an attack button and a special move scroller.  Or perhaps just left/right.  Hmm.. a little perplexing but not the biggest issues to address yet.  Let's move forward and get those rough animations done quickly so we can get a prototype out!