[Fighting Game] Kinetic Damage

[jjjmedia]

This has been on my wish list for AGES, so I'm glad to see it's finally coming out! Almost there, man!

[arta]

Combat looks refreahing for iOS, reminding me of Killer Instinct and Bloody Roar. Just wish the finishing combos had more visceral impact when you knock enemies down.

[KineticDamage]

Originally Posted by arta

Combat looks refreahing for iOS, reminding me of Killer Instinct and Bloody Roar. Just wish the finishing combos had more visceral impact when you knock enemies down.

Thanks What do you mean by more visceral impact ?

(I purposedly avoided the gore/blood way of representing a fight, as I wanted to illustrate the competition/sport side of Martial Arts)

[arta]

Originally Posted by KineticDamage

Thanks What do you mean by more visceral impact ?

(I purposedly avoided the gore/blood way of representing a fight, as I wanted to illustrate the competition/sport side of Martial Arts)

Not the lack of gore, that's perfectly fine. I mean the way enemies get knocked back but hardly fly anywhere, and land flatly with no bounce.

Also I think it could use a few added sound effects (like footsteps as they walk forward), also, a few more grunt sounds as they perform moves (whether they connect or miss).

[Quantus]

Not enough butt cheeks.

[KineticDamage]

Thank you gents for your feedback, it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
Right now, I really need to close the dev cycle so I will stick to the plan until release. But I'll keep in mind every suggestion for further evolutions.

Also, some details were designed intentionally, I'll explain some decisions :

Originally Posted by arta

Not the lack of gore, that's perfectly fine. I mean the way enemies get knocked back but hardly fly anywhere, and land flatly with no bounce.

If you watch carefully, they do fly pretty often (spinning when receiving a cr.FK for example, or a strong hit while jumping, or propelling after an uppercut, etc).
But I see what you mean, some kind of overexaggerated physics, like in Dragon Ball animes / Marvel vs Capcom games ? It gives more "oomph" effect it's true, I can't deny that.
But it was a design decision to not take that route, as more inertia would mean a slower pace I wanted it to be really fast paced, have the least possible idle time waiting for your target to recover.

Originally Posted by arta

Also I think it could use a few added sound effects (like footsteps as they walk forward), also, a few more grunt sounds as they perform moves (whether they connect or miss).

More sounds add to the ambience, for sure, and I'd like to make an audio ambience as rich as in Street Fighter 4 for example (SF4's SFX work is golden).
I tried to add more sounds, but the needed RAM just skyrocketted (voices are 22khz 8-bit, but they already eat a lot), so I kept it to the essentials. I want the game to be playable on lower hardwares, and making tons of options for different hardwares would be a pain to manage.

Originally Posted by Quantus

Not enough butt cheeks.

haha, yeah in the pure tradition of fighting games

This is another fully conscious decision to not take the route of girls-in-bikini-delivering-ten-ton-punches
You can even see some light muscles on women arm models. Without making women look like men, I still wanted to stop giving the illusion that a woman fighter has the body of a ballet dancer. They're fighting, they're pro, they hit hard, so they're athletes.

__________

Ok maybe should I develop a little bit the intention behind this game :

As a martial arts practicioner for 15+ years (8 years Judo, 1 y. karate, 1 y. Savate, 4 y. Taekwondo), and having tasted the thrill of real life competitions (taekwondo), I wanted to mix a bit of that reality with the fun of videogames. So that means taking a semi-realistic route for certain details, like weighted animations, semi-realistic models, not too exaggerated physics, or realistic timings (arming the strike -> launching the strike -> inertia -> recovery), in order to keep an link with how a real competition fight would look.

Meanwhile, we all know that 100% realism is boring, so I had to "arcadize" that realism. All while respecting precise strike timing rules (frame data, for Street Fighter fans), so the game balance would not be compromised.

And in the end, what you see is the final mix of it all, after working it out to not make it look like a weird patchwork of different ideas.
If the game meets success, I'll make sure to keep it evolving (partly based on feedback), but right now, I just need to settle down and release it

[KineticDamage]

Hi guys
Just some honest thought I'd like to share, as I've been reading a few mixed opinions about 3D models :

- First, if it can reassure you, most beta testers who tried it on iPhone did say it "looked very good & polished". It can be explained by the fact that each video is basically "oversized", compared to how it is supposed to look on your phone screen.

- Although, I'm conscious that it could look better. As being alone to make everything (modelling, animations, conception, coding, QA, optimizations, etc), and having never been a real "pro" in 3D modelling (learned by myself), I really tried my best at giving you stylized, varied outfits & characters.
Meanwhile, my working focus tended to go more on polishing animations than models, as motion is where the heat of the fight comes from. Now that animations are working visually, this leads me to next point :

- My intention for models is to hire a pro modeler once released, if game brings enough revenue, and rework all the the models to have superior quality. If this happens, the models update will be free, completely replacing the old models. This would be one way to thank people for having purchased the game.

_____

That said, I'd like to thank everyone in this thread for their enthusiasm, plus everyone who is following this project since a long, or shorter time.
I'm really making this game out of passion for fighting games and martial arts, by trying to build something different, exciting, and wish to share that vision with you all.

Thank you, I'll update this thread as soon as the final elements come to completion (= in the coming month).

Meanwhile, I wish you all a great summer time, with lots of sun, romance, sea, and ice creams

[KineticDamage]

I hope you all enjoyed the Olympic Games ! It was such a beautiful moment, I can't wait for the next

As another way to understand what inspired the making of this game, please let me present you one of the Taekwondo matches that happened during the Olympics. It was the Gold final, Men +80kg, Gabon (Obame) vs Italia (Molfetta).

And oh my god how beautiful a match it was ... Taekwondo at its finest : technical, furious, powerful and tactical.

**
Here is a direct link (french TV, but no commentary, just the raw match) :
http://www.francetv.fr/sport/les-jeu...?v=1440&t=9300
**

And this is precisely the kind of moments that gave me the impulse to create Kinetic Damage. That moment in a fight, where the time around you just bends to a fraction of a second, and where you have to think about dozens of possibilities in order to hit your opponent.

Establishing a tactic for the next 5 strikes, all while keeping the awareness on surprise opportunities, and a perfect flow of reactivity. That's what I love in competitive fighting games, and that's what I wanted to transmit in Kinetic Damage's gameplay.

As a bonus, you will certainly find some kicks in the Gabon vs Italia match above that are clearly recognizable in that Kinetic Damage AI vs AI video I posted in the OP

Hope you'll enjoy !

[MrMojoRisin]

Will this be playabe on the iPhone 3GS? Also, how much is it going to cost, and will there be any IAP's? Thanks!

[KineticDamage]

Originally Posted by MrMojoRisin

Will this be playabe on the iPhone 3GS? Also, how much is it going to cost, and will there be any IAP's? Thanks!

I'm making every possible optimization to make it run on 3GS. I did put graphic options slider to reduce the amount of details, transparent textures (fillrate), and make it run smoother on old hardware. Didn't test it yet on 3GS, but I got one, so I'll proceed to tests pretty soon.

There will be only one IAP : the full game. Initially, I'm planning to make it free with 2 martial arts, one level, and local multiplayer, while all the remaining features (7 levels, 6 martial arts, outfits, career mode, etc) will be purchasable via IAP in one unique package.

The price is not determined yet, as all the features has not been announced yet, but you can expect it to be slightly lower than current fighting game "big boys" (Capcom, SNK,etc). Something like 3.99$ anyway.

Those details are not set in stone, but you get the general idea

edit : the only thing I need to test extensively with 3GS is the RAM consumption overall. There are quite a lot of animations to load (400-500 per char approximately), because I wanted to give varied movesets and smooth animations. 3GS got 256 RAM, and actually fights are not eating more than 20 MB, plus I made sure there's zero mem leak, but I have to consider that most gamers let all the other apps run in the background. I'll make some extensive tests anyway