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Invocation: An amateur's idea for a game.

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North888

Yo thats sick!
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North888
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Clide444
Beowulf Big Band Unknown
A WIP fighting game being built as a free side project. Takes inspiration from a large gallery of fighters, but takes a large amount from our very out SG and games like Guilty Gear and Blazblue. Being programmed in Java by a group of newbies who have little idea of what they are actually doing. XD

MECHANICS
INPUT LAYOUT:
The game uses a simple 4 face buttons instead of the common 6 face buttons in games like Skullgirls or Street Fighter. The buttons are labeled A, B, C, and D, similar to the Blazblue controller setup. They follow the order of A - Light, B - Medium, and C - Heavy. D is for unique mechanics relating to the character. Most character's basic D will be a normal, but the normals may be lights, mediums, or heavies depending on the character.

The basic controller layout, going by the usual 4-face button controller, is as such:
AB
DC

Characters all play unique, many even have unique mechanics specifically for them. Their mechanics are explained under the Gameplay section of each character's post in the CHARACTERS section.

COMBO SYSTEM:
Given that this game takes inspirations from many airdash fighters like Guilty Gear, Darkstalkers, Blazblue, and UNIEL/Melty Blood, combos are based on chaining normals into each other and then in specials. Some characters have specific normal chain orders or limitation on which normal can chain into what, but most can chain each ground normal into each other ground normal once. Characters can also combo some specials into other specials. This can be done via setups, links, launchers, etc. You'll have to play the character to figure out how to effectively string together moves for maximum damage! I'm under the philosophy that the focus needs to be on the characters themselves, and how they interact with each other. This means most of the cast is wildly different from each other in terms of how they chain, combo, and just general play.

The basic chain of priority IS Light - Medium - Heavy, however, D attacks can fall into any of these. Additionally, while each character is quite unique, there are a few universal command normals as stated below:
  • DB+C: Universal Sweep
  • Fwrd+C: Universal Launcher
  • Back+B: Universal Overhead
Additionally:
  • A+D: Universal Grab
  • A+B+C: Burst
  • B+C: Defense Mechanic*
*Running through a number of ideas for a defense mechanic. Considering Push Blocks, Perfect Guards, Parries, and a mechanic based on GGXrd's Blitz Shield.

BURST SYSTEM:
At the start of each fight, both players have 1 burst for each round they need to win. For example, in a best 2/3 match, both players have 2 bursts. You can use as many of those bursts as you want in each round, but they ARE NOT restored between rounds, so if you use all your bursts round 1, too bad for you. The objective here is to give players all their options up front. Whether they squander or save them is up to the individual player. There is a few-second cooldown between burst uses as well.

Bursts, like most games with a similar mechanic, make you temporarily invincible and create blast around you immediately upon triggering it. If your opponent is hit by the burst, they are thrown a decent distance away from you, giving you a breather and allowing you to set yourself up to return the favor. Returns the fight to neutral. However, opponents can dodge a burst, it isn't guaranteed to hit. If they trick you into using it and the opponent is OUTSIDE the burst area, you are left helpless as they can get back in and punish you. This is known by many as a BURST BAIT. Additionally, bursts ARE blockable. So if you're baited at the end of their combo and they block your burst, you will, again, be put in a disadvantageous situation and mostly find yourself in a combo, taking a ton of damage and unable to do anything about it.

As the game gets finished and expands, so will this section. Any sort of tech demo or previews of the content will most likely be placed here.

THE WORLD
the world is in the future where there is no war, but countries, governments, and businesses still battle secretly for political and social control via usually singular operatives,called Agents. these Agents are robots or people augmented with special abilities and are highly trained. there are mercenaries and civilian 'Agents' as well, but they are rare. businesses, organizations, and corporations have these as well, but they aren't soldiers, they're more akin to mercenaries and businesses have a lot less control over them. Businesses and organizations that use Agents in the first place are more comparable to Mafia groups or the Yakuza. governments, despite not having war, still keep a navy that now also usually comprises the air force as well; more for show, but terrorists and pirates are still threats, so some for of security aside from these special operatives is necessary. Defensive army soldiers do exist, but again, all forces of mility are usually fused under the navy for the major nations of the world.

Magic is also a reality, though it is used very liberally, mostly as a power source. There is a great stigma against it as something that will bring ruin to the world and destroy everyone.so those gifted with magical abilities are often looked down upon and under the supervision of the government. They're either herded around and live fairly miserable lives, or because psychics, people who are hooked to large machines in order to give them psychic abilities to act as one of a few types of aides to Agents
Cults and organizations are known to use magic, and mythical beasts akin to angels and demons do exist as well, but incantations and rituals in general have been lost to history due to this stigma against them since magic was only discovered as a reality recently.

Agents are supported by an "Assist." These are people or an AI that give mission briefings and constantly walk the Agent through the mission. They give tactics and advice, and generally serve as a navigator. but Assists also have special powers, which are transmitted to the Agent, giving them a passive boost and access to a power of some sort.

The world is split into 4 large countries covering the mainland continent and 3 smaller island countries. The countries themselves are are very large, comparable to small continents in size. The mainland countries share the same religion, detailed below. The island countries contain an altered version of the below religion, with a large focus instead on a singular diety and about the will of nature.

The religion of the world is unique. They believe in a god that created humanity as watchers. They are meant to guide the world itself to salvation. As such, big problems come about with territory disputes and there are many many tough beliefs about ownerships and ethics. This does not overlty believe in God, however. In there eyes, God left humanity to tend to the rest of the planets, leaving 14 celestial deities behind to care for and test humanity. They are split into 2 types. Formal beings, and Informal beings. They are as they sound, one is for high worship and used in ceremonies and other formal events, while the other is meant to be invoked in the presences of friends and the like. God's name himself is split in two like this. Informal can be considered akin to demons, but have positive connotations to their summoning, the same and opposite can be said about formal beings.

Many years ago, thouasands of years ago actually, the humans lived amongst deities, heros, and mythical beings. However, the dieties became drunk on human adoration and began to fight each other for it. Many seeing this possibly springing into war, they split the world into two, the Spirit World comprised of the dieties and heroes, and the Human World, comprised of humans and most animals. The dieties left many magicians on the planet in order to pass on their teachings until the two worlds could be rejoined. However, after thousands of years, the worship evolved into its own religion, splitting from the original idea and outcasting these magicians. They created new dieities, forgot old ones, created new stories, and turned the truth of these powerful beings into a false religion.

50 years prior to the events of Invocation, the world's largest world took place concerning the rediscovery of magic. Due to the religion's larger focus on ownership or property, the idea of magic falling into other county's hands and the power it possesses, caused massive tension amongst the governments of the world. Given that magic must be taught or learned via mechanical means or special enchanted stones, the fight for control of these teaching resources was great, eventually pulling in the smaller island countries. Eventually, the world got tired of magic, and grew in hatred of it. They embargoed complete use of it, creating a harsh hatred for those who knew magic and those related to them. Some governments even go so far as putting magicians under their 'protection' while locking them down to secluded areas, often times forcing them into a choice of either freedom as a government Agent or psychic, or continue to live in such a limited environment.

Below is a list of beings and what they mean as I update it:
#/name/formality/meaning
1: Barong: Formal: The formal use of God's name. This is used in prayers and rituals. Uniquely used in informal sequences for everyday prayers.
2: Rangda: Informal: The informal use for all uses outside of religious uses. This is also the name used for calling out those without the faith and is the name always used on signs. The only one allowed in non religious speak.
3: Shaharla: Formal: A diety who symbolizes faith. Called by the religion as the mighty defender of the religion. He symbolizes staunchness in one's faith and going to great ends for one's beliefs.
4: Morgana: Informal: The symbol of sacrilege. Those of the faith that disobey the gravest of orders are punished in her name. In the past, Morgana was invoked as a war cry for hunting down barbarians and those without the faith. In modern days, however, she is viewed in a negative light due to her brutal nature and unforgiving strictness. References to her can still be found in prisons and other institutions, often inscribed onto torture, execution, or reeducation devices.
5: Tatynos: Formal: Symbol of birth and death. She is invoked for painless deaths and periods of long life. Tatynos is invoked upon the respected as a blessing for a long, fruitful life. She is a symbol of being reincarnated as a new type of being and is often associated with cherry blossoms. It is believed to be her duty to take the souls that have died through the process or reincarnation, her Informal counterpart Mavos pulling the souls out in their new forms and releasing them into the world anew.
6: Mavos: Informal: The other half to the cycle of rebirth. Mavos is invoked as a curse upon enemies for a life cut short. However, he is more often invoked by warriors in ancient times as a battle cry amongst a specific faction. The battle cry, translated to English, was essentially, "May Death and Mavos fly quick and silent behind us and our enemies!" Essentially claiming for a merciful death at combat for both them and their enemies. Mavos is viewed more negatively compared to his Formal counterpart Tatynos, but he is viewed as the creator of the original farming tools. Invoked at birth to pray for a successful life. He also symbolizes honorable play and dignity in battle. He is invoked in modern times by sportsmen and their teams, asking for victory and luck on the field, without the need for dirty tricks. Depicted as the enemy of Nefario, despite the two notably working together on many occasions in the ancient scriptures.
7: Gwyverion: Formal: The symbol of medicine. Gwyverion is credited as the creator of ancient recipes or at least inspiring them. Of all the deities, there is much controversy around Gwyverion's appearance. Depending on the modern translation, he is either translated as a giant, mighty red dragon with 9 golden wings and a tail of herbs, or a man who was grown from a tree, possessing a golden hue to his body, with 9 deep golden spots along his torso. He has no real relevance amongst the modern era.
8: Nefario: Informal: Many consider Nefario the counterpart to Gwyverion, despite this never being confirmed. Nefario's name in the ancient language translate into "Defeater of Enemies." It is credited as the creator of poisons and for training the first spies the world ever had. In the modern era, he has no real relevance. Oddly, he is depicted as the enemy of Mavos, an honorable fighter, despite the two coming together to assist ancient heros AND each other multiple times over many stories.
The beings are important to a certain extent to the actual story of the game itself (It is called Invocation, after all), but most of them are just more or less me filling out the background of the world.
9: Pangala: Formal: A symbol of darkness and insanity. Not viewed in a positive light in most cases. Pangala is said to be an instigator of contention amongst the other Deities, and despite being a formal being, considered a negative use, even in a formal setting. Known for assisting Gwyverion in the creation of many early medicines.
10: Dialikai: Informal: A symbol of wealth and merriment. He is the inventor of wine. He has many more accomplishments, but these are lost to history, as he was removed from the list of dieties in the human religion. Dialikai is viewed as a hero of a foreign planet that was given Barong's blessings but threw them away as the planet was destroyed. He fled to our world, where the Dieties cursed him. He considers it a boon, but is unable to hold any form of a relationship. In reality, Dialikai escaped to the Human World before the split and has been hiding out amngst the humans. He is a great spellcaster, but very weak in power compared to most dieties. He is a known trickster and master of escaping any sort of bond or contract placed on him.

CHARACTERS:
NOTE:
Removed characters are still displayed and updated on the roster, but will not be developed or be playable. They are just there to show that they, at one point, existed and are still considered for possible future characters if we have time or do DLC or w/e. Note these are POSSIBLE characters, and only the first 6 characters, and Ninetails as at least a boss, here are confirmed. I'm putting a cap on character ideas at 20 so that I have a good list of choices, but not an overwhelming amount of characters to keep track of. Helps to develop the ideas for what I have, not just make more impossible ideas.
-Helma "Pyra" Strast
BIO: 2 years prior to the game, Helma was an up-and-coming navi officer. She and her ship were docked at the planet's northern pole, a large uninhabitable island. A large, powerful force blew through the area, rocking the giant ship and creating micro tsunamis to the surrounding areas. It didn't flip the ship, but instead broke some loose equipment on the deck free, causing them to crash into her body, crushing her arms and legs. Luckily, the rest of her body wasn't damaged, but the arms and legs were broken and most likely would not be usable in the same ever again.

Due to her outstanding performance in her service up until this point, she was enrolled in her nation's Agent program. Her arms and legs were replaced with mechanical limbs equipment with micro Fire Bursters, which are essentially flamethrowers. In the present, Helma is traveling with the foreign Agent Liam Brycen as part of her training when the two get caught up in nefarious actions of the Kuro Corporation.

Gameplay: Has a number of specials meant for countering and performing reads. Additionally, a large number of her specials and normals can be followed up by the press of a single, universal button that adds an extra attack or changes the properties of the attack if used early. Helma has multiple combo paths, giving her a ton of mixups in addition to her reads. Lacks forward mobility options and counters to projectiles.
Gameplay Inspirations: Ragna (Blazblue), Rekka characters, Mai Shiranui (KoF)

-Abraham Tyrus:
BIO: Mob boss that lost both his arms and his entire gang to the cities new police force. Works as a freelance agent. Tough and no-nonsense, Abraham believes the things that shaped him into the tough man he is today are the essence of human 'reality.' Used the small fortune he managed to sneak off with in order to have a shady surgery done, replacing most of his torso with a large hulking, mechanical frame and two massive robot arms he uses to beat his 'reality' into targets. He's taken both shady and straight jobs. In fact, he's often hired on as a mason or to run a construction site by a local company due to the quality of his work and leadership.

Tyrus is hired on by the Kuro Corporation for some shadier jobs and is teamed up with the corporation's private Agnet, Fleur. The two do not get along, and in general, Tyrus' time with his odd jobs has softened him up. He looks to get the job done and get his paycheck when some foreign interlopers appear.

Gameplay: Slow normals with a decent mixup. Hits hard and has armor on multiple moves. Has a command grab and uniquely possesses a 100% meter super that grants him armor on extra moves and increased on armored moves. This 100% meter super lasts the remainder of the match, including extra rounds. However, it also changes the properties of some moves, altering his combo paths.
Gamplay Inspirations: Big Band (Skullgirls), Ferra Torr (Mortal Kombat), Potemkin (Guilty Gear), Azreal (Blazblue)

-Amancio Tiganizo:
BIO: A ruffian who grew up in a tough neighborhood. With the recent discovery of magic, Magicians and the entirety of spells and other sorts of mystical powers were now apparent and under heavy scrutiny. In the public's eyes, these thing were a threat to their advanced way of life. To Tiganizo, however, Magicians are scum that took his life away from him. As a young lad, his father's wife left him for a sage, turning his father into a cold and bitter man. This rubbed off on his son, but it wasn't just that. Many years later, Tiganizo's grandfather was murdered by a magician. His grandfather had started the incident, calling out the magician and insulting him, generally pushing him around, but to Tiganizo, this was the final straw. He went nearly insane with a burning hatred for magic and all it's users.

He allowed himself to be subjected to an experimental procedure, altering his genetics and installing numerous mechanical replacements, such as completely replacing his left arm. Tiganizo was reborn as the Shuja Corporation's ultimate defense against magicians around the world. Tiganizo now had control over electricity and numerous artificial organs in his body that produced and stored said electricity. His left arm had become the conduit used to discharge and directly absorb his electrical energy. Given the instability of electricity and how it is generally impossible to control, they had to implant 6 limiters into his back that limit the amount of electricity he can discharge and harmlessly pass the electricity through his body and weak, almost unnoticeable shocks. He was created by the Shuja Corporation, and is used by them to get rid of ancient magicians for a nefarious goal, but he has no idea about it, instead relishing in the combat, being able to destroy those who destroyed his family's life.

Gameplay: Uses the powerful electricity coursing through him to fire arcs of lightning that draw foes in and create clumps of magnetically charged scrap. These projectiles are fairly weak, but he can use them to 'freeze' opponents and open them up for attack. Electricity gives a lot of him moves disjointed hitboxes but also greater area coverage in general.
Gameplay Inspirations: Magneto (MvC), Carmine (UNIEL), Mitsuru (Persona 4 Arena)

-Rhys:
BIO: A wandering doctor dressed in the attire of an ancient priest. He comes and heals the wounded and leaves. Not much is known about him, but he has a certain magical aura about him, making him shunned by most. Out on a quest of some sort to find one of his many brethren, who has gone missing. Rhys fights with a variety of doctor instrument. Occasionally, he will show his true self, but blink you will miss it. It should be noted that in reality, Rhys is the dragon Gwyverion in disguise, hiding out and seeing the human world once again after being split off for thousands of years.

When Ninetails opened the portal between the worlds, Rhys was able to sneak between the two worlds with another diety Pangala, who ran off on his own. After seeing the state of the world, Rhys seeks to prevent Armageddon and remind the world who the Dieties really are.

Gameplay: Uses HP to perform specials. Specials have great utility generally. Recovers spent HP and red HP upon hits with specials and supers. decent normals. Meant for more risk-reward gameplay. Wiffing specials removes Red HP and wastes spent HP. HP recovered depends on the current damage scaling, so longer combos reward less HP recovery.
Gameplay Inspirations: Ragna Blood Kain (Blazblue)

-Shuja Kuro:
BIO: The current CEO of the Shuja Corporation, a multi-national company that deals in many markets and has a dark secret. Shuja wields a massive Axe he teleports around with dark magic, he magic allowing him to lift it. He seems to have ties to the occult, but what he's up to is a complete mystery. Using mercenaries and Amancio to remove targets from his path, he supports the one who gave him his dark powers.

Supported by Ninetails, Shuja killed his father and took over the company, pushing it to even further shady practices past what even his corrupt father had done. Banished his sister shortly after taking over to keep anyone from getting in his way. Willing to get his hands dirty when necessary.

Gameplay: A puppet character wielding a large, floating Ax. The ax acts as an extension of Kuro when next to him, but can be split off and attacks simultaneously with Kuro. The ax can be teleported to different portions of the screen and recalled to Kuro at will. Essentially has greater damage and range while wielding his ax, but also has decent crossups, baits, and other utility tools when the ax is separated from him.
Gameplay Inspirations: Ms. Fortune (Skullgirls), Rosalina & Luma (Smash 4), Chaos (UNIEL), Morrigan's Darkness Illusion (Darkstalkers)

-Sarria
BIO: Sarria is a young girl about 16. She grew up like many children identified with high magical abilities. That is, she grew up in an area designated and protected under the goverment. She's been moved about via caravaans all her life. One fateful day, a growing group of extremists attacked her escort. The military was able to quickly and easily push them back, but they managed to make off with two hostages. A young Sarria and an old man.

As the extremist group prepared to do horrible, brutal things to the two, the old man revealed just how magically capable he was, destroying what was left of the extremists and saving the two. Unable to return to the escort, as it had moved on without them, the man and her began to work on their own. He taught her, over the course of many years, basic magic. Her master, however, was murdered by a mysterious electrical assailant one day, and now she's on a quest for revenge!

Gameplay: Possesses fairly mediocre normals. Has 3 projectile types, an energy ball, energy spike, and energy line. Each projectile has 3 differently colored variations. These 3 projectiles can be chained into each other fairly easily. The Energy Ball has a basic, quick moving shot, shot that hits low but is slow, and angled shot that hits overhead a decent distance across the screen (See Beowulf's Chair Throw). The Energy Spike appears at one of 3 intervals on the screen and, on hit, holds the opponent in place for a moment (See Filia's Ringlet Spire). The Energy Line travels forward for multiple hits (basically a weaker Skulltrain), travels forward a short distance and then loops back pulling an opponent towards Sarria, or flies in front of Sarria, swirling in a large circle in front of Sarria for a few moments. Only one version of each projectile can be on screen at any one time. Additionally, if the player chains too many projectiles consequitively, Sarria grows exhausted, preventing her from using her projectiles for a short period of time. It's all about knowing how to manage which projectiles you have on screen when and when to chain in normals or end a combo to keep from exhausting yourself. Supers are essentially EX projectiles.
Gameplay Inspirations: Peackock (Skullgirls), Vatista (UNIEL)

-Zamani
BIO: Zamani isn't her real name. She's from a wealthy family, but something happened that forced her to flee. She doesn't really talk about it, though. She runs a crew of treasure hunters on the seas, searching for long lost treasure buried by old pirates and hidden away by the countries many years ago. While out looking, she and her crew discover a secret about the Shuja corporation by accident, and are labeled by the world as pirates. Now hunted, she has to confront both this secret and her old past. She has a lot of spunk and energy, always looking out for a new lead and clue. She keeps her crew in line through respect, but is more than capable of getting rough when necessary.

Her biggest weakness is collectables. She will often buy merchandise and memorabilia for popular shows or characters of the world, even if she doesn't necessarily know much about the character itself. Her captain's quarters is filled to the brim with a massive collection of figurines, toys, models, stuffed animals, posters, and even more crazy fan merchandise. Wears a thick and massive pirate captain's coat with tons of pockets stuffed with bits and pieces of her collections which, through dark magic she can use thanks to a stolen magical amulet, she can use to create attacks!

Gameplay: Wields her special merchandise to attack. Pulls out a robot to fire an energy ball that hits multiple times direclty in front of her, or a short-range missile that has large knockback to it. Also has a command grab a la Platinum where she rushes forward for the grab. Possesses a sword for disjointed normals and an overhead hammer strike. Fairly balanced character.
Gameplay Inspirations: B. Jenet (Garou), Platinum (Blazblue)

-Fleur Solétant
BIO: An Agent with a mysterious background. A felon who has was just released from prison. Given his social status and low funds at the time, he was forced to take some drastic measures to survive. He came into contact with a dark businessman who took advantage of him, blackmailing Fluer into taking an experimental procedure that turned him into the plant man he is today. After the experiment, he was forced into becoming a permanent asset of the Shuja Corporation, as no one would hire him. He descended into madness as he returned to doing the barbaric acts he had once committed as a street thug. His plant body causes him to not need air and release a poisonous aphrodisiac from his skin instead of sweat. Also grows seeds that grow into small plants, which he keeps in jars at his waste. All they need to grow is some of his special pheromone breathe. (outdated. Currently in the process of refining backstory)

Gameplay: Fleur possesses special plant pods he throws out that grow a moment later. With a special input, the plants act like a command grab and grab whoever is under the large plants. Add some mine-like air projectiles and alternate command grab, and he's able to essentially act like a grappler from long range.
Gameplay Inspirations: Rachel (Blazblue), Kan-Ra (KI)

-Liam Brycen:
BIO: A foreign Agent sent as a diplomat from the Kingdom of Morovia, a land situated in the middle of the 3 larger countries and the only one possessing a sizable ground force. Morovia has allied itself with the western power of the Guildoa, Helma's home. As a show of good faith between the two, Liam, one of their top agents, is then assigned as Helma's private teacher while she is in training. He takes her across the world on their adventures. Carries the stereotypical secret agent look. Has Dark Sunglasses, a dark coat, etc.

He's a maser of martial arts, and employs twin micro-pistols into his style. The small caliber and weak ignition of these specialized pistols causes them to fire special rounded bullets that lack the force to puncture the target, but can still hit hard. He incorporates them into his style of martial arts. He follows Helma as she gets pulled further into the underground politics of Guildoa's Agents and Kuro's nefarious plans.

Gameplay: Essentially the Shoto-clone of the series. Anti-air DP, gun projectile QCF, and a low slide. Uniquely, he can use the gun to shoot the opponent on the ground for OTG, like Wesker or Double's guns. Easier to learn character with balanced moveset but no special mechanics or gimmicks.
Gameplay Inspirations: Wesker (MvC3), Double (Skullgirls), Shoto Characters (various)


-Q-W1X47:
BIO: A robot built for infiltration, it wears a thick robe and a metal mask to hide it being a robot. Fights with 2 curved daggers. It was created to infiltrated and assassinate targets for the Shuja corporation, but was deemed a failure. They believe they destroyed it, but they failed to destroy the last one, which was picked up by a budding mechanical genius who fixed up Q-W1X47. after must debate, he decided to use Q-W1X47 to get back at Shuja Corp, as they had also robbed him, taking his design without permission and claiming credit for it, then firing him to remove the evidence. This engineer, Howard, supports Q-W1X47 by providing direct commands to it during combat, which is his main source of voice-over in combat.

Q-W1X47 can act semi-human emotionally when outside of emergency situations as a means of blending in. In emergencies or combat this facade drops off. Hides his dual blades in hip compartments.

Gameplay: A fast attacker with low damage output. Your general ninja-type character that is able to dash along the stage and attack as well as transition into aerial attacks. Lacks any real projectiles or defensive tools, but has great mobility options and generally a large pressure game.
Gameplay Inspirations: Yosuke (Persona 4 Arena), Chipp Zanuff (Guilty Gear), Bang Shishigami (Blazblue)

-C130-P01
BIO: A robot designed to work as a guard and a spy. The Gorgan Units are designed to look and feel like statues. With special bodies that can be coated in a number of synthetic 'skins' to mimic the feel of many different materials, they are given very unique shapes. The robots are shaped like statues. In the case of C130-P3TRA 01, the robot is in the design of a classical figure. A featureless woman with arms missing at the shoulders and legs cut off above the knee. The robot uses special magnetism inspired by Tiganizo's ability to use magnetism to float for a moment. The head and leg stumps detach from the core body and can fire lasers or be used more physically. The robot acts as a grunt guard-type character in the story. The gorgan units would work mostly for filler fights. For its own story, it's chasing down a Sage that is fleeing, coming into conflict with other chars along the way.

Gameplay: A charge character with focus on rushdown. Has a decent air game but weak normals. Has armor on some moves as well. Lacks projectiles but great rushdown tools and a grab that hits both the area in front of it and the air in front of it.
Gameplay Inspirations: Big Band (Skullgirls), Guile (Street Fighter), Tager (Blazblue)

-Murasame
BIO: A skilled swordswoman who lives atop a secluded mountainside. She lived alongside her signifcant other, a master swordmaker and skilled magician. The magician fused enchanted metals into the forging process to create stronger and better swords. He was on a breakthrough with his forging technique, forging a sword entirely out of magified metal when horror struck. The sword maker's name was famous throughout the magic society, and Ninetails had caught onto him. To prevent his swords and magic from being used against her, she turned a local village located at the bottom of the mountain against the sword maker, using the power of her cult to throw the people into a violent mob.

Murasame had been out during this time, meditating within the thick forest located behind the house they live and work in. She was out for the full meditation period of 5 days and returned to a gruesome scene. The sword her husband had created glowed with a dark energy in the middle of the scene. The villagers, cut down and gored, with her beloved husband, covered in wounds and impaled upon multiple tools, the life already flung from his body. Engulfed by a passion for revenge, Murasame took up 4 of her husband's greatest swords and his newest creation, a black sword that teamed with energy and power. After catching onto the cult within the village below, Murasame left on her quest for revenge, seeking out Ninetails directly.

Gameplay: Murasame uses two stances: Multi-Sword Stance, and Evil Blade Stance. She starts in Multi-Sword Stance and can switch to Evil Sword Stance anytime after her HP gets below 50%. Murasame wields her evil blade as her main sword, but has 4 other blades sheathed on her back and sides. She can draw these for her specials, using them to extend combos or give her a projectile and mobility options. After using a sword like this, she leaves the sword in the ground. She can sheathe any swords she passes by, or use a special to use the sword in front of her. It's important to keep their spacing and placement in mind. She can also use the magic in her main blade call the swords back to her, but its punishable. When switching to Evil Sword Stance, she becomes slower, but her attacks cover more area and generally hit harder. Her attacks also gain in power as her HP drops. Given that she uses a sword in both stances, her normals are disjointed.
Gameplay inspirations: Yuzuhira (UNIEL)

-Dialikai
BIO: A deity living on the Human Plane. Hoping to escape the war of the deities, he fled to the Human Plane before the split happened. Dialikai is able to blend in by changing his appearance over the years. Using his special blessing and general wit, he's able to get out of most constraints and responsibilities, allowing him to get all around the world. After thousands of years, he had believed himself totally disconnected from his fellow deities when magic suddenly becomes relevant again. Keeping himself out of the ensuing war, he continues to keep to himself. Several years later, all of a sudden a familiar face shows up. He's been tracked down by Rhys, the human disguise for the deity Gwyverion. Dialikai, a man who prefers his privacy and not at all a fan of the spotlight, he suddenly finds himself forces to looks for the other deity on the Human Plane, Pangala, and repair the church's mindset and teaching. Unfortunately his abilities to worm his way out of this won't work with Rhys, given that Dailikai is notably the weakest magician amongst the deities. It's a long road ahead. He just wanted to continue to sit back and enjoy in the merriment of his own company.

Gameplay: A keepaway character. Dialikai uses magic to assist him in battle. He can counter and has plenty of mobility options, including misleading clones and pseudo teleports. His magical food serves to weaken opponents and generally get in their way or inhibit their attacks. Not offensive in any regards. One needs to work hard to get damage out of Dialikai, but his evasive powers make him a master of being a deadly pest.
Gameplay Inspirations: Neko-Arc (Melty Blood), Hokutomaru (Garou), Yosuke (Persona 4 Arena)

-Kurth 'Maraj' Raja
BIO: A theif born to one of the many cities ruins that cover a massive Dead Zone in between the 4 main continents of the massive continent. These cities, destroyed during the last Great War, are slowly being rebuilt, their reconstruction constantly hindered by disputes between Agents from the countries over land. Kurth himself learned quite early on to steal. He grew in his stealing skills as he aged, able to help his family survive and get out of the Dead Zone. However, even as they exited the dreaded Dead Zone, his habits and abiities took hold and he stole once more. He managed to get his hands on an ancient gem on display in a museum in a large city. This gem intrigued him, and he quickly realized its power. Using it, he could teleport short distances. He could also teleport things he touched short distances from himself. With this, he quickly amassed a fair bit of wealth for his family, most of which to his own vain in women.

As his abilities grew, he needed the gem less and less, and was even able to teleport without the gem! However, his teleportation is at its highest distance with the gem. With his abilities, being the young man he was, he partook is some less than acceptable behavoir, including getting into fights, harassing and hitting on women, and his forte: Stealing. Eventually he grew bored of his easy life and decided he would show his skills, his power, to the world. He put himself out there as a mercenary and was brought on by the Kuro Co. Given a special stealth suit and equipment to enhance his strength physically, he's sent out to steal and spy on the governments.

However, Maraj's mouth was too big for its own good, and the Agents eventually catch onto who is spying on them. The Kuro Co. is quick to throw Maraj under the bus, and even tough he is able to escape, he feels betrayed. He decides to return the favor by assisting those that were just chasing him. However, the more he helps, the more he feels a hero. He could get used to this feeling, even if it puts him at odds with the occasional pretty lady.

Gameplay: Maraj is a grappler. While his has a limited teleport, his strength comes in misdirecton and combos. He can throws knives and concussion bombs. However, thanks to his abilities he can teleport these straight to the opponent, above them, or a bit away for a delayed explosion or it. Additionally, he can teleport up the opponent from below or above for mixups. He lacks a Scorpion style teleport from behind, however. When getting in, he has a few command grabs. While not all that damage, these often throw the opponent into advantageous situations, such as rolling and kicking the opponent off, teleporting them to the other side of the screen, so they fly towards you, or teleporting them to the top of the screen, allowing you combo into an air combo, or possibly even teleporting them into his projectiles or into a corner. He's all about setting up the opponent with his teleports and projectiles. He's fast, but has short normals. You have to work a bit for damage.
Gameplay Inspirations: Double's Monster Super (Skullgirls), Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)

-Erdric
BIO: The deity Pangala in his human form. Erdric, having journeyed to the Human Plane alongside Rhys, the human form of the deity Gwyverion, Erdric was looking forward to seeing the world as it was now. He and Rhys got split up upon arriving on the main land, only for him to be found by Ninetails and be captured. After breaking himself out, he looks to reunite with Rhys and beat down Ninetails. He's not out to beat her because of her plot to reunite the Planes, but instead as payback for the embarrassment of being captured and tormented.

Erdric is fascinated with human's games and sport, taking it upon himself to learn them. He's not very interested in the state of the governments or peace in the world, such things are boring to him. All that matters is his entertainment and that everyone knows he's not to be messed with. Despite that, he's a fairly powerful magician, who's interest in magic many thousands of years ago destroyed his immortal body, leaving a mess of malphormed and grotesque flesh and organs behind. He has since mastered changing his form, able to retain his humanoid appearance while still altering certain parts into grotesque abominations he uses to prove his superiority.

Seeing the world label him as one of three evil deities, the others being Mavos and Nefario, aggravates him to no end. After he gets his revenge on Ninetails, he's going to make a truimphant returns alongside Rhys to show the world he's not quite as bad as they think. Hopefully they don't get the wrong idea, though.

Gameplay: Erdric and transform his arms and other body parts into masses of flesh and bone and organs to throw attacks with decent range at the opponent. A lot of his specials and even normals cover a decent chunk of the screen, but he has less mixup potential. Specials also tend to offer his some mobility as well as effective at catching opponent's in them. A fairly basic character, move list-wise, but he is also quite punishable given that his attacks are extentions of his body, and thus extensions of his hitboxes.
Gameplay Inspirations: Venom (MvC), Gordeou (UNIEL)

-Ninetails
BIO: The final boss of Invocation. Ninetails is a delusional woman who believes she's been told by the deities themselves to reunite the world, despite the dangers. She knows full well that reuniting the Planes from the Human Plane would crush both Planes, but she fervently believes the deities will save everyone. She created and spread this ideal, eventually creating her own cult under this ideal. From the shadows, she and her lover Shuja Kuro control and manipulate hundreds of threads in order to remove those that would get in their way. No matter how many lives she ruins and nor matter how often the truth is thrown at her, her believe does not waver. Instead of accepting those truths and looking for a solution, though, she pushes these truths away and silences those who go against her. Over time she's become an obsessed maniac, looking for nothing but achieving her goal. Going so far as to even become something barely human.

After the tests with Tiganizo, she had herself transformed the same as him, though even more so. Her legs and arms completely replaces with mechanically superior limbs, her body infused with the same technology in her Gorgan units, and special magic amplifiers melded into her cybernetic implants. With all this, she can generate an unlimited amount of electricity through her magic, which she can wield and form into even more powerful dark magic. She won't let anyone stop, even if she has to sacrifice those closest to her, and even if she must turn away from the deities whose word she claims to be spreading and living by.

Gameplay: As a boss, Ninetails wields new infinite flght and many powerful spells that strike the stage and hit hard. Beating Ninetails is difficult, but she is susceptible to hit stun for the most part, and has obvious tells in her patterns. Planned to be rebalanced to have playable version.

The playable version has projectiles and magical blasts that let her hammer opponents from a ways away. Despite her magic, she's got mobility and her specials and normals not only support confirming from midscreen into combos that end up bringing herself close to her foes. A generally powerful character with hard hitting tools.
Gameplay Inspirations: Justice (Guilty Gear), Carmine (UNIEL)

-Doodicus: (REMOVED)
BIO: A joke character who fights with his robot dog, Winston. Doodicus is legendary hero from the last war mankind faced, almost 70 years ago. With the advent of magic, he was gifted by a magician he had unknowingly saved all those years ago with the legendary gift of turning back the clock and being young again. However, this negatively affected his mind, and dawned his high tech power suit, off to looking for adventure and great battles! His dog Winston is a crucial part of his battle style.

Gameplay: The game would use a 4 button layout. However, with Doodicus, only 3 of those buttons would be used to attack. The 4th button controls Winston. Hitting it transforms Winston into different forms depending on what input you put in. Because he transforms in real time, and all the forms (A gauntlet, energy sword, ray gun, and fan blades) distinctly change specific moves in his move set, a lot of his moves have larger hitstun. He also has more command grabs and can chain into them. His Chain Evolve system allows him to use a certain button input (Qtr circle forward+button) to use a special attack. This attack is unique for each of Winston's 4 weapon types. On all 3 of his available attack buttons, inputting the same motion will get the same special. If you hit the opponent with said special attack, a gauge that quickly decreases appears above the meter. This is the Chain gauge. If you can hit that same special attack using a different button to initiate it, it will go up to level 2, which has a shorter time, and then if you hit with the last one, Doodicus will automatically chain from that attack into a Super-level attack, (BRODIA PAWNCH!) It is impossible to hit all 3 in a single combo, so using resets effectively is key. Switching Winston's form will drop the chain gauge back to 0.
 
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It definitely sounds interesting~
Care giving a bit o' information on the world, what it's based on, and it's beliefs?
If you need any help with story and shaping the world up, I'd be glad to help.

Also, does the assist system work sorta like Arcana Heart's Arcana?
 
That would be a good comparison, however the assist here is a bit less intrusive than the Arcana system in Arcana Heart. It's mostly a stat boost or a change to way the character works as opposed to the kind of bonuses from the arcana. I actually haven't played Arcana Heart, so I can't totally attest to the similarities, but I do know the two are similar and different.

As for the world, it is kinda in an unfinished state.
Here's what I got, taken right from the original thread I created this idea on: (I'll also edit this into the first post)

THE WORLD
the world is in the future where there is no war, but countries, governments, and businesses still battle secretly for political and social control via usually singular operatives,called Agents. these Agents are robots or people augmented with special abilities and are highly trained. there are mercenaries and civilian 'Agents' as well, but they are rare. businesses, organizations, and corporations have these as well, but they aren't soldiers, they're more akin to mercenaries and businesses have a lot less control over them
businesses and organizations that use Agents in the first place are more comparable to Mafia groups or the Yakuza
governments, despite not having war, still keep a navy that now also usually comprises the air force as well; more for show, but terrorists and pirates are still threats, so some for of security aside from these special operatives is necessary
magic is also a reality, though it is used very liberally, mostly as a power source. There is a great stigma against it as something that will bring ruin to the world and destroy everyone.so those gifted with magical abilities are often looked down upon and under the supervision of the government. They're either herded around and live fairly miserable lives, or because psychics, people who are hooked to large machines in order to give them psychic abilities to act as one of a few types of aides to Agents
Cults and organizations are known to use magic, and mythical beasts akin to angels and demons do exist as well, but incantations and rituals in general have been lost to history due to this stigma against them since magic was only discovered as a reality recently
Agents are supported by an "Assist." These are people or an AI that give mission briefings and constantly walk the Agent through the mission. They give tactics and advice, and generally serve as a navigator. but Assists also have special powers, which are transmitted to the Agent, giving them a passive boost and access to a power of some sort.

The religion of the world is unique. They believe in a god that created humanity as watchers. They are meant to guide the world itself to salvation. As such, big problems come about with territory disputes and there are many many tough beliefs about ownerships and ethics. This does not overlty believe in God, however. In there eyes, God left humanity to tend to the rest of the planets, leaving 32 celestial deities behind to care for and test humanity. They are split into 2 types. Formal beings, and Informal beings. They are as they sound, one is for high worship and used in ceremonies and other formal events, while the other is meant to be invoked in the presences of friends and the like. God's name himself is split in two like this. Informal can be considered akin to demons, but have positive connotations to their summoning, the same and opposite can be said about formal beings. Below is a list of beings and what they mean as I update it:

#/name/formality/meaning
1: Barong: Formal: The formal use of God's name. This is used in prayers and rituals. Uniquely used in informal sequences for everyday prayers.
2: Rangda: Informal: The informal use for all uses outside of religious uses. This is also the name used for calling out those without the faith and is the name always used on signs. The only one allowed in non religious speak.
3: Shaharla: Formal: A diety who symbolizes faith. Called by the religion as the mighty defender of the religion. He symbolizes staunchness in one's faith and going to great ends for one's beliefs.
4: Morgana: Informal: The symbol of sacrilege. Those of the faith that disobey the gravest of orders are punished in her name. In the past, Morgana was invoked as a war cry for hunting down barbarians and those without the faith. In modern days, however, she is viewed in a negative light due to her brutal nature and unforgiving strictness. References to her can still be found in prisons and other institutions, often inscribed onto torture, execution, or reeducation devices.
5: Tatynos: Formal: Symbol of birth and death. She is invoked for painless deaths and periods of long life. Tatynos is invoked upon the respected as a blessing for a long, fruitful life. She is a symbol of being reincarnated as a new type of being and is often associated with cherry blossoms. It is believed to be her duty to take the souls that have died through the process or reincarnation, her Informal counterpart Mavos pulling the souls out in their new forms and releasing them into the world anew.
6: Mavos: Informal: The other half to the cycle of rebirth. Mavos is invoked as a curse upon enemies for a life cut short. However, he is more often invoked by warriors in ancient times as a battle cry amongst a specific faction. The battle cry, translated to English, was essentially, "May Death and Mavos fly quick and silent behind us and our enemies!" Essentially claiming for a merciful death at combat for both them and their enemies. Mavos is viewed more negatively compared to his Formal counterpart Tatynos, but he is viewed as the creator of the original farming tools. Invoked at birth to pray for a successful life. He also symbolizes honorable play and dignity in battle. He is invoked in modern times by sportsmen and their teams, asking for victory and luck on the field, without the need for dirty tricks. Depicted as the enemy of Nefario, despite the two notably working together on many occasions in the ancient scriptures.
7: Gwyverion: Formal: The symbol of medicine. Gwyverion is credited as the creator of ancient recipes or at least inspiring them. Of all the deities, there is much controversy around Gwyverion's appearance. Depending on the modern translation, he is either translated as a giant, mighty red dragon with 9 golden wings and a tail of herbs, or a man who was grown from a tree, possessing a golden hue to his body, with 9 deep golden spots along his torso. He has no real relevance amongst the modern era.
8: Nefario: Informal: Many consider Nefario the counterpart to Gwyverion, despite this never being confirmed. Nefario's name in the ancient language translate into "Defeater of Enemies." It is credited as the creator of poisons and for training the first spies the world ever had. In the modern era, he has no real relevance. Oddly, he is depicted as the enemy of Mavos, an honorable fighter, despite the two coming together to assist ancient heros AND each other multiple times over many stories.
The beings are important to a certain extent to the actual story of the game itself (It is called Invocation, after all), but most of them are just more or less me filling out the background of the world.
 
I'm pretty interested to see what comes of this.
 
I'm pretty interested to see what comes of this.
Thank you! I'm an amateur and still in College, so it's slow going. I'm still working on other possible character ideas and styles, as well as fleshing out the world itself a bit more while I try to find myself a programmer and animator who'd be willing to share in this pennyless passion project XD
 
Didn't Mike give tips or something about developing a fighting game? It was featured as a spotlight on here once. Unless you've seen that already, I highly suggest you check it out~
(Wish I could find it... Ugh, I need the liiiink)
 
Really? That'd be sweet! I'll have to look into it. I've honestly not really familiar with what goes into the creation of fighting games. Seriously, before looking at some inprogress games like Beast's Fury and doing some digging into Beowulf's progress, I only just then learned how much effort it was to consistently create the animations. I honestly and naively thought it was simply creating a series of hand-drawn pictures to use.

I'm not really inspiring confident in anyone about this project, am I? Well I feel it's better to be honest and upfront about my own shortcomings, that way I can get all the advice I need to actually get this going!

BTW, does anyone know a good place to advertise this passion project as such? It's a game that obvious has no budget and isn't going to be sold, so I've been having trouble trying to get an animator and programmer for the project. It'd look great in a portfolio, but I don't really know to look for someone. DX
 
Characters are key in a fighting game, and yours sound very interesting and somewhat original. My only suggestion is balancing out the sex-ratio. You have only one female out of like nine male characters and a robot.
 
Characters are key in a fighting game, and yours sound very interesting and somewhat original. My only suggestion is balancing out the sex-ratio. You have only one female out of like nine male characters and a robot.
I say he should balance out the robot ratio :3
 
Just don't push yourself too hard, if you want to make a commitment make it. Just don't try to reach for things way beyond your reach.
 
You recognize that fighting games are "one of the most complex game types ever." That's great. Problem is that you have zero experience in game design and don't have a team that's experienced either, so I'd say currently you're pretty damn over your head.

Don't try to make your first game a dream game. I'd say just start simple. Start from a shitty 2D "move from A to B" to a shitty 2D platformer to a shitty beat 'em up. In the meantime you can craft your world and char designs, but dreaming up fighting game mechanics is a bit too early.

Let's take your ASSIST mechanic for example. How many chars are in the secondary pool? Is the secondary pool different for each character? If you think about it like CvS2 grooves, you have your 8 chars that you have to balance each other out against, in addition to balancing each "groove" as a separate character. Once you have 16 chars, are you sure you're sane enough to keep up with the balancing?

Also how are you planning to reinforce the combo limit and prevent infinites? Are your combos link based or chains? Is the core gameplay focused on footsies, resets, combos, or okizeme? How much do air combos effect gameplay? These are the types of questions that need answering. You're going to need more than a programmer and an artist. You're gonna need a team of them, and find someone experienced in game design. You're also gonna need people to do some quality assurance testing. You can make a demo and have friends play test it, but you're gonna need someone on your team to do testing himself/herself and logging bugs.

Beasts Fury doesn't have a QA or experience in game design or in making games period, and are suffering heavily for that. They gave Vincent the ability to cancel specials into other specials with no cost since they thought it would be cool. Fulgore in Killer Instinct can do this, but it costs meter. Here, it costs nothing and just leads to infinite city. Moreover, they haven't given Don a special mechanic so already that matchup is broken. Also they suck at managing money. If you kickstart this, pls don't fuck around and build custom fightsticks, busts of your chars, and animation idles of chars that aren't even in the original roster.

When the project is done, are you planning to sell it as an indie game?

Finally:
 
You recognize that fighting games are "one of the most complex game types ever." That's great. Problem is that you have zero experience in game design and don't have a team that's experienced either, so I'd say currently you're pretty damn over your head.

Don't try to make your first game a dream game. I'd say just start simple. Start from a shitty 2D "move from A to B" to a shitty 2D platformer to a shitty beat 'em up. In the meantime you can craft your world and char designs, but dreaming up fighting game mechanics is a bit too early.

Let's take your ASSIST mechanic for example. How many chars are in the secondary pool? Is the secondary pool different for each character? If you think about it like CvS2 grooves, you have your 8 chars that you have to balance each other out against, in addition to balancing each "groove" as a separate character. Once you have 16 chars, are you sure you're sane enough to keep up with the balancing?

Also how are you planning to reinforce the combo limit and prevent infinites? Are your combos link based or chains? Is the core gameplay focused on footsies, resets, combos, or okizeme? How much do air combos effect gameplay? These are the types of questions that need answering. You're going to need more than a programmer and an artist. You're gonna need a team of them, and find someone experienced in game design. You're also gonna need people to do some quality assurance testing. You can make a demo and have friends play test it, but you're gonna need someone on your team to do testing himself/herself and logging bugs.

Beasts Fury doesn't have a QA or experience in game design or in making games period, and are suffering heavily for that. They gave Vincent the ability to cancel specials into other specials with no cost since they thought it would be cool. Fulgore in Killer Instinct can do this, but it costs meter. Here, it costs nothing and just leads to infinite city. Moreover, they haven't given Don a special mechanic so already that matchup is broken. Also they suck at managing money. If you kickstart this, pls don't fuck around and build custom fightsticks, busts of your chars, and animation idles of chars that aren't even in the original roster.

When the project is done, are you planning to sell it as an indie game?

Finally:
As I've stated, this is a passion project, and I have no plans to market it. I realize that fighting games are the most difficult out there, and that I am shooting far too high.

As for the ASSISTs, I realized balancing all that would be a pain, so I decided to, as a mechanic, make their boosts less intrusive, more passive, to keep things from getting broken and making the values easier to balance.

Combo system will be link-based. Certain moves have certain amounts of hitstun and startup, forming natural combos. There are going to resets of course, to help spice the overall low combo limit I have.

I know I need more than that. I've only started creating this idea. I'm putting myself out there to learn, and this is project I'm doing on the side, It's not going to be high production. I have an idea, and I want to roll with it. If I bomb, then I've learned my lesson. I've already commited so much to this that it wouldn't feel right just putting it on the backburner in favor of something simpler at this point.

I say he should balance out the robot ratio :3

Currently, I'm shooting out ideas for characters. I have two other girls in the works as well as a robot that's going to be a lot like Double, a character that transforms into the rest of cast in order to form it's combos.

As for a team, I have a good friend who is well versed in game development that has been giving me pointers and what to do and when. and I have a composer who I have doing some music for the game to show off, though only 1 track has been completed so far.
 
I'm also working on my own dream fighting game (my avatar is one of its characters), so I wish you the best of luck with yours ^^
 
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Thank you! I appreciate it! Currently this project is kinda stuck in limbo while I work out the kinks in everything as I work things out with a few contacts that I recently had the pleasure of meeting. I may be able to get this off the ground after all.
 
That's great to hear! Mine's been on the back-burner for the last 1-2 years while I researched fighting games and worked on all the character's concept movelists. Skullgirls was my first serious 2D fighting game and I needed to know more about how they work and the genre itself to trust myself not to muck it up. Now I know to make some crappy games similar to fighting games first, and soon, so I can work my way up to it.
 
You really only want to work on move lists once you have some idea of what the engine or system is going to be like. I've held off on actually working on the move lists and how they flow mostly due to not having that exact thing. I'd suggest trying to get a team. I'm researching myself, but at the same time talking those who are good and getting tips on what makes a game good and looking for others who know how it works. I don't think it's possible to make a good fighting game just going off one person's idea of balance. Which is why I'm trying to get as much advice, as many opinions on the ideas for the mechanics, even this early into the game's life.
 
Its my last year of high school and I plan on going to college for game development. I have been drawing characters, stages , etc. I was inspired to make my fighting game since I played the first MvC when i was like 6 years old. Skullgirls and Blazblue inspired me even more. Im still a youngster and have a lot to learn but im glad to see other people that's more ahead of me with great plans for their games.
 
I have the video downloaded of Mike with tips for fighting games. Here it is!

 
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I have a good number of friends who are planning on going into game development. I don't want to be a developer per se, but I do want to be a designer, director, whatever it's called. The one gets the final say, who has the vision and all that. It's a tough field to get a job in without prior experience, and the sooner one jumps in, showing what we can do, the better

The videos are very much appreciated. I plan on watching and taking some notes when I have some time.
 
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Thanks for sharing your ideas with us for this game! It's cool that you're diving in, putting yourself out there, and really giving some hard thought into how you might bring one of your dreams to life.

However, as you probably know, if this is one of your problems:
It's a game...has no budget...I've been having trouble trying to get an animator and programmer for the project.
then yeah, this will need to change:
I know nothing about game development. I'm not a great artist, I'm not a programmer
You're looking at useful videos, and picking up good pointers, but good ideas alone didn't bring us Skullgirls. This kind of project requires hard commitments. If this isn't an effort you can fund directly, then you have to be ready to put in years of your own hard work to really make this happen. The burden is on you!

Also, right now you should really try to back off from collaborating with people that aren't close friends. Nobody else is going to be as invested in this passion project as you are, especially if you try to keep creative control. It's not worth spending hours each week organizing a team of people you don't really know, when three months later most of them will stop caring, or quietly ditch you for work that actually pays their bills. This happens A LOT.

You said you're just starting out college, so time is on your side. Put on your hard hat, get your hands dirty, and learn as much as you can while you can afford to put learning as a priority. Even if you don't manage to make a fully functional prototype for Invocation, you'll at least learn where you can pull the most weight when it comes to the game development process. That kind of knowledge alone could save you a ton money down the line.

Anyway, good luck to you!
 
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Thank you for all the kindly advice! I did recently decide to try and keep this more to people I know, mostly looking around my college for people now. I'll still accept any ideas, advice, and the like of course :D

I've been taking courses to improve my knowledge in all areas, learning what goes into programming, brushing up on my art skills, and talking with a close friend about game development. Trying to prepare while I still have the time.
 
@Mike_Z
I summon thee!!
Rookie mistake. They don't want reality injected in their fantasies. Blame Rynozilla, loonieboy and North888. {:^)

Its my last year of high school and I plan on going to college for game development.
Don't do that. Go to college and major in Computer Science or Art or something that's a useful major outside of developing games, so that you can do something besides developing games if you don't make it in game development. Then develop games afterward if that's still what you want to do.
Pandemic would routinely throw out applications from Game Design majors that didn't attend Digipen or the Guildhall (even those were under close scrutiny), and woe be unto you if you went to ITT Tech or Full Sail.

I've been having trouble trying to get an animator and programmer for the project. It'd look great in a portfolio, but I don't really know to look for someone. DX
You are better off hearing this now than later.
If you aren't an animator and you aren't a programmer and this is a small project, then what do you contribute?
Honestly the animator and programmer that you'd find would be better off making a game without you, and you are better off acquiring some useful skills other than "having ideas for a game".
Everybody wants to be a designer, because that's the fun bit with the ideas and the "I made this!" and none of the hours of bug fixing or changing all the trees in the courtyard to be slightly more green...but designers without any other practical skills are dead weight unless you're a giant game company and everyone has a specialized role - and sometimes even then. ESPECIALLY if you are an inexperienced designer, it's likely that either the programmer or artist will be better at the aspects of design you want to do than you are, simply because they have a programming or an art background and will be able to come up with likely problems as it relates to their area of expertise.
 
The programmers always end up being the better "idea guys" anyway since they get to work hands on, thus getting more experience and being forced to solve subtle problems with both code and design that someone who simply envisions the game from a distance would never run across or think of. And no matter how good of an idea guy you are, you will never ever be able to think of every problem that will arise or tweak that needs to be made before the game can actually be played or tested in some form.

I would advise you start studying programming, and when you get decent start building shit in Unity/xna/love/Construct 2/Game Maker as a hobby (which, along with school projects, will probably become your portfolio ultimately) while you work towards a computer science degree.

Here's some various advice from other game employed peeps.

*edit* Oh also, play games as analytically as you can. Really delve into them and force yourself to answer questions about why they make you feel the way they do. If you like a game and you can't explain why you like/don't like it beyond "it's just fun/not fun" than you're doing something wrong. And keep a notebook for ideas, let that shit build up over the years.
 
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I have a composer who I have doing some music for the game to show off, though only 1 track has been completed so far.
Let us listen to this.
Please.
 
I hadn't read the first post.

Most characters would have air dashes andor double jump, and possibly a burst system.
You gloss over the really important stuff, the stuff that makes a game stand or fall, in favor of this game's gimmicks. That's a bad start.

None of this is new, what makes this game unique is the 'ASSIST System."
This is basically Arcana (or DFC) you realize that...just with a person instead of a card or whatever.

the "Super Soldier" super attack, which temporarily causes her damage to scale upwards the higher the combo count.
If you don't understand why this idea is probably busted, play and think about fighting games until you do. Notably, play SF2: World Warrior, which does not have damage scaling.

*edit* Oh also, play games as analytically as you can. Really delve into them and force yourself to answer questions about why they make you feel the way they do. If you like a game and you can't explain why you like/don't like it beyond "it's just fun/not fun" than you're doing something wrong. And keep a notebook for ideas, let that shit build up over the years.
A thing I have said but I don't think written down before is, paraphrased:
Anyone can say "I like this / I hate this".
- at this point you find most people who want to be game designers, they have passion but no understanding -
Fewer people can really articulate WHY they like/hate a thing concretely enough to make changes that help them like it more/hate it less. (Interpreting focus test feedback is maddening for this reason.)
- at this point you can be a basic game designer, able to make something you like, that people similar to you might like -
Even fewer people can say why, if they like something, someone else might not like it.
- at this point you are a middling game designer, able to make something people less similar to you might also like -
Fewer people than that can say why, if they hate something, someone else might like it.
- at this point you are a good game designer, able to create and improve something you yourself dislike but that other people enjoy -

And from there, design is an Art not a Science - you can be good or bad at the act of designing something, even if you have all the knowledge in the world. Some people "have it", some don't.
 
I appreciate all the feedback. Appreciate it A LOT. It's a giant pleasure to even the amazing Mike Z commenting on this idea with such usefull feedback. I'll try to take it all to heart.

Rookie mistake. They don't want reality injected in their fantasies. Blame Rynozilla, loonieboy and North888. {:^)
I know you mean this as a joke, but I'm more than happy to be smacked with reality. That's why I posted this whole thing, so I could get feedback from an actual fighting game community, figure out what I'm missing, where to go, possibly get some leads. I've gotten so many great reference points to study from just this thread, it's amazing. As opposed to how...stagnant I felt about this idea I felt before, now I feel like I may just be able to figure out how to keep it moving forward.

Don't do that. Go to college and major in Computer Science or Art or something that's a useful major outside of developing games, so that you can do something besides developing games if you don't make it in game development. Then develop games afterward if that's still what you want to do.
Pandemic would routinely throw out applications from Game Design majors that didn't attend Digipen or the Guildhall (even those were under close scrutiny), and woe be unto you if you went to ITT Tech or Full Sail.

You are better off hearing this now than later.
If you aren't an animator and you aren't a programmer and this is a small project, then what do you contribute?
Honestly the animator and programmer that you'd find would be better off making a game without you, and you are better off acquiring some useful skills other than "having ideas for a game".
Everybody wants to be a designer, because that's the fun bit with the ideas and the "I made this!" and none of the hours of bug fixing or changing all the trees in the courtyard to be slightly more green...but designers without any other practical skills are dead weight unless you're a giant game company and everyone has a specialized role - and sometimes even then. ESPECIALLY if you are an inexperienced designer, it's likely that either the programmer or artist will be better at the aspects of design you want to do than you are, simply because they have a programming or an art background and will be able to come up with likely problems as it relates to their area of expertise.
I've been on and off LA and AS at my community college getting gen eds out of the way. After research, I've found that it is best to go for that AS. I'll be retooling my focus in school to picking up some extra programming tricks and learning to actually program and brush up my skills. It's true, I am just the idea guy. I bring nothing to the table but the vision, and that is not enough. Plenty of people have vision, plenty of people have good or even great ideas, but many of them, like me, lack the skills to actually put them into anything. I may not become an ace programmer, or an amazing artist, but if I can at least bring something to my team, whenever I form it, then that's a start. Plus, as you've said, if it doesn't work out, then I can at least claim I worked on a video game and have gained to the skills to gain jobs and possibly a career elsewhere if need be.

I'll continue to flesh out the world and its characters, but at this point in time I am worthless to my own goals and dream. I'm not pro at fighting games by any means, that will probably have to change at least slightly. I'll need to understand how fighters work on a deeper level than what I currently do.
Actually, Skullgirls has been a great help in that. I've been using its training mode for references. Height ratios, hit boxes and their complexity, changes in frames and effects between different versions of similar attacks, it's amazing how great a tool this has been to see all the technical detail of a fighting game displayed for me as I actually play and see them working for myself.
For all the advice, and for Skullgirls itself, I thank you MikeZ. I plan on taking this advice, and a lot of the advice I've been given here in general to heart. I'll still be working on this as a project, mostly fleshing out the world itself and perhaps updating the characters with fuller bios, but gameplay-wise, I see now that I should stick to the ideas I have, maybe push around the ones I already have in my head, but focus my efforts into the learning the art of the fighting game, and gaining the skills to actually be a part of the team that creates Invocation, as more than just the idea guy, as an actual member :D
 
the amazing Mike Z
Don't do that, I'm not even wearing pants right now. :^)

That's a good response. I might have been overly negative, but I am serious - you want to bring the MOST to a team that you can, and just being The Idea Guy is not actually bringing very much.
 
Don't do that, I'm not even wearing pants right now. :^)

That's a good response. I might have been overly negative, but I am serious - you want to bring the MOST to a team that you can, and just being The Idea Guy is not actually bringing very much.
Yes, I now realize that. I'll have to think on what I can bring to the table, maybe I'll just bring the table itself and let them al work on it instead :3

While I'm not the most amazing artist, I am still capable. My avatar here was actually drawn by me, but I have some bad habits, such as completely free handing most of my work. I may try to brush up those skills, or perhaps my old spriting tools and create a lot of the minor assets, and by 'minor,' I mean super important like menus and such. It's a start, better than me just being there, looming like a hawk while someone else creates my idea, yeah?
 
Besides Computer Science and Art, I would recommend a minor in business so that you could learn how to manage a business and maybe find partnerships, I guess, but I'm definitely not an expert, so don't quote me. Right now, I am taking an an Accounting I class in high school, so maybe accounting can help. If you're interested in programming, then paying attention is classes like Algebra and Calculus is highly recommended(I think Mike told me this), such as having knowledge in quadratics for jump arcs or something like that.
 
I know you still want to make this fighting game idea, but you said yourself that you don't know much about fighting games and their mechanics. I'm currently in college hoping to become a video game developer and create something of my own. I even have an idea for a fighting game. I have the resources and with everything I know and will learn, I could actually make my idea come true with help from an artist. Like yourself, I know almost nothing about fighting games, as Skullgirls was also my first real fighter. (I grew up with Smash Bros but I don't classify it as a normal fighter.) Unless you are willing to learn the ins and outs of a fighting game and some different concepts in current fighting games and how those said concepts affects the gameplay, balance, and other possible concepts in that one game, then a fighting game isn't for you. There's probably a genre of video games that you know a lot about, maybe think about making a game in that genre. I would love to make a fighting game, but I know almost nothing about its mechanics and concepts. I'm better off trying to make a game that I know more about which for me would be a first person shooter, beat em up, or a platformer. If you still want to try to make a fighting game, may I suggest messing around with fighter maker 2nd? It's over 10 years old and poorly translated but you could learn a thing or two from that engine.
 
Skullgirls was not my first real fighter by far. I've been doing a ton of research into the mechanics and how they work. I still don't quite have a firm grasp on it, but I'm learning. Skullgirl's training mode has been a great help for understanding hit stun and hit boxes when I was looking into those. I've spent the last many years of my life playing Blazblue, Guilty Gear, Persona 4 Arena, Skullgirls, and I feel I've grown familiar with the genre on, well, not on a technical level, but I know how they FEEL. As opposed to that, I could always make an RPG, but I have no real sense of buildup or subtly, and while I love a good platformer, those are a dime a dozen and I have no real inspirations for one, not on the same level as Invocation here.

I still can't type or really read the fighting game lingo I've seen spewed out on the character pages, that's one of the things I'll be looking into later.

With all the advice I've gotten, at this point Invocation has slowed down. I'm doing research and taking notes, focusing more on LEARING the craft than jumping into it. The schools in my area don't offer courses specifically for video game design, so I'm looking courses that are highly recommended for the career. Just today I took out some of my old sprites and tinkered around with them to get a feel again for spriting. I'm not necessarily very programming inclined, but I'm going to be taking some courses in Java next year, see how I fair on the basic levels for programming. The only real progression happening here is my friend who volunteered to do some music for me is still working on those tracks.
 
I've been working on some random character design and move lists. I may not be a programmer, and I'm still a bit unfamiliar with a lot of the fighting game terms I see around here. I may put those up for feedback as well. Anyone else I've shown these move lists to didn't have anthing to say. Probably because I don't really hang out with anyone else who has a passion for fighters, which is a shame.
 
I'm doing lots of for fun projects in Unity lately as a hobby, if you ever wanna help and get some experience making games, just let me know. Wouldn't hurt to have an extra programmer writing script (I have 3 other friends who took the same courses as me but they are far, far too lazy to help).

Also one thing to keep in mind, your first programming course may or may not feel totally scary even if you turn out to be really really good at it later. It is very easy to get psyched out and completely screw up. But keep at it, you can definitely get better at it if you keep trying. One option if you end up dropping or doing poorly at the course would be to take something that's less logic heavy (say, HTML) to get a better feel for giving the computer commands, than give the more proper languages another chance.
 
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I took a few HTML courses in HS and this semester in College. Plus, learing programming logic. I have to say, I enjoyed Programming Logic, and am looking forward to taking a course in Java. I'd love to take a course in C# or C++, but it isn't offered.
I also don't plan on being a programmer, but one of the artists on the team. General concepts, possibly palette swaps, menus, smaller stuff so the animator(s) can get the real important stuff done. Knowing how to program is still by a far a very useful tool.
 
And as an actual response to your offer, I, again, don't plan on being the programmer here, and would prefer to keep that local to me, but those are some pretty impressive demos you have there :D
 
I've been using GameMaker Studio to practice. (since its one of the only Free programs i know)

Took me around 8-10 hours to make a playable 2D platformer.
It was "mario styled". The level was only 1 room with the Player - a ghost hunter boy with a flashlight (which has no purpose) that can jump and move left and right with no animation. 1 ghost enemy that moved left and right like a red koopa. The level ended when the player jumps on top of the ghost.

I wanted it to be more "Metriod style" with the player being able to shoot energy in 5 directions. The ghost was suppose to be able to move freely and faze through walls to hide.

I had plans for multiple types of ghost, but of course due to my lack of knowledge, I can only do 5% of what i wanted to do XD
 
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This is good. Game Maker is a great starting program to help learn about making games, from design, to the art, to programming (it's okay to use the commands that Game Maker gives you.). And if you take notes and follow up on everything you do and see how you can improve and what makes a game fun and interesting and it's not broken, then you have a good stepping stone to becoming a person who can make a game.
 
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Oh yeah! Game Maker! I've heard of that. I'll go try that out and see what I can come up with just messing around. Practice and knowledge of how such things work is important, thanks for the tip
 
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