Episode 4, Update #6

Hello people!

-Development progress-
Last week I started working on the currently visible (but disabled) "Fight Now" function that you can see in the main menu. The video in the title, will show you how it looks and roughly how it functions. If you can't see the video in the title, try this Video Link. This function offers you a stand-alone way of replaying the fights and has nothing to do with the story itself. The only way they are linked is that as you go through the story, you unlock new fighters and abilities that you can use here.

Video Link 

Almost exactly a year ago when episode 2 was under development, I began working on (a then) non existing MMA mini-game. I built it completely from scratch, and it was also my very first programming and game design challenge. This was very different from the usual basic scripting stuff. Looking at the code base now, I made a lot of mistakes and did things a lot more complicated than they should've been. But such is life, you progress, learn and improve. I've largely cleaned it up and made it more efficient, though you wouldn't necessarily notice anything different as it just worked anyway. There are still ways to improve the code, but that'll happen behind the scenes as I go.

-Improvements-
There are several improvements I want to make to this system in addition to what you see here and what you already know from the current release.

• Perks - A small benefit that can give you a slight advantage in various ways.
• Blocking - Depending on skill level, you have a chance to block an attack for reduced damage
• Counter - Depending on skill level, you have a chance to fully counter an attack, avoiding damage completely and harming your opponent instead.
• Break bar for the body and head - (more on this point below)

These are ideas I wanted to bring in before, but decided to scrap, because at the time I deemed it too much work. I figured if people maybe hated this system/game so much, it wouldn't be worth spending time on. Now that I know people are rather enjoying this part, I feel it's worth it. Obviously, the fights and this new system are still completely optional.

-The break bar-
You might be wondering, what the hell are you talking about? I always found it a little weird and very easy to take your opponent down immediately, initiate a submission, and instantly win the fight. I'm toying with the idea of adding a small, sub-health bar (the break bar) for the various areas you can perform a submission on. This bar must be broken/depleted first, before you can attempt your submission. This requires a few hits to either the body or the head. I'm not sure if this is such a great idea, so let me know if you have an opinion about it.

-Difficulty-
It's always hard to balance these kind of games and as you can see from the video, I've introduced 3 difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard). Hopefully those are enough choices for you to find the right level and challenge. Easy difficulty, basically almost maxes out your character's stats and abilities while Hard gives you just the basic stats.

Anyway, that's it for this devlog. Feel free to comment!

Till next time,

Ezy

"Stop working on this nonsense, we want sex!" -Anonymous former fan