shibagani48

Weekly report Apr 1/4, 2025

Added 2025-04-06 05:00:42 +0000 UTC

Hello everyone!
Thank you as always for your support.
Let's take a look at this week's progress!

Preparing for Crowdfunding

I haven’t even negotiated with Van-sensei yet, but if I want to make the May 11th deadline, I need to start planning quickly.
To figure out how much funding I should aim for, I’ll need to review past reports and organize the costs of various tasks.
I also need to come up with and prepare rewards based on different support tiers. For now, these are the ideas I’ve had.
If there’s anything you’d like to see offered, please let me know!

Helltaker merch previously sold at Comiket
A strategy book with frame data and combos (though it’ll likely become outdated with frequent updates)
An art book containing keyframes from the animation
A packaged version of HellVersus

I was planning to outsource the promotional video, but we couldn’t come to an agreement—so as usual, it looks like I’ll have to make it myself.

Bug Fixes

I realized I had forgotten to check the bug reports from Lucky, so I reviewed them this week.
I’ve now finally fixed all the bugs reported by Lucky!
That said… I also discovered a few more on my own.

Damage animation gets canceled if an attack lands at the end of another action
→ This occurred because the “animation end” flag wasn’t reset when switching to the damage action.
When a jump attack is input on the ground, the character instantly lands and performs the landing action
→ This was caused by leftover behavior from the very early version that allowed jump attacks directly from the ground. From now on, the jump and attack buttons need to be pressed with precise timing to trigger this.
If a KO and timeout happen simultaneously, two round points are awarded at once
→ The exact cause was unclear, but it seems the KO logic was being executed multiple times depending on timing. I’ve adjusted the conditions so it only triggers once.
When KO’d by a projectile, the animation freezes and remains on screen
→ This was due to the projectile’s animation update process not running at round end. More broadly, characters, projectiles, and effects each have separate update systems depending on the game state, which makes bugs more likely.
So I’ve started unifying animation control for those systems. Effects still rely on Unity’s Animator (which continues playing even during pause screens), so I’ll eventually need to convert them to the same frame-based control system. I haven’t done that part yet.

Round Result Tweaks

I realized I had never implemented a display for Perfect wins, so I added that this time.
In doing so, I discovered that the round processing system is still not fully fleshed out, so I made fixing that a priority.

Rare cases like double KOs or timeout-based round comparisons can lead to odd outcomes in the current system.
To improve this, I’ve revamped the round system.

I also added a screen-flashing effect when a KO occurs.

Previously, the victory animation was skipped at the end of a match, but it felt awkward, so I’ve changed it so it now plays properly.
I also fixed the camera zoom position, which was too low during this sequence.

Clash Handling

Just like with the round system, I remembered I had left this area untouched for a long time.
Up to now, I had taken the lazy route and just skipped processing when a clash occurred, pretending nothing happened.
But this time I’ve properly outlined the rules and implemented them.

Strike vs Strike: Compare attack levels—the stronger one wins. If they’re equal, it’s a clash.
Strike vs Normal Throw / Command Throw: Strike wins outright.
Normal Throw vs Command Throw: Command Throw wins outright.
Normal Throw vs Normal Throw / Command Throw vs Command Throw: They clash—nothing happens.

In games like GGST and SF6, command throw clashes are resolved internally with precise values so one side always wins—there are no true clashes.
I personally think that’s a bit odd, so I’ve applied my own interpretation for this system.

Self-Evaluation of the Game

This ties back to the crowdfunding topic, but I’ve been thinking about what kind of feedback I might get if I gifted a demo to Van-sensei and asked for his thoughts.
It made me take another hard look at the current state of HellVersus.
As a result, I have to admit: for first-time players, it probably isn’t all that fun right now.

Combos are difficult
For players familiar with fighting games, the controls likely feel intuitive.
But for beginners, not only are the attack frames and knockback not tuned at all, it might be more enjoyable if you could string together combos just by mashing buttons.
At the very least, I should significantly loosen up the gatling routes.
The screen feels lifeless
One day I watched footage of Marvel Super Heroes, and I was blown away by how vibrant everything felt.
The screen is always in motion, the UI constantly flashes, and the effects are large and plentiful.
I’ve intentionally avoided going overboard with visuals because I like HellVersus’s elegant atmosphere,
but for a fighting game, maybe it should be flashier after all.
Outside of local multiplayer, there’s only solo play—but the CPU mode lacks depth
If I were to release this publicly now, I imagine people would upload combo videos to YouTube and that’d be the end of it.
One idea I had was to improve the CPU AI and create a mode where it gets stronger as you defeat it, eventually rewarding the player at the end.

Trying to address all of these issues probably means I won’t make the May 11 deadline,
but I also feel like the benefits of taking that time outweigh the costs.
I’m currently debating whether to scale down the project or postpone the launch.

Other Stuff

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom here in Japan! 🌸
Someone in the neighborhood gave me a bunch of fresh wakame (seaweed), and I ate it all at once for dinner... which gave me an upset stomach and a high fever.
Fortunately, I recovered in a day.