User blog:40DagreezKelvin/Game Update 1

This is the first official update for the fan game I mentioned last year. I've 100% figured out what I want to do for the engine and gameplay so the actual coding work has officially begun. I know it seems like forever ago when I announced this but fighting games do take a LOT of planning. Anyways, here's the info about this update.

Title: Working title has been changed to Sonic Fan Universe: Clash of Chaos. The chaos emeralds will be playing a large role in the story hence the name.

Gameplay: Gameplay has been altered slightly. The game was initially a 2v2 fighter but is now a 3v3 fighter to fit the “team” format. Teams are Sonic Heroes-style with a speed, power, and skill member. In the story, the teams are predetermined, but in gameplay you will be able to mix and match all characters as long as you have one of each type.

Controls: My goal is to simplify gameplay by putting less focus on execution and more on team building, resource managing, and creativity. All special moves are mapped to a direction (forward, up, neutral, etc) and each direction has a universal motion. For example, all neutral specials are done with quarter-circle forward, regardless of character. This is to cut down on the time spent learning all the inputs and instead learning the individual characters.

Mechanics: There won’t be assists in this game. Instead, calling a teammate will automatically switch to them. This is known as Tag-Cancelling and can be done by cancelling any heavy or special attack. Instead of one character getting combo extensions via the other characters, now you must learn how to make your combo flow from one teammate to the next. Single character combos aren’t very damaging without use of Drive or Special meter, so switching between the cast constantly is key.

Engine: I’m finally comfortable with the gameplay style and can finally get to work on the engine. I will now be using GameMaker Studio as it’s the easiest to learn and allow me to get the game out faster than learning Unity or UE4.

Characters: The characters are mostly the same, but with the new team-based mechanic, four more characters will be added to balance out the teams. Right now, I’m looking at Bolts the Lemur (owned by Titanium562) and Novo the Hedgehog (owned by NovotheHedgehog) to take up two of those slots. But I will need to confirm this with their respective owners.

The other two will be two entirely new characters that will serve as the games’ villains. I won’t give much about them, but I will say the speed character is named Scorn and is Eggman’s attempt to recreate Project: Shadow. The power character is named Kyanna and is a powerful being from space with heavy impact on the main cast, specifically on Annabelle.

Havok: Rusty(speed), Recon(power), Jay(skill)

Hope: Aynoa(speed), Heather(power), Monica(skill)

Wildstyle: Kibo(speed), Novo**(power), Speeder(skill)

Fates: Scorn(speed), Kyanna(power), Esmerelda(skill)

Revengers: Bolt**(speed), Annabelle(power), Kennedy(skill)

Bolt and Novo are NOT yet official and may be subject to change. Story: A full story mode is being worked on as well. I doubt it will appear until after the game is fully complete and it probably won’t have fully animated cutscenes or voice acting, but probably something closer to the Sonic and the Secret Rings/Black Knight storybook-style cutscenes.

The Story will transition between the perspectives of all teams, but will primarily focus on Rusty, Annabelle, and Kennedy and the 3 villains of the story, Esmerelda, Scorn, and Kyanna. The latter three will have the most screen time since they are new/their backstories haven’t been explored yet.