Hi Tig!
I've finished a prototype for a game project, which is adapting the Lost World, the novel from Conan Doyle, into a 2D platformer with a huge emphasis on beat 'em up mechanics. My goal right now is to put as much players as I can in front of the game and get as much feedbacks as I can.
The prototype is centred on the core gameplay: run, jump and punch. The punch aspect is quite complex, my goal being to stimulate creative and aggressive play. The main character, the professor Challenger, is an egotistic genius, strong as an ox, impulsive and violent. The incentive to the player is the score, and high score is achieved through a clever usage of the combo system. While trying to get the maximum score, the player will have to behave like the character would, which act like a badass.
The game works around the combo system, each attack providing more combo points, and each kill adding the current combo value to the score. Quite simple, ramp the combo fast, kill as late as possible, and never let the combo gauge drop to zero.
Each attack suffers from a diminishing return: the player is incentive to use a varied range of moves to ramp the combo faster.
There is also some special situations where combo is added as a flat bonus, there is no diminishing return. Theses situations include stopping an enemy attack with a well timed punch, throwing an enemy into another one from far away, elbow dropping from high grounds, shooting a target in the air, etc. Badass style is rewarded. Here is an exhaustive gallery of the special bonus case. A full gallery of animated gif is just at the end of the post!
Right now the main focus is not on polish, particles effects, screenshake or even animations: the prototype is pretty crude. it's meant to be judged on the merit of the gameplay and not much else.
You can find the build on HERE and give it a try! Any feedback is highly welcome, positive and negative, as long as you can explain your point of view.
