Making the Combat more fun.

Combat is the crux of our game, I would say it is the mechanic that will make or break our game.  If the combat isn't fun or feels crappy all the special effects in the world wouldn't be able to save the game.  So it is vital that we nail the combat and make it as good as we can; unfortunately we are not quite there yet.  Several people on the team played the game over the break (including myself) and came to the consensus that the combat wasn't fun.  In my personal opinion it wasn't fun because crowd control is impossible, the pacing is too slow, and we haven't figured out the perfect control scheme.  So we quickly brainstormed some new mechanics that should help, mechanics that I implemented this sprint.

The first feature I added is the ability to stun enemies.  It isn't going to be a long stun, more of a quick flinch that the enemy will experience when they get hit.  This is common mechanic in most brawler games and will make crowd control and combos more easier for the player to perform.

The second feature I added was the dash/roll/dodge (whatever you like to call it).  This is another a fairly standard maneuver for brawlers that lets the player quickly move a distance, during which collisions with enemies are usually ignored.  By letting the player move around the environment faster we can speed up combat and give the player the ability to crowd control and engage the enemies as they desire.  This is also a necessary mechanic to kill shielded enemies, because when you attack them from the front the shield absorbs most of the damage (you need to dash and attack them from behind or disarm them with an uppercut).  

The last thing I thought we were missing, a great control scheme, is in progress and we will be playing 4 different methods on Thursday and picking what feels the best.  When it comes to using the guitar controller both our feelings and our play test feedback has been split on whether or not people like strumming to attack.  I personally think that having to strum to attack makes the game much more engaging, but the bottom line is if nobody can figure it out then we shouldn't force them to do it.  Another option is we could just add all the control schemes to the game and let the player pick which one they like.  In that case we stil need to figure out the best option, because if the game feels bad to them to start they aren't going to dig through the options to see if they can make it feel better.