Open Brawler Engine - 8/19

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Alright, inside story, I was going to make something else and it turned into this, and this has gotten different enough that it's going to be its own topic now.

OPEN BRAWLER ENGINE

Here's the game:

Click to Play
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DungeonNoIDE.swf [ 15.73 MiB | Viewed 3452 times ]

Here's the source code:

Dungeon_Brawler.zip

(43 MiB) Downloaded 158 times

The idea here is that I'm making a brawler engine for me to use, and anyone with nads to try can use the same engine to make their own games. I'm using 100% FlashDevelop, so you don't need to buy Flash to use it.

Update Aug/19/2016:
A little mini-update before the weekend to address some of KiWolfGirl's observations. Basic combo resolves faster, you can move while rising after being knocked down, turn delay has been halved.

Previously:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Update Aug/17/2016:
I have worked out the hitboxes and some of the AI controls so you can actually fight stuff! I realize that the AI is on the hard side, but I'm so proud that my baby can beat the shit out of me that I'm probably going to keep it this way for awhile.

Controls:
Arrow Keys & Homerow
F = Jump;
D = Attack;
Space = interact; Go through doors;

double tap any directional key to hop, if you double tap forward, you will run;
hold jump down to charge up a higher jump; jump while running to do a long jump;

(assumes facing →)
D,D = combo
D,D,(→D) = knee combo
D,D,(←D) = backflip combo
FD = backflip kick (press D while crouching to jump, before releasing F to jump)
→→D = homing knee attack
D... = power attack (keep D held down)
←D = mule kick
←D|| = butt smack (while close to opponent)

Features:
Turn Delay
Charged Jump
Dash Input Running and Hopping
AI
Combos
Sound & BGM System
Homing Attacks

To-Do List:
Clean things up, make it more readable, user friendly, modular, etc.
Pause Button
Brawlers Push Against Each Other
Aerial Attacks
Projectiles
Grabs
Super Moves/Magic System
FX
Destroyable Environment
Character Select, Mode Select Screens
More modes of play, Story Mode, Survival Mode, Duel Mode, Long Background Mode, Looping Background Mode, Non-Randomized Dungeon Mode, RPG-Esque Map
If requested, features from the various old brawler games, like Micro SDF's Guard and Psy features or Fire Arm's Fire-Up system
If it's heavily requested, I might try to include some of Rune Star's features likes customizable stats, elemental attacks and the BREAK system.

Feel free to suggest a feature or contribute something yourself. Also asking questions will help me to explain it better, I tend to take some things for granted. Although fair warning, this engine has been almost a decade in the making, I may not remember exactly how some features work.

[KiWolfGirl]

Ooh i love beat em ups, i'm working on one in unity. I have suggestions for you.
1. Take out the slow turn, it's not good for games like this. BBS had it and a lot of people complained and rightly so because it doesnt fit in these games that are fast paced and hectic. People want to be able to attack in the direction they push as soon as they push it.
2. Same idea goes for charge jump, it is interesting mechanic but it doesnt work for beat em up, more for platformer. Instead try a system like mario where you still jump, but the longer you hold, the higher the jump. You dont really need to have variable jump in beat em up anyway though really.
3. Getting-up protection or invincible when on ground would be good so you dont keep getting charge kicked until the end of time. A good way to get around it is an attack on getup or just remove hitbox when getting up.
4. Basic attack is waaaaaaaaaaay too slow. It's about as fast as the rest of the power attacks and the basic attack should be quick and somewhat spammable because of the nature of the fights in these games.


the name and rooms make me think you played dungeon fighter. I looooved that game, i was so happy when they brought it back. I also like the up and down hops, it reminds me of streets of rage. Are you thnking of doing grabs with a button or by walking into people? I made a post on the BBS boards about that topic, i might C/P it here.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

The speed of all these things will definitely need some work. I might make the turn delay and jump charge faster, but I definitely like them and want to keep them. Turn delay is there to make the game more strategic, sneak up behind people and watch your own back. And you can still attack behind yourself instantly, it's just a different move. My old brawler engines had the kind of jump you are describing, I might include that as an option somehow.

I think I would rather nerf the charge kick than make you invincible while getting up, it probably shouldn't reach all the way to the ground anyways. Or maybe I'll let you move while starting to stand up or I could make some kind of dodge roll. I don't want to add too many necessary animations or it will be hard for non-3D animators to approach. As long as you can get that split second of lateral movement, you can still escape the charge kick easily enough.

[KiWolfGirl]

I think youre going to find that trying to add strategic elements to a beat em up is not a good fit, i tried doing that in school a while ago and it didnt work out as well as i thought. I forgot to mention also it looks like your z distance doesn't factor in to hit boxes. as in, if you are way further in the "background" than the opponent ,but their attack still passes your body, like a punch might be lined up with your feet, it still hits. Does it actually take z into account or is it just really wide right now? If not, I can suggest a few ways of going about that, i've tried a few over the years but i recently found one I like and it lets you adjust it for every attack, so you can make certain attacks only hit directly in front, and others that hit in a wide range.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

The hitboxes do have a lateral range, but they have a pretty generous spread. All of my previous games have been x2 scale for sprites, so it has been difficult to guess the larger distances correctly. Once I revive the FX system I can restore the hitbox visualization debugger which will help with that.

I don't know why you need a special code for that, 3D hitboxes is pretty easy:

Code: Select All Code

public function hitbox(array:Array, xx:Number, yy:Number, zz:Number, hb_xsize:int, hb_ysize:uint, hb_zsize:uint,
//...
             if (array[a].x - array[a].xsize/2 < xx + hb_xsize/2 && xx - hb_xsize/2 < array[a].x + array[a].xsize/2
                && array[a].y - array[a].ysize/2 < yy + hb_ysize/2 && yy - hb_ysize/2 < array[a].y + array[a].ysize/2
                && array[a].z < array[a].zsize + hb_zsize && zz <  array[a].z + array[a].zsize)
               { //...


As for strategy, I've always taken the view that beat 'em ups should have more 2D fighting game elements, since mindlessly mashing gets boring. More moves, more choices = more strategy. Super Smash Bros has a more strategic outlook on combat and it's basically the most popular fighting game ever. I've done this with past games and I for one enjoyed them. I at least want to test it in battle before decided based on principle. And as this is an engine demo, not a game, I can make an option for the users somewhere to turn those features on or off.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

A little mini-update before the weekend to address some of KiWolfGirl's observations. Basic combo resolves faster, you can move while rising after being knocked down, turn delay has been halved. Oh yeah, I also changed the way combos are inputted. Originally, you had to press for combo attack 3 after attack 1 had finished but before attack 2 had finished, now it will accept the input at any time. This is closer to how games like Dynasty Warriors do it, and with the basic combo moving faster, you really need it.

[WonderGamer]

I'm afraid I lost interest in this game when it turned into a full brawler... From what I can say about it while I was trying it out, the fact that the enemy bounces you around even while you're on the ground after being knock down makes it infuriating as hell... In any case, I don't intend on playing it again since the path of the game changed, so good luck with your game, but I'm moving onto something else...

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Oh, I'm probably going to be doing RPG Maker stuff for the forseeable future, and probably not porn unless the not-porn doesn't go well