Adding DEPTH to my Metroidvania Combat! | Devlog #7

[@lulustyle08]

Nah this game looks fire. 🔥Really like the sound effects.

[@TopinkaMoldova]

The game looks amazing! I rewatched this like 2 times because it inspires me on continuing my indie game (5 months in developement).

[@tomidevlog]

Thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed, and good luck with your game!

[@SansUser-ec4be]

The art style is just so amazing!

[@tomidevlog]

Thank you!

[@PJBgamer]

I know this isn't entirely relevant to the game, but I love that your devlogs have such relaxing music and backgrounds in them. I feel they make your videos very relaxing and have their own flavor compared to others. Also, I'm excited to play the demo!

[@tomidevlog]

Thank you!! I'm glad you like the editing :))

[@atom104n]

I love how ur game has been evolving throughout the years and Im glad to see it grow and progress! I did get an idea while watching relating to the pound ability. What if, when used on an enemy or projectile, it refreshes the ability. So u can combo bounce on enemies and can be used for vertical puzzles or movement. Another idea but a bit more far fetched. What if instead of just going down, it can be directional? The pound can still function the same, but what if it can be used as a ram/dash but instead of invincibility frames, it knocks u back similar to the pound’s bounce. This could take some fidgeting however to find its main use tho. Perhaps instead of knockback, it sends u forward instead? Or perhaps forward and up like a long jump? Idk but im looking forward to see what u make! Have a good day and happy coding!

[@tomidevlog]

thank you very much! and those are great ideas, combo bouncing would definitely be really cool, I might add some kind of platform that allows for it so that I can design levels around it. And a directional group pound would also be really cool, I'm going to start working on the late game abilities soon so I'll keep it in mind :)

[@atom104n]

​@@tomidevlog Eyyy glad to be of help! I've watched the recent devlog and I love the post-apocalyptic vibe going on. Cant wait to see more of it!

[@tomidevlog]

@@atom104n ah thank you! I'm glad you noticed the post-apocalyptic theme, I haven't mentioned the story very much yet but that's definitely part of it :)

[@VlosyrosDev]

The game is looking awesome! I remember seeing your very first devlog many months ago, it changed so much since then! I didn't recognize the game xD

[@tomidevlog]

welcome back! and yeah it’s gone through a few changes, i’m glad you like it! :)

[@mistermamamia]

Here’s some tips for combat depth; enemy variety, difficulty, and no reliance on cheap states like super-armor or timing based mechanics like parries. What depth means to me, and frankly should mean to everyone, has nothing to do with player mechanics. The amount of buttons you have, the builds you can make, all that doesn’t matter as much as the most core, essential mechanics of the game. Hitting and moving. Movement is a very underrated mechanic in combat, because it has so much possibility for micro-adjustments and variance. A game that forces you to move and doesn’t give you a get out of jail free card likes parries or i-frame dodges adds such an immediate sense of danger and strategy to encounters. Hitting things doesn’t need to be complex, it can be a short 3 hit combo or even a single hit like the knight’s nail, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have to move into range to hit, out of range to not get hit back, and loop until something dies. Enemies should be difficult to approach, not necessarily hard to kill, but making groups of enemies is the easiest way to make a dynamic challenge for the player to deal with as they quickly and frantically decide who to kill first. This is the meat of making fun and deep combat. Everything added on top is flavor, not substance.

[@tomidevlog]

thank you for the advice! that’s definitely a good way of thinking about 2d combat, at the moment i’m going through and trying to simplify the basic actions and add more movement options to hopefully increase the depth.

[@zapp770]

I think the slam might need some more feedback, as well as a Visual Indikator once the player used up the slam

[@tomidevlog]

ah i hadn’t thought of that thank you, i’ll definitely add that in

[@llayneko]

What if people just use the roll to completely skip enemies?

[@tomidevlog]

that’s definitely possible lol, i’m hoping to design the enemy attack patterns to make that harder. also, i think rolling past the enemies should be an option, especially during backtracking. i’m going to try and tie together the player’s stat upgrades with the combat so there’ll be some incentive either way

[@holy_gurkus8660]

artstyle looks amazing though Iwanted to ask, how many pixels do you set per unity unit? And how big in pixels is the main character?

[@tomidevlog]

thank you!! and I draw the sprites so that the overall screen size will be 1920x1080, so the player character's sprite is around 90x30 pixels. In unity, I set the pixels per unity unit to 48 because that's how big the tiles in my tilemap are. I found this video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6OzoHZ9fbJrZqc by Nonsensical2D really helpful on this topic when I was trying to decide what size to make my sprites, so it could be helpful if you're working on something similar :)

[@moothankpew]

radical. make the stepping sound quieter please. its quite annoying.

[@tomidevlog]

thank you! and yeah that’s a good point lol