Building Underwater Combat in my 2D RPG!

[@DevDuck]

Would love to hear what you all think about the animations I landed on in the end. Very undecided myself! Thanks for watching, hope y'all don't mind some more Moose b-roll in upcoming devlogs :D

[@jessegartung294]

Would there be character customization?

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

I like them and I belive they fit the game just a bit rigid looking.

[@koboldduke]

You should consider adding a different kind of attack for attacking up and down underwater. Maybe instead of swinging they stab upwards or downwards and it increases range but decreases the aoe. It should help add some variety into underwater combat and might allow for some more strategy in how you attack things underwater. You can make enemies that can only be attacked from above or below or have something that you can't get close to so you need to use a longer range attack. Since a decent amount of time might be spent underwater in the final product, having a wider variety of options that are different from land attacks might be nice. Animating a stab might be a bit easier as well. Thanks for another great video!

[@dabu87]

I would go with only left/right attacks underwater and get rid of the up and down ones. As you said at the end it simplifies things (both for you and also the player I think) and fits the perspective.

[@ODCrab]

Left and right attacks only works fine. They probably look less jaring the lack of transitions too. Maybe you could do a somersault type attack to turn around and do a full circle arc with less range? With the current up and down animations, I think the head needs to be turned down, so hes looking at his toes. Your head is like a boui, it should always be trying to stay upright. So when he is upside down it will look more like he is pushing it downwards. And it will just be correct when he is upright. Alternatively, look at how smash bros characters do a upward smash attack. They turn back\face to the camera and do a shoulder to shoulder swing to create the horizontal arc.

[@BillehBawb]

what if when you are underwater the player only has one attack where they just do an underwater flip while holding out the stick, so it hits in a circular area around them? this would likely have a longer cooldown because the animation would take a bit longer to play, so it would make the player have to be more careful about when they use their attacks while also opening the possibility of being able to hit multiple enemies in a group at once if you get in the middle of all them. I think this would also make sense more from an animation standpoint than the player swinging the stick above or below them in any of the implementations you show here. this would also maybe help differentiate underwater combat a bit more from combat on the ground from having a different style of attacking

[@novakaforsberg7472]

The Sword swinging Effect should have a different Color under Water. Maybe have dark blue insted Of yellow.

[@AndreaFromTokyo]

i'd totally go for just left ight attacks underwater; they look so unnatural rn

[@matangoldstien5922]

A quick suggestion, when swimming underwater add a momentum to the movement, So when you stop swimming, the character will continue moving a little bit further

[@durrium]

this

[@TheHybridTurtle]

For the animations, maybe instead of attacking directly up/directly down, the attack could be angled instead. So if the play is facing right, the up attack would be up and to the right, down would be down and to the right? Moose is adorable! Keep up the great work, it’s been amazing watching this game come together piece by piece!

[@Hover552]

Yes that would be amazing 😊

[@abutterYT]

Having the character bob up and down when idling underwater timed to the animation would add some much-needed liveliness!

[@maxcampbellmusic]

As someone who is working on a game in a different engine, I have so much appreciation for the way you discuss your coding process- your discussions are more conceptual than technical so I can both understand the issues and think of how they may or may not apply to my own project! Keep up the good work, this has quickly become one of my favorite gamedev channels.

[@elvismd]

Man I'm gonna say it: 50% of the reason I watch your devlogs is because of the awesome editing with mixing day to day footage of your life and your game's progress. It looks a little like a pure vlog that someone would do (not gamedev related) but with game dev content together, it differs a lot from other devlogs that only shows a screen and the development progress... Idk how you remember to record all these situations with good angles (like you making stuff on your computer) and plan a nice video like this!

[@null846]

Your dedication to this game is amazing, how do you stay motivated to work on the game so much?

[@Eladsaysnothing]

I've been waiting for this for a long time and I was a bit worried so thanks for this video

[@4X4NAV]

For the underwater attacks - for attacking up, the player should be in a position somewhere between laying flat, and upside down. Kind of like an angled down lay with the players head lower and feet higher. The attack down should be the same but inverted.

[@dazcarrr]

one of the best parts of these devlogs - the IRL shots between programming - is going to get way better with a dog in the picture

[@m1chael_dev]

Nice to see another devlog again. And Moose looks super cute.

[@tassaron]

oh, I thought the double state machine sounded like a bad idea. The switch to events was probably a great solution, I predict you'll keep that through any future refactors :) Your game is really shaping up. I'm looking forward to the next episode

[@bobfish278]

Moose is so CUTE! And I am loving this game I am very excited for when it comes out, I also love how theses are made it is very clear that you love this game but you don’t just spend all your time on it you keep your self organized and even make time for other things. you inspired me to make a better work life balance Keep up the good work I think you will go very far!

[@sub-jec-tiv]

You could keep the character facing forward for top and bottom attacks. For example, the character could lift up their legs and swing low while still facing front. Or do a kind of underwater kick and brief lunge up or down. The idea being, the character doesn’t need to re-orient up or down, but a lunge movement can show directionality. And, being under water, that lunge can be in any direction, without gravity.

[@lambbrainz709]

DevDuck: "Let's change from a blunt object to a magical one as we are helping the environment and it's creatures, not hurting them" Also DevDuck: *Continues to call it "attack"* Lol but for real, it's funny how us gamers get so used to certain language that we don't even realize it if something simple like that changes. I guess the biologist could be said to be "attacking" the corruption so that still fits. Joking aside, I've been following Dauphin for a long time and I'm so excited to see all of the progress, I cannot wait for this to come out some day. Keep up the great work!

[@toptextbottomtext6104]

I feel that some in-between frames will definitely make those animations work, so that the player doesn't just snap to an upside-down position when striking above him. It would look a lot more natural with two or three frames showing him twist away from the camera to get into his new belly-up position, then after doing whatever attacks he's using, twist toward the camera to get back into belly-down position.

[@elliemakesgames]

I agree with you at the end there, having just side-on attacks feels more natural to me - the only way I can imagine top/bottom attacks working is if you had a fluid rotation system where the player can spin 360° following the mouse. (Also, Moose is adorable!!!)

[@LeoBerardino]

Your vlogs are pretty good. The game will be awesome. I love to play these old style RPGs. One thing that can be nice on the under water part is a parallax effect that will give a depth feeling

[@Big_Con]

Maybe for an upwards attack animation, the player character could do a flip while attacking. Makes the transition to attacking upwards smoother.

[@LMaia14]

I actually really liked the animations for the up/downward attack, it's rough on the edges but it's clear what is going on

[@Necrowarp_]

Since you're going the magic route you could make the underwater attack some sort of upgrade you can get and it being some sort of magical attack that attacks all around you instead of in one direction. Or I would remove the up and down slash and just have a left and right slash. You could also make the left and right slashes wider swings so they're more 180 degree swings instead of 90 degrees which would allow the player to hit things above and below them with left and right swings. It also makes sense that the player is taking wider and slower swings underwater compared to how they swing when on land.

[@sasquatchbgames]

definitely keep some b-roll of Moose coming, super cute. As for your animations, I kinda find the ones you implemented to look a little unnatural. The left and right works fine, maybe you could add a "spin attack' where he swirls and kinda hits up and down in one attack. I understand probably wanting to keep fine control like what you have above the water...it's just hard to animate an attack when he's horizontal. I think you might be close if you're wanting to keep it that way, it just needs more tweaking. Great job on these devlogs. You are one of my inspirations

[@gamedevshirious]

Along with gamedev, I really appreciate how everything about you and around you is always neat and tidy, and everything kept in pleasable way to see.

[@CraigPlant55]

I love the idea of doing a roll to be able to attack above you, that makes a lot of sense! I feel like a way you could make it look a bit cleaner would be to add some frames to show the character model rolling over before hand, just to reaffirm that he is rolling and not just flicking into a new location. The other thing I think would be cool is if the attack animation was a lot slower underwater, it's really hard to swing your arm through water at speed so making an attack would be really slow and sluggish, maybe adding this in would help to make each hit feel like it's got more weight behind it too. Also you could add a similar additional movement aspect for the player like on land, but instead of moving in the direction of attack, moving in the opposite direction, like what would happen in real life. Just some thoughts, loving the content man, keep it up!

[@chaoslegends7959]

i have been loving these dev logs keep up the good work

[@chaoslegends7959]

o ya and release a vid when the game is out and if you can make it so mac and pc can both play it because as a mac player it,s so sad when you see something really fun and realize it,s only for pc

[@leaf4645]

Maybe for the animations a somersault with the weapon kinda like a spin attack?

[@druthedev]

How about a forward and backwards flip for up and down attacks which would keep the player in the same direction. This keeps it the same as your forward and backward attacks. Awesome Devlog series btw - have been watching from the beginning. Its inspired me to get back into Game Dev after 30 years of being discouraged for a variety of reasons. You are awesome and its creators like yourself that have kept me going in these mad time. Keep it up, you are inspiring

[@yaboiderrick]

For the upward facing attack I would personally try using the front facing sprite from your walk animation, adjust the face to look upward and swipe above. For below I simply looking down for a thrust seems like the most natural way for me.

[@gravity1749]

Loved the devlog, and Moose is wonderful. One suggestion I have is to maybe add a bit of recoil to the underwater attacks, that way it seems like they’re outputting enough force to sort of propel them through the water.

[@Sandflowgames]

The animations are really cool I love it

[@charlot6590]

I wonder if the weapon(s) should just act differently underwater? I think it would be cool to have different attack styles for the different states. Maybe while underwater the attack animation is some kind of flip, so the swipe goes in a full circle around the player. Would make sense for the environment and fix the awkward issues with attacking upwards.

[@yunwang1243]

What a great youtuber. I just started learning godot. Thanks!!!

[@SoulGameStudio]

I would just make the player attacks restricted to left and right underwater. Beside saving on production time that could make for some interesting constraints in level design and combat approach, varying from surface combats.

[@katamas832]

I think for the upward attack and downward attack, there needs to be a frame where your character is mid-turning, so basically facing either the camera or showing us his back, it looks a bit weird that he just turns around underwater instantly. This makes some sense on land since we can move fast there, but underwater it looks a bit unnatural since we're kinda sluggish. Same goes for the swinging animations, the attack animation should be a bit slower to show that he is underwater and water is putting up more resistance than air.

[@Caebel]

You could doge the attack underwater attack animation entirely by moving away from the swinging motion. Maybe the underwater attack is a 180 degree magic blast, or a point-and-click little magic explosion done straight-armed from a vertical position if you still want to have to aim.

[@reddragoon2423]

If your gonna keep the up and down attacks, i recomend trying to animate him spinning in place and holding his wand outwards to attack, it would help blend the idle animation with the attack and be more natural way to attack up and down.

[@mmaaauuuuiiiii]

For the underwater attacks, I think a lot of the jank comes from the disconnect from where the character is looking vs the direction they attack. To solve this you should have the player constantly look at the cursor. Which can be achieved by giving the player 3 underwater animation states, swimming (your current side-ways movement), idle (a state where the player is floating in place), and a back up (a state where the player is facing forward but using his arms to propel himself backwards at .5 or .75 speed). You then rotate the player sprite to look at the cursor. You can then have two attacks one while swimming and one for idle and back up.

[@Hunting414]

Suggestion/Idea: When the player swings underwater, have them get a little force in the opposite direction as it would sort of propel them, like when throwing something in space

[@TSHolden]

So, for the up attack, have you considered doing what is effectively a backstab? Have one frame of anticipation where the avatar holds the wand in a backwards grip in front of (below) their torso, and then the entire rest of the animation is the wand yanked back to beside their torso, with the effect doing a ^ shape that goes up and out. That would solve some of the underwater drag issues while also allowing you to keep using mostly the same art, not needing to have the player reorient themselves and eating up a ton of frames to look good.

[@roxasmalice5563]

Cute puppy, cozy vibes, all-in-all good video :)

[@Casta2]

Maybe the character could paddle their feets back and forth while swiming like it kind of does in a isle position underwater. And for the up attack you could add some in between frames so the roll on the back looks more natural.

[@peterdenham]

Moose is adorable. I recently got a puppy that is half cavapoo and half cockapoo and yeah they take up a lot of your time... totally worth it though.

[@aqua-bery]

Your life seems just, so perfect. I'm in awe!

[@setteplays]

I think you should go for left & right attacks only while underwater. Since the perspective changes to a side scroller, I think it makes sense and most won't even notice the up & down attacks' absence.

[@GamesBySaul]

I didn't realise Moose was so small! He's so cute! And on the animations, I really like them honestly, I think the upwards animation, could maybe do with the swipe starting from almost...behind the player or the player's side. Maybe to explain it better. When the player flips to face upwards, if they were swinging as they flip that could make the attack seem more powerful as they're putting their whole body into it, if that makes sense

[@camerxnmc2388]

no better way to start the morning than with a dauphin dev log

[@joshuajennerdev]

2:25 The swing looks like it's going down but the swipe effect is going up

[@ChanceDAFull]

with the attack animation, maybe you could consider having the 1st frame be the attack (instead of startup) and the next couple frames be follow through? This could make it look faster and smoother since you would have 2 frames of follow through and no startup. I think removing the upwards and downwards attack underwater makes sense. It could add a bit more of a challenge to the game too!

[@Skeffles]

Aww cute doggo! The new attack animations look alright. They're pretty consistent with the out of water animations but I'm not convinced you'd be able to generate the same kind of strength and power when underwater. That being said it's been a while since I've gone swimming so maybe I'm wrong 🤷‍♂️

[@PreslavKolev]

0:54 you should make the Infected trees look more like something you have to repair. At first i thought it was a glitch until you hit it

[@SimplyAidan]

I love these keep ‘em up!

[@vuzechrome]

I need to nkow where you are finfing your wallpapers I keep looking for yours after each video haha

[@Elduque40]

Thanks!

[@dextra_24703]

For attack animations underwater maybe look at "The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening" it has more or less the same control and in that game its very fluid.

[@monadoboy64]

Moose is so cute! I highly recommend you get a Chest Leash instead of using the Neck Leash you're using because you could possibly Choke Moose everytime you pull on the Leash.

[@DevDuck]

He has a chest harness for walks and car rides! His neck collar is just for quick laps around the backyard.

[@monadoboy64]

@@DevDuck Oh okay, sorry.

[@mabalito]

Finally a new devlog :)

[@TheMinox81]

Have you thought about using a hierarchical state machine pattern? That way you could have super states, like grounded, underwater, running, etc. And sub states, that are linked to the super states. These super states would then handle sub state switching and add some behavior to them based on the super state. I use and love this pattern and so was thinking if it would also work on your project and make life easier. ^^

[@Fluppr]

Small tip: Make the hitbox for the attack slightly bigger than the animation indicates it to be. Players will always need some wiggle room, for the same reason as with coyote time.

[@lukasbuchelpk]

Moose looks really cute! Would love to see more of him :D Like most people said already, there should definitely be some sort of middle state when going into the up and down attack so that the player doesn't rotate so suddenly. It feels a bit unnatural. Hope you figure something out, can imagine this being quite tricky to get right haha.

[@rainygale3715]

If the directions of weapons go magical, which I think is a good way to go. I think there should be a lot of magical elements in the setting, that to the world are seen as casual events. The corruption could be both mystical and have real world elements. Acting as a metaphor for pollution

[@N1rv4shTyp3Z3r0]

Kind of late to the party, as I seem to have missed the upload, but my suggestion for the upwards or downwards attack would be, make the player kind of "roll" into that position for the swing? Just to make it more seamless, maybe combined with a little dash in the direction (left/right) the player was facing. Just some things to maybe play around with, if you even get to see this comment ^^

[@PrestonLeeCFS]

RIP jellyfish at 4:11

[@korzen4183]

It looks awesome so far! I don't know if this is difficult as I don't program using Godot, but I think a parallax in the underwater state would be awesome!

[@AndrisGameDev]

Lovely dog! Keep up the good work! :)

[@evan_game_dev]

I think a couple frames of transition between left/right to up/down would make it feel more natural

[@alexorsomn]

I'd recommend making the attacks underwater just a tiny bit slower because of the friction- I think just the animation might work as well but be a bit weird. And maybe add some tiny (bubble) particles? Just a little idea I thought of, might add to the animations

[@JensDev]

I also just got a puppy! Trying to do all the normal life stuff with a puppy AND develop a game at the same time is really exhausting haha. So I understand your struggle but it's worth it :) Great progress on the game tho!

[@daveh5139]

Going from a top down to side scrolling is like building two games. the side scrolling (underwater) will feel completely different.

[@TheQxY]

I think the player should be able to mooth smoothly in all directions underwater, and then only attack left and right, where he attack in the direction you're aiming, so bottom will angle the attack downwards and up will angle it uowards. I think this will be much easier to animate and also make the movement much smoother. Other than that it also kind of restricts the player, which could make the underwater combat a bit more tactical.

[@4rtu54]

I think it would be nice if the underwater attacks were like shooting purified water balls into the corrupted animals, it would probably be easier to animate and i think it would make more sense, since its difficult to generate force underwater.

[@bestmovieclips9409]

Hey you should add some downward movement when You are under water and some push opposite to attack side to add some impact on player ,amd slow the attack spead under water

[@gebe678]

Great Episode!

[@jmgames6628]

I think we're going to need a puppy cam so we can see what the puppy is doing through out the entire video!

[@Xeapnea]

For the up and down animations Im not sure if this would work but my first thought was that you should have the player face the screen head on with their legs splayed (kinda like they are in a postion for breast stroke kick) then you would have the same facing direction for both with minor changes to the arm movements but I actually really liked the neck cranded one for the downwards movement even though it looks a little awkward swimming downward tend to be the most awkward in my realife experience (but I dont really have a experience swimming with nuetral buoyancy) however when I got to the end of the video I sorta resonated with your comment about removing attacking in the up/down directions not because I think you should remove them but because I think they they should be less powerful, like maybe have a shorter range or less corruption removal per swing in that direction because I feel like its a weaker direction in general. Overall I think its a really interesting system youre developing for the underwater attacks and Ive been really enjoying watching your game development progress, keep up the great work!

[@Itzame3756]

I already love moose so much! ❤️

[@FMontanari709]

I think that, since you would be swinging your arms underwater, instead of keeping the lounge forward you would be propelled backwards

[@FMontanari709]

Also, according to your animations, attacking would be like swinging upwards (from the character's point of view) which wouldn't be exactly "comfortable" or at least wouldn't make much force compared to front facing the thing you want to swing at... I would give it a try keeping the forward lounge attack like when you're landed, but: 1) rotate the character to face the cursor position 2) mirror the Sprite based on whether the cursor is left or right of the character 3) do the swing animation (without lounging forward) 4) propell backwards when the swing happens (ie: when you activate the collider). PS: Congratulations on the new puppy! They're a joy, and he looks lovely!

[@ThomtickInc]

make the swing have more frames (like 5), I got this in my own game as well.. The first 2 frames are towards the impact of the target, the rest are like some sort of smooth ending of the swing animation. imo swing animations are pretty easy to create so it might be worth the effort.

[@Day13May]

2:54 nice form

[@kingtasaz]

Its a small suggestion but I think you should change the depth meter from flashing red and white to just pure red (maybe with a transition between pure red or pure white) just because it's easier to read at a glance if you are too deep or not, wrather than waiting for it the flash red and white over a second or so.

[@trulyharsh]

Instead of a stick or weapon, give him a special device that emits UV light or something to "decorrupt" the creatures.

[@Sandflowgames]

Yay

[@CommanderAka]

Make more bosses for the game maybe a shark boss underwater or something but whatever it will be it will look great

[@revolverrenato]

Maybe slow the swings back down underwater? It feels like that would fit with how difficult it is to move underwater. Later in the game you can have tools that increase swing speed to replace with the starting one. Also, that bright yellow against the cool blue background feels abrasive. Transitioning to a cooler color underwater would be fitting.

[@Casta2]

If all moving organism have been "cured" the corruption is mostly not spreading. I think corrupted plants and trees that are on grass could maybe slowly spread trought the grass to reach other organism to corrupt. Of course you would not have to attack grass to "cure" it but just attack the plants and trees touching that grass to turn it back to normal. This would make it so even corrupted trees can spread the corruption thus be a danger to the island like the moving organism do.

[@clonkyskeleton4538]

Did anyone notice the test for sound on the keyboard last devlog Said next episode you will see a puppy?

[@ridlr9299]

Hey, it's me! Here's some more feedback because I just can't resist :P 1. I would suggest making the slash animation symmetrical (at least when it's at its largest). I don't mean exactly mirrored pixels, but I think it would look better if the general shape of the arc were symmetrical. Maybe also a bit more circular? 2. I noticed that you didn't do any easing with the swing (not just the slash, but the weapon itself). It doesn't look terrible the way it is, but I think that adding this more natural slow-fast-slow time curve is what really sells the motion. 3. This one totally depends on the actual feel of combat you're going for, but I would heavily recommend removing the upward and downward underwater attacks all together. I can say (with relative confidence), that no matter how well you do the animations, they will always look a bit janky. If you don't rotate the body, the arms will go in unnatural directions, and if you do rotate it, then it will kind of take the player out of the moment by suddenly changing their orientation. I've seen many other games in which underwater combat (or space combat, or whatever else) utilizes only horizontal attacks, and it generally seems to work pretty well, forcing players to be more thoughtful. By letting the player float around and attack in any direction, it almost seems like you're giving them too much freedom. Doing it this way would also help differentiate the experience from ground combat, rather than making it feel like the same system with new visuals and a few extra features. No one's ever mentioned my comment in a video of theirs before, so that was a cool moment. Thank you!

[@NaichiSendou]

I feel you could also ignore the up and down slash and just make new types of weapons made for attacking vertically

[@KJakSzymon]

Parallax background underwater would be cool. Now it looks very flat

[@cat.in.2020]

You should match the direction that the player is facing when they attack up/down

[@Aznay_]

Hey! Just a little something that "bothered" me when I saw you play/attack underwater is the "you re diving too deep" pop up. It interrupted you while fighting, and it freezes everything until you click OK. I feel like it could be a pop up that doesnt pause the game or require a click but disappear/fades away on its own, while still being visible! For the animations a point I'd like to bring is that swinging underwater and above water shouldnt be at the same speed for me : you re slower underwater and its harder to quickly move. Maybe a simple slower slash will make the player feel the difference more? Also I thought of a "mechanic" where you can flip your body (facing down, what you have by default now, and facing up when flipped, what you have in the very end when you attack up) by pressing a key. That means that you can only attack in front and under you but when flipped, you can attack above :) It feels more natural to me to need your body to be oriented up prior to attack up, at least if you want to keep simple slash attacks. Otherwise, a "barrel roll" that hits both above and under you would complete nicely the simple front slash for me, and avoid a weird up animation, as in a roll the animation loops back to the starting position :D Cheers!

[@the_mystical_pigeon]

Or not even a popup - do a ui change to indicate air is going down faster. Shake / pulse the meter in the corner maybe when this is active, or make the depth number a scary red

[@LeonJCort]

Awesome new devlog. My two cents. Skip directly facing upwards and downwards attack. Instead maybe have alternative weapons that have a circular radius when released?

[@counterjmb]

welp. time to add pet mechanics and add moose into the game. seriously though great update!

[@Zachary.Jordan]

Maybe add diagonal attacking so you can be more accurate with attacking?

[@glorious3d502]

yes more dev logs

[@norbertjurga]

In Witcher 3 you can only use your crossbow underwater and that works quite well so maybe allow using only "ranged attacks" when underwater?

[@CodeHad1]

maybe add a transition to the up and down swing animation where the player kinda rotates.

[@tyk-tok8423]

I think something that could perhaps sell the underwater attacks a little bit better is if the player is pushed back in the water, even if just a little bit. It looks a little stiff with the player character just standing still.