Making My First Game FUN TO PLAY in one week - Punch A Bunch Devlog
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- This week I attempt to make my physics based boxing game FUN by looking at other successful games like Sekiro Shadows Die twice, Zelda Breath of The Wild, Tekken 7 etc
Punch A Bunch is an indie game developed by Pontypants, I'm making it in Unreal Engine 4 with no experience of how to make games 😅
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I recommend taking a screenshot, setting the mode to greyscale and checking the contrast.
Facts
Facts
@@Charduza hi
Great video man! I would add even more effects/juice when you land a successful punch. I love the block icon, perhaps have it also scale a bit (for the animation) - so it scales and fades out :)
Totally
:)
Totally agree! I think the visual feedback still needs even more juice! Amazing work ponty!
Hi
Omg
I think the blocking symbol works well and doesn't detract from the fight. And good choice on keeping both control schemes, some people might prefer the more advanced controls, could also be good for streaming challenge runs and such.
Just a small bit of feedback: Maybe the health bars should be red to match the visuals indicating damage to match the blue to represent stamina.
Another way of communicating events like punching is by making text fly up from the player or opponent saying something like "Miss, Critical, punch, jab, etc... "
goes with the cartoony vibe
This is probably good, but if something is too fast paced it might mean nothing to the player. I don't think punch a bunch is too fast pased but it's a consideration.
good game design should work even without sound. Look at Sekiro.
@@thejinxb0t I think he ment literal text.
I see the idea, but thatd be distracting, ponty has a near perfect balance rn so he shouldnt ruin it
The shield looks amazing! I feel it's more important to put gameplay over "realism" especially when it's something that's both not distracting and a great improvement. The shield is a keep!!!
Since you're trying to emphasize leaning as damage-dealing mechanic, I think it also makes sense to emphasize its usefulness for defense: make it so that punches that land at a glancing angle do less damage than if they land straight on. Leaning out of the way of incoming punches can then limit the damage they do to you.
You could implement this by using the dot product thing you did earlier in development, except this time you'd calculate the dot product between the incoming punch and a vector normal the player being punched at the point the fist makes contact.
I hope you go on the epic peg board.
@@Berdly-From-Deltarune I can dream, Jariel
After seeing tekken, your game's visuals seemed like lacking contrast and focus to me.
You can do a lot of things but one thing (not gonna solve it all but its a step) change the arena ground color from the bright color white to black or dark something so the player characters which are bright yellow dudes pop more.
Also, think about what percent of the screen does the most important things of the game takes?
That's important too.
Yes I completely agree, definitely need that popping contrast!
Blue might work, consisting ours opposite to yellow. Black is a but of a
Drab colour
Punch A Bunch is BACK!🥊🥊🥊🎮🎮EPIK!
I really do think you should include stages other than a ring to fiht on, like a construction site or something, perhaps it would compromise the 'tone' or 'directions' that you want to take the game into, but other wise it´ll be just a cool game to play for 2 matches and then never touch again, maybe some enviromental trheats(?) but I feel there{s a spark missing.
How about a house full of furniture that can break?
@@BobzBlue Punch-A-Bunch:Hardcore Rulez Match . Extra damage when you knock them through the TV .
@@BobzBlue Good concept, but thatd only work in a game like Gang Beasts, itd be distracting and too cluttered in a game like this
I watched a video on scope creep a couple days ago and it definitely helps to keep working on the original idea and get that ready for release, then you can work on ideas you had during development to make it more fleshed out.
What he has is just fine, stages would be added after release if anything. Never continue to add things for yourself to do if you plan on actually finishing the game.
Idea: Since toby is the first fight, it would be cool to have it where you would fight him again, but it would be a very hard fight
For your hit detection issue you probably want your colliders to use continuous collision detection (CCD). This means the collision is swept rather than checked at discrete steps, and you'll get hit events even at lower framerates. In Unreal there's a checkbox under collision (in the advanced section I believe) to enable this.
This update is great! Not only is playing the game much simpler, but now it should be playable on PC since there are 2 buttons, amazing job PontyPants!
That one dude went full Doom Slayer mode and gave the other boxers fear
In the UFC kind of games, blocking usually happens by pressing block button along with strike button - so when pressing one of the bumpers character attack, but when holding trigger and pressing the bumpers character will block instead with coresponding limb.
Awesome progress.. When you showed the "extreme" hit effects I expected, and wanted more, like 2 or 3 times as much. The cloudy cotton candy effects are a little strange too. Looks good as is too, the cartoons effects especially have grown on me over time
6:21 that open door givin me aaaannxieeeety
Game feel, feedback, and juiciness, visual polish, style, color.
Thank you and have a great day.
I think you should add numbers when you do a successful hit. Lots of games either have combo or damage counters pop up after a hit. Imo its clearer than the punch effect in the video. Also I love the block symbol you added, great idea.
I honestly hate that, it's lazy. It's used in RPGs to show you how different spells and weapons are effective on different enemies, but in a fighting game you can see that in the energy bar.
@@AlessandroSchiassi What are you talking about? Plenty of fighting games have combo counters not just RPGs
@@quixotika3232 I'm talking about the damage given or received, not the hit combo counter.
The block icon is really good, I think it really helps communicate to the player that their attack has been blocked.
Glad to see you're back, Ponty.
The blocking symbol is great and you seem to have really imoroved the controls which I'm glad for! This game seems great!
That sneeze caught me off guard 😂 I thought you were gonna say something then "pppssscheewww!"
Really like the shield graphic when the opponent blocks a punch. Looks Ace.
A fight with an enemy that could summon shadow clones of itself that were fragile but could swarm you seems like a cool idea for a fight. I'm sure you already have plenty of ideas and content planned, but I figured I'd throw the idea out there. Have a good day :)
Definitely seems like improvements all around! What about maybe animating the lifebar when you get hit, with a bit of shake and a flashing outline. You could also play with making the sounds for blocking and succesful hit contrast each other to help clarify things. A hit could be crunchy high frequency with also a pain sound from the guy whereas a block could just be a muffled "boring" sound. I see you have some camera shake for the big hits but maybe all hits could have just a bit of camera shake whereas block does not. Anyways, just a couple of suggestions, keep it up! 👍
I love seeing this game progression from beginning to patching to now very encouraging 🙌 😀 👍 👏
The shield icon looks pretty good imo, you could probably add a small animation where it floats up in into the sky as it fades out as well.
I also think you should tone down the contrast a bit on the blue blocking particle effect because it looks like a police siren lol.
I have an idea in terms of keyboard & mouse controls that I'm not sure will work particularly well but here it is anyway: You could maybe make it so that the player character leans in the direction it is moving (so for example pressing D would make it go right and lean right at the same time) and when the player wants to lean and stay still they could hold space and then press the usual direction keys which combined will make them lean in their desired direction without moving anywhere. Punching could be bound to left click and blocking to right click (on the mouse of course).
For the keyboard controls i think it's ok maybe but i think it's a little bit complicated you see i have to stand still to give a punch but in the same time i want to move so i don't become an easy target this is where it might get frustrating for some but none the less it's an idea worth trying
It seems simpler to make the mouse movement the lean control. So to throw a hook you could slightly move your mouse from left to right and click. The movement would then be similar to camera/aim controls in other games. Cool idea though
@@classicalrules5594 i wonder if he can make the leaning controls with Q for leaning left and E for leaning right maybe that would do but overall your idea seems solid and worth trying
This would be limiting, I see what you mean but I also think that the player wouldnt have as flexible controls as the controller players would. For your shield idea, again, i see the concept, but a bit of psychology here, if the player is already looking at the shield to notice the block, moving it up will make the player look up as well, so itd take away from the game, also i dont think its really necessay + the block wouldnt be a thing that comes and goes, itd always be there but u only see it when u hit it yk
@@macaronmunch793 i guess you right
Another Idea: Make It So You Can Also Break Their Block If They Hold It For Too Long, And Make The Little Force-Field Shield Break Into Pieces :D
Maybe The More They Hit You While Your Blocking The More The Color Changes On The Shield. (White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Broken)
Or Maybe Perfect Block? I See This In A lot Of pvp Games Where You Block Exactly When They Strike You Get A Perfect Block, After Perfect Blocking Them They Get A Bit Of Stun.
This is probably just me, but I really enjoy frustrating games. I like mastering the controls, and finally SHOWING THE GAME WHO'S BOSS.
Please don't use the shield. The moment it covers my opponents head and hands I felt a disconnection.
Suggestion: try use metal sound for the block.
Awesome work man.
I think all the changes are GREAT. Great job man
Here an idea for you! Maybe you could add a ticket system sort of like tickets to a football game or an actual boxing match, and depending on how fast your fight times are or how many fans you have, you'll have actual fans watching in the stands of the map. I also think power shots that land or miss could have crowd sounds effects
That "over the top" punch effect looked kinda cool to me, like you're punching water off your enemies face, but ye its a bit too much, but maybe lower it down less dunno. Anyway great vids and its amazing to see you progress so much in a short period of time!
An additional visual cue to blocking or hitting, just like in tekken, would be freezing time for a short duration, or maybe add some camera shake. Actually in tekken, time is frozen for every hit, not just blocking. Or maybe a different way of knowing what you hit is if the body part flashes white for a second. When a hit is blocked, maybe add some more sparky sparks like when metal is hitting metal, and maybe make the punches bounce off more and play a boing sound?? In my mind this is the reaction when two hard objects collide together (sword against sword). The forcefield works, but maybe it's not the most elegant of solutions.
Ok, first off it's fun. I like the gameplay and the tournament. I do wish the punch button was on the triggers and not the bumpers, but that just me. Second I like the sound design and the physics of the game. Really satisfying knocking out the opponents everytine, even though they knock me out just as much.
The biggest problem I had with the game wasn't the gameplay or controls, it was the menu. I had to use my mouse and keyboard in menu, but couldn't use my controller in the menu. I felt like it broke my immersion with the game everytime I wanted a rematch or to continue.
Other than that the game was amazing. Fantastic work! I enjoyed playing and I look forward to the next video and the next version of the game. Cheers!
To me the best way a fighting game controller set up can be is LT is Left light punch and RT is right light punch and LB and RB are heavy attacks. Since this is a boxing game theres no need for a kicking button.
6:00 Niiiice. Another indie game dev here sooooo thanks bro for that one. It looks like really good idea
11:15 God bless you
Yeah shield icon is good idea
Blocking symbol actually looks really good, not off putting at all.
It would be an interesting idea if the player had a bar they could fill up for landing multiple successful hits, which allowed them to activate a super punch👊
6:15 you got me xD
What you could do is just have on stick to control both movement and lean direction. You could do that by making it so whenever the player is holding block or pressing the punch button, the stick stops controlling movement and only the lean (and punch) direction. That way you make it a lot easier to play.
11:13 the sneeze is something else 😂😂
The shield is great. But maybe smaller and make it a part of the body, like a emblem. It could also just be a blueish color change on the body. Another idea. Make the body a little bigger on a block and a little smaller on a hit. Also for the player and even combine it with a color on the body. Blueish for block. Reddish for a hit.
The shield is nice, really fits the style of the game.
after playing I feel this game is very well done ! It has sort of a Gang Beasts vibe to it & TONS of potential to put some fire back into the boxing genre. I would suggest in tandem with the right bumper punch, adding a right trigger punch that utilizes the opposite arm of whichever direction you're leaning, a chance to punch through the blocks of your opponent, a slight chance to stun and follow up with a critical strike, body shots feel like they should impact the stamina more how it functions in the Fight Night games, the more damage your body takes the less overall stamina you have over time, also maybe a charge up for your punches, you hold the punch in and add an effect as a visual cue for the percentage of charge, also maybe contextual A.I behaviour for the cpu (i.e. more aggressive when doing more damage and if it starts to take more damage or stamina loss it goes more on the defensive) i feel like if these were implemented in some way it would add a very satisfying learning curve to the game and add much more variety to the fighting. and maybe for some comical effect make the punches sound slappy and crunchy in a way to tell how well your attack connects and how hard. Keep up the good work, I'm excited to see where it goes, I'd pay in a heartbeat for a new boxing game!
Great work, the shield is realy cool
I think special abilities for the charecter would be great, basically you can buy stuff like gloves, the head guard thing, boots and each will have its advantages.. I think you get the point
shield works well, you need it in front of the player model too though, showing them when they successfully perform a block
i think it is
I think the blocking icon helps a ton, so I'd say it should stay. Also, I liked the "exaggerated" effects better, I think they're more helpful!
Hi Ponty, nice to see you back on the rails. here are a few thoughts:
1. Maybe put the shield animation in a separate environment like a tutorial or just give the option to enable/disable it on personal preference.
2. Instead of going full comic with flashing colors on hit, you may use different crowd cheer effects on hitting block/body/head
3. Did you ever consider gyroscope controllers for controlling the lean? lean/tilt controller -> lean/tilt boxer
Of course there's pros and cons, as it will indeed play very intuitively but on the other hand not everyone has such a controller or is willing to spend money on it.
As far as i know xbox controllers don't have those yet, but i do know PS3+ and Wii+ controllers have those built in by default.
4. i really like the blocking sound at 10:20, you can clearly hear the lack of impact.
Id want to add kicks, specials, and an element of strategy. Idea 1: Cartoon stylised blood that paints the ring throughout the match, and initiates player chosen physics or abilities based on grid coverage. This would add a strategic depth to the gameplay loop. Example: blue blood makes opponent slip or stagger more frequently and this effect scales based on % of grid coverage. Green blood could makes opponent move slower progressively the more the grid (ring) is covered. Red blood could make opponent rage causing faster stamina drain. White blood could make opponent cower or run away more often. Yellow could make opponent more prone to missing or something.. Idk. So a global ring color coverage % tracker per round or match that effects enemy player behavior based on your individual blood choice.
Idea 2: player chosen glove weights that effect player stamina drain rate and or recovery and allows for more speed, at the expensive of damage dealt. That's more realistic. Lol
Good stuff. I think you've made improvements all around.
I like the shield effect, it gives good feedback which allows the player agency over how to react to being blocked. I would suggest to have the opponents gloves always render in front of the shield with a stencil shader to make it easier for the player to track their position
i think the shield is easy to understand and really helps show that the punch was blocked
Glad the game is coming along well! I wonder if the blue body shot effect would be better if it appeared on the body rather than the head to better communicate what it meant, and add to the juice. I love the shield effect by the way, exactly what I was thinking you should do!
I finally tried the game, and boy, it controls way more different than I expected. I always thought that the way you punch is by using the left joystick for your left hand and the right joystick for your right hand. That just seemed more intuitive. You release the stick when you reach the desired position, and which hand the character uses is already determined by the joystick side you use. For blocking you would have both sticks up, and this way you could even use both hands to punch, although I'm not sure what would be the purpose of this. It's like the character's hands are just the extensions of the player's hands. Of course, this would introduce a slight problem with the movement, but since that's not the main focus of the game, you could offload it to the triggers (enables different movement speeds). The movement is mostly side to side anyway, and you could use D-pad, A and B, A and Y, or some other combination for forwards and backward movement. Pressing these buttons repeatedly to dodge. The camera could be rotated using the bumpers. I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I just felt like this might be a better approach. Maybe it's just me.
Wow, you need just 300 more subscribers and you have the Play button! Congratulations! (:
Feedback: I think that the shield icon should appear where the hit was blocked, rather than directly in front of the opponents face every single time.
Also, I think the health bars are way too small. If it were in a game with a lot of important visual elements that the player should also pay attention to, then sure, but in this game the only things you as the player have to look at is 1) the characters, 2) the health bars, and 3) where the characters are in relation to the ring. I think that since there are relatively few important visual elements that are important to look at, the health bars should be scaled up.
Final thing (I promise), it's very hard to tell how much damage you dealt to your opponent, or vice versa. I think that health bar animations (see: any fighter game) and maybe even damage counters (on hit, show the amount of damage above the player's head) would help with this. If you didn't want to incorporate showing the player any numbers for health, you could do this in a more abstract way, like showing how big of a chunk of the health bar was removed, rather than a number
It's awesome to see your game progress, never give up!
The shield is a biggg improvement!
Just played the update. Really well done dude! Keen to see whats next. 😀
You forgot to mention Tetris for best replayability 😜
Jokes aside, using the leaning to cue the punch you are going to use is more intuitive than pressing all shoulders and triggers. Good call!
I know game Dev takes time, and trust me I have been there, but still try and keep us posted.
Awesome video man, the only suggestion i may have is for the body punches you might want to make the particles come from the body instead of the head. It looks kinda off to punch in the belly and their head spits out particles
Nice devlog as always Ponty :D
Making the game Juicier is always good and make such a big difference. Good work so far keep going strong!
The shield idea is great, but I would maybe simplify the look and make it a little more transparent. In my opinion, it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the particles.
Also I think that in the future you should try to make the game maybe comfortable to play with mouse and keyboard as well, since it is going to be a PC game. A lot of PC gamers are probably going to play the game using mouse and keyboard. If everything else fails, then maybe one idea for controls would be switching between leaning and moving state, when certain button is held down. This would make it possible to use a same stick or buttons for both leaning and moving, but it would probably remove a possibility to move and lean at the same time though.
Anyways nice job, looking forward for the finished game.
Etho LP and a devlog? Jackpot!
You are doing great man! I've been enjoying the whole series and am very excited to play the full game. Transferring all the energy to you :)
OMG I just thought of something. Maybe add a arcade gamemode where powerups spawn randomly in the rink, and it can be like grow twice your size or, one of your fists are way bigger, or even trip more often
Feedback.
Weirdly enough I spent probably 50+ hours with your game, I just like to jump in for a few minutes punch a bunch and get on with the day. I love how the old system was easy to learn and hard to master.
Visual indicators are awesome.
Changes in the fighting style are not good IMO. I'll spend more time with it, but it's not fun anymore because it restricts choices. I think that the previous system allowed a lot of freedom and was a really interesting take. Quite unique.
Have you played any of EA's Fight Night series? I would highly recommend checking it out. They have very granular "bob and weave" controls and take a pretty subtle (but still very informative!) approach to visual/audio feedback which you might find interesting.
I dig the new controls! It still feels just a little bit "muddy" to me though. I think vibration feedback would make a huge difference. Maybe making the leaning a little more exaggerated? One thing Fight Night did really well is if someone "whiffed" a punch because the other guy leaned out of the way, the camera would zoom in and time would slow down for just a split second, giving the defender a chance to counter-punch for some bonus damage. Not saying you should copy that mechanic exactly, but some kind of defense offense rhythm would be amazing to give the player more agency and make the gameplay more tactical. Right now it feels like a bit of a mushy button-mash affair and I'm not clear on how I can improve my play-style. I won the first fight with a tiny sliver of health left and then Ponty soundly whooped me lol
That block effect looks very nice, I think it adds to that nice layer of juice you've got on the game.
Regarding the A.I. you should make a single player campaign where you fight against increasingly difficult opponents. Like a Rocky or Creed story lol. Maybe an Aracde Mode where you can make it Player vs Player, Player vs NPC or NPC vs NPC and you can customise health, damage, stamina and character model. My brother and I love watching NPC vs NPC in fighting games lol
One thing you can do in the game is voicelines!!! But to look a bit more exciting you can make the player power up the volume when he does the k.o moment. Or like when you do a sucessful punch/block, it will play a bad compliment!
I’m not sure if voicelines would suit this type of game.
@@jappyproductions4429 Well it doesn't need to be paid actors and stuff
@@ChrisVideosGreek yeah
i was expecting more anime like effects when you went more epic. great vid
The block effects must put a smile on the player's mouth. How, just testing different things.
love the forcefield shield
Maybe if you manage to land a very strong blow to the opposing player/bot, there's an audience that cheers and if you get hit very hard, the audience "oooo's" if that makes sense?
I think would be very cool. :)
The game is frustrating to understand in every boss you need to find a strategy but it does get fun once you figure it out it just takes a really long time
I've been watching your channel since around the time you started Punch a Bunch, but never downloaded the game until now. The controls are incredibly hard and I couldn't even beat the second boss after like 20 tries. I only got him to like half health. I find blocking to be basically impossible while the AI blocks 90% of shots I take and then instantly combos me for half my health. I'm much more accustomed to keyboard and mouse, but used a controller to try playing so maybe that is a factor though I've been playing games since I was 3 so I shouldn't struggle this much. It was fun to play even though I was getting destroyed which is a good sign.
Early on i sat down and played a bunch of popular & not so popular games. Then wrote down the control layouts in a word doc. The other thing i do are write up's. Whenever i play a game i take notes on what i like & don't like. Its not about reviewing the game. Its about looking at how that game is designed. As a reference point for what i know works & doesn't. So anytime i get stuck or am unsure i can go back review & test new ideas that i know work.
I LOVE THE SHIELD ICON!
Liked that you kept the old controls, I got used to that one.
Both control types should be kept, advanced controls allow for more complex manoeuvres which increases the skill ceiling, while the new controls decrease the entry barier.
Just played for first time, was able to beat all levels, with some interesting difficulty that made me keep wanting to play. started with new controls and went to old controls so I could be move accurate with my punches, but loved both controlls.
what's good Bro, I just played the new ver. Those controls is much better also all the visuals effects make this game more interesting. I left my high score screenshot on discord too 😄😄😄😄👍👍👍👍
All the changes were great!
The shield looks cool, keep it!
Keep the block feedback. It looked good.
That notification at 6:15 made me check my Facebook, LOL
Nice update!
However if you wish for the game to run on weak/ low end laptops you should try to put a graphics option to lower the resolution and the quality of textures and optimise the models more, on blender "decimate" would help.
I think you should keep the shield icon, it clearly indicates that the punch was blocked. Its not in the way, its perfect for the game style as well
I like the shield. Also consider researching Nintendo NES Mike Tyson's punchout controller scheme.
this needs to be a multiplayer game, like a gang beasts and is gonna be a trend.
Hi Ponty, I'm not sure if the game was released as a demo after this point, but I played it today and I wanted to give a suggestion
maybe it would be really nice to put a circle on the bottom left with a dot maybe or something to signify which way the player is leaning currently, because I found myself a lot of the time losing track of the mouse and not knowing where the attack was going to go, whether it was going to be a body shot or a head shot. Great work, by the way!
One thing you can do is experience points or leveling up and unlock skill points for stamina, power, health and etc
hahaha the sneeze
keep the shield icon on block
Game looks nice didn't think it would come along this far
Making the sound effect of the successful punch a lot more juicy (louder and fatter) would distinguish it a lot more from the block, and could maybe improve the feel even more? :)
@pontypants
Dude, the art style for the ground punch (with the cartoon clouds) is so cool!
Why not follow the same style for the punches but with different colors? That would look dope!