Thank you for your support. 1. PVP is not planned. Making this is hard enough. Maybe we will add pvp if we get a good publisher deal but as we are right now - we cant make this game + pvp from our bedrooms. 2. If you want to leave a design suggestion - thats fine. But I would encourage you to watch this first - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4XzaRlW2sio.html
thinking this way can sometimes lead to deflecting a lot of important feedback, as you double down on your own designs you have fallen in love with and can't now leave behind I understand it's frustrating when people think they know better, but some have deeper knowledge on the genres you are making, since they've played the same genre for decades of course you are making your own game for yourself and the way you want, but ignoring already figured out stuff you aren't aware of due to less experiences on the genre is possible
Honestly, I'd much rather see co-op than PVP, but a single player, tightly focused mecha game with a clean look like this? Definitely a cool idea. I would really like to see this game find the path to completion. Additional features can always be considered in sequels or spin-offs. Just discovered your video today, by the way, and I'm now subscribed. Very cool look at the process and progress of your game. Good luck!
Considering this is AC-like, do you intend to make the mechanic works for the enemies too? It both limit the dev and the player for doing too many thing and instead improving the mechanic out of it. Because I have surprisingly bad example for something like this : Daemon X Machina. The leverage mechanic for the player is just so many (whilst the enemy don't do much) that they force to balance the enemy by making it.... bullet sponge (because they can't afford by making it hard). It's just unnecessarily frustrating experience
This dev log made me go from watching this series as a dev researching how others are tackling the same design issues I'm having in my game, to a full on fan of this game. I am excited to play this myself and can't wait. If you ever need more devs with AAA experience, I'm open.
Just FYI, games with perfect dodges are notoriously hard to create PVP for. You can’t keep the timeslow effect without risking a disruption to the other player’s gameflow, unless you make countering an enemy perfect dodge into an event by itself, and then the game risks becoming perfect dodge simulator.
Very quick suggestion for when you program parameters like at 6:42, you could use enums instead of integers since enums can be a list of words that actually represent what the parameter is about. For example, you could make an enum with the rows "cqc, mid range, long range" so that if you leave this code for a while and forget what number means what, or if someone else happens to have to work with this in the future, the code is clear about what the parameter means and avoids leaving the viewport to dive into code and find what does what
@@t-blade Hopefully there's both options. I do like to sweat in PvP sometimes and other times I like to chill and not think about losing or gaining ranked points.
@@inuxys a good lead for this is a company called cavico. i know this is too much on your plate already but maybe write them down for when you have time.
Wow. I’ve watched a lotta indie devlog series over the last couple years, but I’m truly impressed with everything you guys have accomplished so far. It looks SO FUN, and the control scheme seems amazing. I love the art style, and some of those effects (like the shield) just made me go “wow.” I really cannot wait for this game. I’m not asking to be on the team or anything, but let me know if you guys ever want some mech concept art to work off of haha. This is a real dream mecha game!
one idea i have is to make different leg catogories like armored core, however not implemented the same, the legs would be always 2 legs, but they are styled with different movement parts on the feet or something like that, like you could have omni directional wheels for the feet that make it so that you have a lower top speed overall but higher acceleration and deceleration, or have roller blade like feet that are more focused on moving in a figure eight or arcing motion as the deceleration is very slow as it keeps up the momentum
The reticle and movement changes are really smart. Moving the drop to a multi-use movement modifier input also opens it up for more uses like long presses for other movement tricks
first time seeing your game, and i immediately thought of armoured core 6 haha, loved AC6 and your game adds some extra flair and it's own twist on things so i'm really hyped about it :) will keep an eye on this for sure, keep it up
I love how's it shaping up, just keeps looking instantly better with every video! One thing I'll mention though, try any other method of balancing the cores beside cooldowns before you land on it. Cooldowns lend to an extremely predictable and spammy playstyle. A lot of cooldown moves are like supers in fighting games, but without the opponent being able to block or ignore it typically. The sweet spot to making a moveset is to make your options feel like normals and specials in a fighting game, not just go straight to supers. Cores could just be very situational moves, or something you want to fish for, but instead of it being strong enough to just let it rip whenever it's off cooldown, maybe it has a lot of startup or endlag to make it risky to just throw out, but you technically can whenever you want. And if you're worried about spam with that, put in an overheat mechanic or something, if you balance it with being punishable in mind then that won't matter, but it'll tell the player not to rely on it without them having to realize it's a risky move or not.
@@burnttoast5372 I'm not a fan of having that kind of meter either. That just makes an equally predictable playstyle where you do your dinky light attacks until you have the meter to use your strong moves. I swear it's not that much harder to give all your options equal enough opportunity to be used at any time. You just have to weigh the risk reward of using what and when, and a lot of that can be done with startup and endlag. Those two things are the tickets to avoiding the need for meters and cooldowns. The reason you would put in meters and cooldowns is so you can use strong moves but only at certain times. With a strong focus on making each move you use a risk, then there's no need. You are adding a downside to a strong move and allowing the player to use it whenever they want in any creative manner they find. It's a win win.
You could make it to where heavy characters have lower deceleration and acceleration. As in real life it takes longer for big trucks to start and slow down then a tiny car.
The mehca's movement seems extremely satisfying just from watching the video, from the spins/flips to the landing burst effect to the momentum of the character, incredible job on that! I'm excited to see more content : )
This game seems to address one of my biggest complaint in mecha games... The animations. Seeing how the mech jumps and flies around with a lot of flourishes like this just makes it feel that much like an anime, and the gameplay looks absolutely solid to match, keep up the good work!!!
Ugh it looks so good man. I feel like I’ve dreamed about games with this art style and aesthetic. I think you achieve something really cool with how the mechs look humanoid in both their physiology but also fluidity of movement, yet when set against their human environment they reveal how large they actually are.
One feature I'd like to see are body parts that have built in weapons or special equipment e.g. arms with shoulder mounted cannons or legs with bomb dispensers. Granted, balancing something like this mat be a nightmare but yeah. I'll be real, the mechs look like machines but they move more like people in powered suits. I didn't realise they were meant to be mechs until the commentary mentioned it. They don't really sell the fantasy of piloting a giant robot to me since they're not really doing anything that only a giant robot could do. Not yo mention that since this is a vertical slice, there's little visual queues to help me gauge how big these machines are meant to be.
I've been learning Unreal Engine for 2 years now, and watching your amazing work is so inspiring! The polish you already are on is simply mindbogling. Keep up the amazing work!
This is just beyond impressive! I'm completely in love with the movement and combat and the improvement from the last devlog is crazy! Great job guys :D
I was sold on the movement alone, but I can't ignore the "self-shaded" look and the "minimalist" very clean UI you've implemented, incredible work! Can't wait to try it out myself, best wishes for the rest of development!
Dude this is shaping up to be one hell of a game. Loving the artwork, and the designs. The gameplay and mechanics looks cool and fun. Looks like the game is gonna feel nice to play, good animations, to mechanics, to actual controls.
First of all: OOoh mecha robot anime go BOOM!!!! Yay!!!! (ahem) Second: Making a modular system is brilliant. It will make it possible for you to actually finish making this game. Huge, huge, huge win that future you will be grateful for. Last of all: vertical slice is a fantastic, smart move as well.
--- I LIKE IT --- 1 -- The Hub 2 -- All the mechs can use all weapons 3 -- The enemies have Ai and a 3 nice basic combat mods 4 -- Basic Ambientation 5 -- Piece by piece, lego machines will rise again ,reuse assests is always cool, i think chunky mechs would like to have that big weapons or some pieces!!!! 6 -- Controls 7 -- Missiles Launchers 8 -- Mech weights change what animations will be played, and the game feeling --- I DON'T LIKE -- WHY -- FEEDBACK --- 1 -- Yellow suns creating too much visual noise in quantity , brightness , and i don't understand where the suns came from 2 -- The mob smoke to much, you could make the smoke in the form of strings, because it's making me not see the mob and that makes it feels like it doesn't matter how mobs look, and it feels like im playing shoot light the game !!! 3 -- All the guns shoots don't feel powerfull, (0:49) the frame close to the gun when she shoots, is not needed, or if you want it make it look like the bullet is breaking the sound barrier, distortion of the air with a bit of smoke 4 -- The teleport could use the breaking the sound barrier, distortion of the air with a bit of smoke or The No Man's Sky ship teleport 5 -- The UI of the target just needs 3 lines, or 9 or 12 lines around the mob with a bigger area, to be able to see the mob nicely 6 -- Mob Health could be the 12 blue lines of the target around the mob, when he takes damage they turn red 7 -- Player Health could be vertically on the side and she goes from grey, to black, to red 8 -- Quest info just icons resuming what the mission is about, and have a separated tab is can be activated to show all missions 9 -- The design style for the fire and smoke feel off, doesn't give me the feeling of the game 10 -- Publisher, i recommend (off brand games) 11 -- The game needs traps, I recommend the game MEET YOUR MAKER to take as reference 12 -- Why the eletric explosions on the feet ? Visual noise I hope i helped with my feedback and if you think i could say something more clear just ask for it, and that's all
Thank you for the well structured feedback. Almost all VFX right now are from packs and will be overhauled/replaced when we get to it. As they are at least servicable they're lower priority for now. 5 and 6 I can't really visualize what you mean. 10 Thank you for the recommondation 11 We probably will add turrets as immobile enemies. As for Traps, I don't know if they would be a good fit for the general gameplay premise. Might have another look at meet your maker for ideas. - Michael
5 - The aim UI that i was recommending has blue thin lines around the external space of the mob. The form is a circule but made of separated lines, like thin spikes from a cactus, and no it doesn't need the aim circle on the center of the mob, just need the full view of the mob 6 - The mob suffers hits from the weapons of the player, depending on how much damage the mob takes , the number of blue lines will turn red accordingly to the mob damage taken. The last line turns red, mob dies If you need me to explain it better just ask !!!!!
@@KSMetamorph 5: So like the lines on a clock? I get the functionality of it, if that is what you mean. This would also reduce the screenspace the health bar uses. Here's the but: Some stuff I prefer to be conservative in visual communication and health bars are universally understood and makes it easier to see what's going on for someone watching gameplay without having to learn new visual feedback, even if this feedback is logical and easy to understand. The center aim could be done away with, with a simple in/out of range indicator, yes. There's also a "feel" to the UI that serves immersion and while reducing the design to the necessary works for feedback and declutters the readability of the gameplay, there's also value in adding playful elements. That said. The main reason for the reticle redesign was the atrocious visibility of the mobs. Your suggestions make sense from a visual feedback standpoint. I personally have to balance pure design with immersion and conventions. We will most certainly iterate on the design of the reticle more than once and I will remember your feedback(actually I don't have the best memory, so I took a screenshot) Thank you again
I AM going to wishlist this when I get home. If I enjoy it even half as much as AC 6's first mission, I'm going to make you my first ever patron I'll ever support. This looks so sick already. I'm excited for the environments in this style.
It would be cool to see a more heavy version of the mech with a warhammer, kind of like Reinhardt. It can take more damage and hit harder but is slower. Just a thought but I’m loving how this is coming along!
I just found this video and this is insanely cool. The movement is so cool. Armored Core 6 is one of my favorite games of all time, and seeing even faster and cooler movement is awesome.
For once, RU-vid actually recommended me something interesting. I saw mechs and was immediately intrigued. Art style looks good and gameplay looks fun. I will be looking into this now.
At first I was like, why wouldn't I just play armored core? But then I saw the movement and animation and was very impressed. First video I've seen from you but this looks really good.
I love everything about this! I'm really excited for the demo. Something I'd like to see for mech customization is giving the different mechs partial and full set bonuses, giving you a small bonus if you have a few parts from a single mech and a larger bonus if you use the full set / nearly the full set. This would encourage the player to think more about which parts they use for their mech, since you need to think not just about the numbers of the parts but the bonuses the parts give you, so depending on your playstyle it might be better to use some parts from a mech with worse stats to get a stronger set bonus. The Surge 2 has a good example of this system and I think it would work really well here as well.
Something about this art style looks very Zeta Gundam-esque and I love it, it fits the mech combat perfectly. That new reticle is peak UI design too btw and really looking forward to mech duels, which also opens up the idea of PvP to me.
I'm actually so hyped for this, i do hope that at some point in the future there is pvp, i imagine it would be fun as fuck with all the awesome movement
Dude, this is looks awesome! You described a vision for a customization system straight out of my dreams, and with this "vertical slice" as a template for the game, this looks like something I'll totally pick up. Have you considered adding some of this footage and/or screenshots to a demo page on Steam so you can start growing a base of wishlist users? Having potential buyers lined up might make a compelling point when pitching to publishers. Other commenters have pointed it out, but I'd also like to add my voice to it: the HUD and combat-slide look a lot like Armored Core 6's right now, to such an extent I would say that I'm worried some would see it as plagiarism. I would probably be the first to defend it as not plagiarism but rather a result of convergent iteration leading to a common base of what a good mecha games look like, but I think it's worth encouraging this game to lean into a unique vision for what you want to do with it and how you want it to be. If you want it to be something that's quite a lot like Armored Core 6, that's awesome! SO DO I! LET'S GO! The mechas themselves look a bit on the organic side to me, more humanoid than machine, but that is purely subjective feedback. I personally prefer more servo-slab over primate shape, but I can see the appeal in both approaches and, again, I'd wishlist, buy, and play this game anyway. Just -- maybe consider some quad-leg options for players to run a super-tanky anti-aircraft emplacement or lightly-armored agile spider? Just shooting ideas into the void, feel no obligation towards me. Cheers, and best wishes on the journey of development! Can't wait to see where this goes!
This actually look so fun. I have always love armored core but the mechs feel so heavy which makes sense. However one where it looks like you feel more light and have more freedom of mobility would be so fun imo. I also love the art style this style of cell shading (idk if that right) always looks so good and simple but with complexity.
Can't wait to see "Tank" mecha type in your's design, like it's can be heavy armored bipedals or something more unique like in AC or Gundam. *"Legs just a fashion"*
If you are still taking suggestions, i think it would be cool if the way you get new weapons, was through a Research and Development center with quests for salvaging parts from defeated enemies (I.E you destroy an enemy or two and then take parts to a transport vehicle, to then take the parts back to your base or an entire mission where you salvage a destroyed location with machines a plenty) Also game looks great can't wait to play it.
So excited for the mech fights! Although, if you need to pay attention to what the enemy mech is doing, having sparks obscuring your view seems counterintuitive
The phantom images left behind after a dodge look fucking awesome. The arrows on the internal targeting recital are a great idea. Only thing I would tweek about it would be to have them be red and pointing towards the inner circle when you're out of range. I thought the Core Ability was a cool idea. Especially if you wanted to opt for a stronger shield that didn't explode, or a Core Ability that added more boost, or extra ammo, or increased range. You could reintroduce the Core Ability via pressing both shoulder buttons together. Like Bullet Time from Max Payne. Boost for heavy mechs could also be a walking/running boost, and the arial boost could be a Super Hero Landing slam, like a kind of Death From Above move that does a decent amount of damage if it hit. Maybe the Boost downward does some damage and the enemy hitting the ground does some damage, then if you're fast enough you could get 1 or 2 melee hits in. Just to make it a more "Large And In Charge" or "Brawler" kind of feel.
Whoa this has looks of armored core. I do hope you get more skills and talent with this, having more talented developers pushes for better competition means we get even better furbished projects in future. Cheers mate. Heres to more support for your project.
the artstyle has to be really compelling and appealing, because of the sheer amount of cell shaded games out on the market already, running the risk of blending in with the masses or worse sinking in it. other than that, very nice and promising work so far. keep it up guys!
The reticle is such a good change!!! Love the weight classes having different movement sets too. Only thing I would suggest is to give your game's art style more flare. While its clean and uses colour sparingly (both things I like and work well for game design), from my pov it looks like most other mech games I've seen. Makes me wonder if people will glance over something they've seen before, without realising all that Rapid has to offer. I wonder if there are any further additions/changes that might help it stand out a little more? Just my thoughts. Otherwise, I love how the gameplay is looking and can't wait for more updates, you're really making something special.
In regards to making enemies "smart" I think the key is to make it some sort of gameplay element. As you've already implemented an aggressive mech feels different to play then a defensive mech. Something interesting that AC6 does is that they will dodge your slower projectiles. But there are ways around this like firing missles to bait out the dodge and time your shot to hit them right as they're coming out of the dodge. Obviously this is dependent on your game so I have zero idea if it is applicable. Another common implementation is enemies line of sight. I.e. if you round a corner you can flank an enemy and catch them unawares as they're following where you were not where you are. It also gives creates a more dynamic relationship between the level design and the combat. I haven't seen it yet but definitely an enemy type that fits the sniper or cannon archetype that has you using cover and traversing strategically. Also loose tracking missiles as opposed to bullets. Something that you can kinda wiggle around like in Armored Core. Or use terrain to block them. Are there any melee style enemies? Or kamikazee enemies? Both could create unique encounters and different play Obviously just spitballing. Feel free to ignore. Cheers!
