huh interesting, so i was checking out build 1.0 and it looks like a playground with assets laid around but honestly its kinda fun
also do you have any tips for me im also making a fast paced Hack & Slash game and im not using any marketplace assets and all im doing everything by myself and thats for animating and VFX and so i do wanna focus on gameplay first before polishing the VFX and animations, do you got any tips for me on that front? like i have been struggling with finding the right flipbook textures for particles and stuff like that, and as for animations i figured out that randomizing the keyframes a bit (im literally keyframing inside Unreal, not doing it in blender or any other animating software) can make an animation look wayy better and feel way more realistic
do you got some more tips for me on the polishing side of things?
1.0 was kind of a mess. The combat wasn’t actually playable, I had to carefully play a certain way as to not break the character and animations. It was also too ambitious with the inventory system and character customization. At one point I wanted to implement stealth, parkour, climbing. But for a multi-character game the above is too much work. It’s since been deprecated and the recent versions are more focused on combat and lootable powerups for progression.
Props for using your own assets! I’m sure you’re extremely talented and I hope to see what you come up with in the hack n slash genre!
As for polishing, I think the biggest thing would be;
TLDR animnotifies to dictate smooth transitions between attacks and movement, wind down animations, camera movement
-focus on the animnotifies. Make sure you set properly when you can chain into the next combo and when you can cancel out of the attack. Same with dodging, how fast after dodging can you dodge again. This is something personally I see other hack and slash indie projects and even AAA games get wrong. Getting the animnotifes right can make a difference between smooth transitions and rough and choppy looking combat. Some may think adjusting speed of animations can make it look smooth but defining how each attack transitions into another can make things appear faster without losing the quality of the animation.
(I played a game called Vindictus where enhancing your weapon increased your attack speed. This literally sped up the animations but there’s a certain point where it doesn’t look natural. If it were up to me, attack speed should maybe dictate how soon after an attack you can perform the next combo with just a tiny bit of playrate increase)
-This may be a small thing for others but terms of animating, I personally love wind-down animations. Meaning every single attack animation should have an end where the subject retracts their weapon and goes back into the idle position. Games like Honkai Impact and Punishing Gray Raven do such an amazing job at stylizing and adding personality to the characters with wind-down and intro animations. One of the characters in Honkai Impact even used taunts at the end of each attack as a wind down. Some marketplace sellers animate full combos and just split the animation up, so the attacks are just cut abruptly at the end.
-Camera is important, depending on the type of feel you want in your game. If you want it to be actiony and up close and personal, you need your camera to move a lot. That means things like camera lag where the camera is a bit slow to follow the character (like nier automata for example, especially during sprinting the camera lag becomes even slower). Camera shakes are important to convey weight in attacks. Camera zooms are a good way to convey certain special attacks. If you’re countering or performing a charged attack of some sort. Zooming in and out can add a layer of dynamic camera movement to your attacks. A good contrast in camera would be Vindictus vs Black Desert Online. Both have similar graphic styles and combat, but the cameras are so different that each create a different feel. Vindictus is actiony and up close and personal while BDO is more laid back and focused on the open world, camera is zoomed out more, weaker shakes, the character is literally stuck in the dead center of the screen at all times. Also with Honkai Impact vs Genshin Impact.
"-This may be a small thing for others but terms of animating, I personally love wind-down animations. "
yeah i actually added a subtle winddown for the arial fists animations and it looks way more natural like that, especially when im not using a juggle system but instead setting the movement mode to flying so until the time it takes to cancel the arial movement the winddown for the fists happens and it looks pretty good, later i will also add more winddowns for other animations as well
i've also seen this done in the sword animation pack by 9CG which i bought and used on a side project of mine (a FNAF hack and slash... weird i know), so yeah when its time to polish my game i will certainly do it its very good
"-Camera is important, depending on the type of feel you want in your game. If you want it to be actiony and up close and personal, you need your camera to move a lot. That means things like camera lag where the camera is a bit slow to follow the character"
i've already done that, i've also added camera rotation lag so it would feel more like a hack & slash game
Do you want to make your game more famous and popular? Talk to Vtuber Zentreya (Project Z3N) from VShoujo. Ask if she wants to be main character. Your setting fits her lore quite well. She has a bright appearance and a cool suit. The weapon is equipped with a good cyber katana (or whatever else it can be called). True, you will have to work on models not only of her, but also of her opponents, as well as bosses. But I think you can handle it. After all, you've dealt with it pretty well so far.
I’d like to test your project, that looks promising, but your file is too big to be downloaded using the free version of mega because the bandwidth quota is limited to 5Gb in that case.
As the majority of mega users has a free account,
you should, at least, split the file, as it, it could be downloaded in several parts (or several free accounts), or change your cloud provider.
ah! I wasn’t aware it wasn’t able to be downloaded in one go. I also have a free account. I’ll see what I can do about the size, thanks for letting me know! Maybe I’ll try uploading on google drive instead. You can expect a google drive mirror and a new update featuring a tutorial system within the next 2 days. I had deleted the packaged game so I’d either have to redownload it or repackage it so it’ll take some time.
I’m also an UE4 developer, but at the first beginning of a game project that has lots of similarities with yours (as I guess).
If you’re OK, I’ll be happy to have a mean to discuss with you about game dev (mail, discord…) and perhaps share our experience.
You profile page has no direct contact link.
So, if you’re ok I suggest you can contact me using the link to my mail address on my profile.
I've updated the download link to be google drive! No updates, same file as the MEGA. Hopefully it's easier to download all at once. I couldn't find your email but you or anyone else can always contact me at TakiGamesOfficial@gmail.com
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huh interesting, so i was checking out build 1.0 and it looks like a playground with assets laid around but honestly its kinda fun
also do you have any tips for me im also making a fast paced Hack & Slash game and im not using any marketplace assets and all im doing everything by myself and thats for animating and VFX and so i do wanna focus on gameplay first before polishing the VFX and animations, do you got any tips for me on that front? like i have been struggling with finding the right flipbook textures for particles and stuff like that, and as for animations i figured out that randomizing the keyframes a bit (im literally keyframing inside Unreal, not doing it in blender or any other animating software) can make an animation look wayy better and feel way more realistic
do you got some more tips for me on the polishing side of things?
Thanks for your kind words!
1.0 was kind of a mess. The combat wasn’t actually playable, I had to carefully play a certain way as to not break the character and animations. It was also too ambitious with the inventory system and character customization. At one point I wanted to implement stealth, parkour, climbing. But for a multi-character game the above is too much work. It’s since been deprecated and the recent versions are more focused on combat and lootable powerups for progression.
Props for using your own assets! I’m sure you’re extremely talented and I hope to see what you come up with in the hack n slash genre!
As for polishing, I think the biggest thing would be;
TLDR animnotifies to dictate smooth transitions between attacks and movement, wind down animations, camera movement
-focus on the animnotifies. Make sure you set properly when you can chain into the next combo and when you can cancel out of the attack. Same with dodging, how fast after dodging can you dodge again. This is something personally I see other hack and slash indie projects and even AAA games get wrong. Getting the animnotifes right can make a difference between smooth transitions and rough and choppy looking combat. Some may think adjusting speed of animations can make it look smooth but defining how each attack transitions into another can make things appear faster without losing the quality of the animation.
(I played a game called Vindictus where enhancing your weapon increased your attack speed. This literally sped up the animations but there’s a certain point where it doesn’t look natural. If it were up to me, attack speed should maybe dictate how soon after an attack you can perform the next combo with just a tiny bit of playrate increase)
-This may be a small thing for others but terms of animating, I personally love wind-down animations. Meaning every single attack animation should have an end where the subject retracts their weapon and goes back into the idle position. Games like Honkai Impact and Punishing Gray Raven do such an amazing job at stylizing and adding personality to the characters with wind-down and intro animations. One of the characters in Honkai Impact even used taunts at the end of each attack as a wind down. Some marketplace sellers animate full combos and just split the animation up, so the attacks are just cut abruptly at the end.
-Camera is important, depending on the type of feel you want in your game. If you want it to be actiony and up close and personal, you need your camera to move a lot. That means things like camera lag where the camera is a bit slow to follow the character (like nier automata for example, especially during sprinting the camera lag becomes even slower). Camera shakes are important to convey weight in attacks. Camera zooms are a good way to convey certain special attacks. If you’re countering or performing a charged attack of some sort. Zooming in and out can add a layer of dynamic camera movement to your attacks. A good contrast in camera would be Vindictus vs Black Desert Online. Both have similar graphic styles and combat, but the cameras are so different that each create a different feel. Vindictus is actiony and up close and personal while BDO is more laid back and focused on the open world, camera is zoomed out more, weaker shakes, the character is literally stuck in the dead center of the screen at all times. Also with Honkai Impact vs Genshin Impact.
Hope this helped!
"-This may be a small thing for others but terms of animating, I personally love wind-down animations. "yeah i actually added a subtle winddown for the arial fists animations and it looks way more natural like that, especially when im not using a juggle system but instead setting the movement mode to flying so until the time it takes to cancel the arial movement the winddown for the fists happens and it looks pretty good, later i will also add more winddowns for other animations as well
i've also seen this done in the sword animation pack by 9CG which i bought and used on a side project of mine (a FNAF hack and slash... weird i know), so yeah when its time to polish my game i will certainly do it its very good
"-Camera is important, depending on the type of feel you want in your game. If you want it to be actiony and up close and personal, you need your camera to move a lot. That means things like camera lag where the camera is a bit slow to follow the character"
i've already done that, i've also added camera rotation lag so it would feel more like a hack & slash game
and thx for the advice some solid advice
Do you want to make your game more famous and popular? Talk to Vtuber Zentreya (Project Z3N) from VShoujo. Ask if she wants to be main character. Your setting fits her lore quite well. She has a bright appearance and a cool suit. The weapon is equipped with a good cyber katana (or whatever else it can be called). True, you will have to work on models not only of her, but also of her opponents, as well as bosses. But I think you can handle it. After all, you've dealt with it pretty well so far.
Hi
I’d like to test your project, that looks promising, but your file is too big to be downloaded using the free version of mega because the bandwidth quota is limited to 5Gb in that case.
As the majority of mega users has a free account, you should, at least, split the file, as it, it could be downloaded in several parts (or several free accounts), or change your cloud provider.
Thanks for your work and your share
ah! I wasn’t aware it wasn’t able to be downloaded in one go. I also have a free account. I’ll see what I can do about the size, thanks for letting me know! Maybe I’ll try uploading on google drive instead. You can expect a google drive mirror and a new update featuring a tutorial system within the next 2 days. I had deleted the packaged game so I’d either have to redownload it or repackage it so it’ll take some time.
Happy to help !
I’m also an UE4 developer, but at the first beginning of a game project that has lots of similarities with yours (as I guess). If you’re OK, I’ll be happy to have a mean to discuss with you about game dev (mail, discord…) and perhaps share our experience.
You profile page has no direct contact link. So, if you’re ok I suggest you can contact me using the link to my mail address on my profile.
See you
Laurent (from France)
I've updated the download link to be google drive! No updates, same file as the MEGA. Hopefully it's easier to download all at once. I couldn't find your email but you or anyone else can always contact me at TakiGamesOfficial@gmail.com
I’ll test the download.
You’re right my (pro) email is not visible in my itch page. I’ll fix that. You can contact me (as anyone else too) at laurent@gameamea.com