These days, it seems like there's so
much more possibility in creating games. Thanks for those new
possibilities, I think, goes a lot to the burgeoning indie market and
different outlets for play besides consoles. Not too long ago, a
game, no matter how innovative or interesting wouldn't see the light
of day if it wasn't released for console. At the very least, it had a
small, very specific audience. While they have their flaws (as
consoles have their advantages), applications like Steam, and
websites like Kickstarter are allowing for so many more people to
have the chance to interact with and learn from video games. It still
amazes me that with everything we have now, it'd be possible for so
many people to play even our game.
While we want it to reach as many
people as possible, there is still a core audience for our game. We
want to reach out to players who enjoy games like Super Smash
Brothers and Mario Party. At one spectrum of our audience, there is
the more laid-back player who spends most of their time playing games
with friends. The only thing really on the line is pride, and even
then it's pretty low-key. We're also trying to reach players on the
other side of the spectrum. These are the sort of players who took
Super smash bros and shaped it into the competitive game it's partly
turned into today. Smash bros has a great capacity to reward less
skilled players with button mashing but also offers intuitive
controls and moves for skilled players looking to improve. There's
enough diversity in character play styles to suit everyone and give
them something to work towards. Our game is addressing this audience
with play that will be familiar enough to draw them in, and mechanics
and concept that will be interesting enough to keep them engrossed.
From testing our art concept so far, it seems that many people are
interested in our idea of being able to play as ghosts in a dark,
mansion setting. It's very often that we see ghosts and spectral
beings as enemies in games. We thought it would be interesting to try
to change that dynamic and mesh it with the secondary mechanics we
have in store. This theme is also a challenge as the characters need
to balance on the fine line between being relatable to people and
being too 'monsterish' and losing their humanizing appeal.
What separates our game from similar
experiences to it is the combination of mechanics we have and are
working to include. We have the basics of running, jumping, and
shooting projectiles, but this is hardly the full extent of our game.
We want our game to go deeper than most combat platformers and have
heavy interaction with the environment players are fighting in. We
want them to be invested in their environment, and to help with that,
be invested in their characters. To do this, we are giving players
some choices not usually received in typical fighting games. Players
will be able to choose statistics and passives for their character.
The character is virtually a blank slate until the player gives it a
back story and abilities through our drafting system and choice of
passives. While these are normal tenants for other genres, such as
RPGs or simulation games, it's still a pretty new system to
fighters/combat platformers.
It is in this way that we hope we can
show our innovation and integrity. As it stands, combat games like
Smash Bros are pretty well-received. The broad range of couch-gamer
to skilled pro seems like a great starting point and a proven
audience for this kind of game. Many fighters feature eclectic,
sometimes strange locales and characters for their settings and
theme, so I'm sure we will have gamers eager to dive into a strange,
new world like ours and experience what we have to offer. I feel like
our game is adding to the future of games that will show the benefits
of blending genres and elements that normally would not go together.
As games continue to move forward, genres need to be stepped out of
and twisted around instead of trying to fit games into specific
categories where they might not really belong.
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