bate-bate eng.2: dodging and status effects

two big mechanics have been added to the game in the past weeks, fighters being able to dodge enemy attacks and status effects that change the way they react to contacts. both of these aim to strenghten the core of the game, the chain of contacts between fighters in combat and create a bit more drama through unexpected reversals in the contact chain.

when a character dodges they avoid suffering the effetcts of an enemy's main move, but still get activated and get to act afterwards. this can happen either because the target has a lower level than their attacker, or because either the target has an evasion bonus or the attacker has a dexterity debuff.

dodging also introduces levels into the game. every fighter has a level now and I hope that dodges add a space in the battle for low level fighters to be useful. a low level fighter can dodge away from attacks and still manage to stand against a higher level enemy, but running the risk that an enemy attack will end up going through and potentially eliminate this much weaker target. this follows one of the design tenets I had in mind for the game, push your luck mechanics.

 

an enemy dodging and attack

 

 

as for the status effects, there are four statuses: immobility, confusion, disorientation and protection, they all play into the contact chain. immobility will make you suffer the effects of an enemy's main agressive move without getting activated (so the opposite of dodging, basically). confusion will make you use your main move on the wrong target, a supportive move on an enemy and an agressive move on an ally. disorientation will make you dodge away from a friendly contact. protection will prevent the next status you would otherwise obtain. like bonuses and debuffs, a status is removed as soon as it takes effect.

the moves that give and heal damage as well as bonuses and debuffs remain the backbone of the move set and the effects triggered by the contact chain, to make the fights move along and be functional, but I hope that dodging and status effects add interesting variety and unexpected moments of drama to the basic contact chain, making it more exciting.

bate-bate pt.12: mecânicas novas, status effects

adicionei mais três efeitos possíveis para os golpes dos lutadores, terminando todos os efeitos possíveis que um golpe pode ter. confusão, atordoamento, imobilidade e proteção vão ser estados especiais que um lutador pode ter e alteram o fluxo do circuito de contatos.

confusão faz um lutador usar seu golpe primário no alvo errado. usar um golpe agressivo em um aliado e um golpe de suporte em um inimigo. atordoamento faz um lutador esquivar do golpe primário de suporte de um aliado. imobilidade faz um lutador receber o golpe primário ofensivo de um inimigo sem ser ativado, levando esse inimigo a agir de novo. proteção te impede de receber outro estado especial. assim com buffs e debuffs, esses estados são removidos assim que tem efeito.

o foco do sistema de batalha é o circuito de contatos e os golpes tem efeitos mais simples que apenas dão textura a esse circuito. que nem a esquiva, a ideia com os efeitos especiais é criar golpes mais interessantes sem tirar o foco do circuito, criando twists emocionantes (espero eu) na sequência de contatos.

tirar e curar dano e dar buffs e debuffs vai sempre ser a base dos efeitos em uma luta, para garantir que ela está indo para frente e chegando mais perto de acabar, mas a esquiva e os estados especiais tem sido ferramentas importantes para criar mais emoção e momentos inesperados em uma partida.

loose ideas 01: works in interface and screen composition that make me proud

I'm gonna leave here some stuff I did before on interface and screen composition that I particularly like a lot. everything is quite amateurish :P but it gives me satisfaction to look at them.

I like the idea of thinking of every screen as a composition. I like when the interface takes the front, or the game is pure interface and there's no longer a distinction between the main game world and an interface that is just an overlay trying not to obstruct too much. collages, comics and old pc games are a generalised inspiration here.

the games are presented in chronological order.

 

lick my eyeballs

the first game I made, in a game jam with friends. the game is basically mastermind, but the password that you form is a combination of youtube videos. I really like the big eye, the button you press to check the password and expose the subject to the chosen videos. I like the space that a button is occupying on the screen. a big interest I have when organizing UI is thinking about it as a collage of artifacts, buttons, information, without a main game screen.

 

 

 

treco

another little gamejam game made with friends. continuing to think about the fitting of UI elements, in treco, when the map opens, it lays on top of the suitcase with your items.

interstellar rising

coming from the games I made in gamejams, I explored more the interface as a variety of boxes without any of them being the main area. the interface is the game itself, it doesn't lay on top of it.

the challenge here was coming up with an aesthetic that was quick to make, but still dynamic. my solution was animating things that were purelly graphic. among these flourishes are tiny graphs that pop up constantly in the screen, conection lines between the UI boxes, the blue circles that represent your traits and spin constantly and glitches than can happen in the interface when open a new screen.

another thing I liked are the buttons in the form os banners that scroll to the side when you mouse over them. it's possible the inspiration was Maiden and Spell, but I don't remeber correctly when that game came out.

yorocutai

my idea for the UI in this game was emulating/ taking inspiration from books, both in the aesthetic flourishes and the organization of the screens in linear sucession, one after the other like pages from a book, with an index at the middle.

as telas-páginas em sucessão

I also cherish this moment, when you advance the game's time count. I really like that the tiny wheels stop spining when the sun wheel advances.

I really like the clouds spinning around the island, I tried to give the poetic suggestion of a horizon.

autonomous agent aramis

something about this game I liked a lot is that the top menu remains when you advance trough new windows, including the main level. I wanted the game to look like the interface the robot's operator uses, or suggested that. I tried to associate this with an internet browser for example.

 

I also really like the visual theme of the spinning medals.

well, that was it :3

I wound up presenting almost all the games I made jshskshsl, consequentially the quality varies a lot, but I wanted to at least bring attention to one aspect in each that I liked.

 

battle setting pt.1: the concept for a new project expanding Table Setting

I began a tiny side project that I intend to finish this month. it will be a follow up to Table Setting and I'm in fact going to use the unity project as a basis, which will be an interesting test that I hadn't done before.

with practically the same size, Battle Setting is intended to further explore the ideas I had in Table Setting to give life points and little powers to pieces in tic tac toe, but to extend the tactical aspect, I want each piece to be more durable and stable. in Table Setting each piece lost constitution every turn, here I want them to lose it only when they get used.

the basic structure is that you begin the game choosing four pieces, amongst many you own, through drafting. during the match itself you only have these four pieces to use. each turn the player can choose a piece and move it somewhere else. the piece triggers its power again, but loses one life point.

the idea then is that you have to balance using the piece's powers with managing their life points, but being able to control the degradation of these pieces, unlike Table Setting where this is automatic, leading to a more impermanent game.

the powers will be really similar to Table Setting: giving life to itself, taking life from enemies or giving life to allies. so you have the possibility to potentially replenish the life of your pieces as they degrade with use. however, if a piece is bordered by two enemy pieces on opposite sides, it can't move. this is so you can't count on using a specific piece on a specific moment, simply developing a regular sequence of pieces to use. I hope this leads the player to have to take interesting decisions by improvisation.

the main objective is forming a line of three pieces, like Table Setting, but since pieces can be eliminated, losing two pieces will lead to automatic defeat.

I'm really excited to explore the drafting at the beggining. this would leave you to only use four pieces among a much bigger lot, but without being able to chose them at will, leading to potentially very different matches depending on the combination of pieces, and their powers, you have to use.

an aggressive set can be really good at eliminating the enemy pieces, but constantly losing life without being able to help. a defensive set can last a lot, probably aiming for a victory by forming a line. more conservative powers that only work on adjacent pieces would lead to a slower game with focus on positioning and manouvering. stronger powers with random targets would lead to faster more unpredictable matches. I'll see.

ideias avulsas 01: trabalhos em interface e composição de tela que me orgulham

vou deixar alguns trabalhos que fiz anteriormente com interface e composição de tela que eu particularmente gosto bastante. é tudo bem amador :P mas me dá satisfação de olhar.

eu gosto muito da ideia de pensar em cada tela como uma composição. gosto quando a interface é destacada, ou o jogo é pura interface e não existe mais uma distinção entre o mundo do jogo e uma interface que vai por cima tentando não obstruir ou se sobressair demais. colagens, quadrinhos e jogos antigos de PC são uma inspiração generalizada aqui.

os jogos estão apresentados aqui em ordem cronológica.

 

lick my eyeballs

o primeiro joguinho que eu fiz, numa game jam com amigas. o jogo é basicamente senha, mas a senha que você forma é uma combinação de vídeos do youtube. gostei muito do olhão, o botão que você aperta para inserir a senha ao expor o sujeito aos vídeos escolhidos. gosto do espaço que um botão está ocupando na tela. um interesse grande meu na hora de organizar a UI foi pensar nela como uma colagem de artefatos, botões, informação, sem uma área de jogo principal.

 

 

 

treco

outro joguinho de gamejam feito com amigas. continuando a pensar no encaixe dos elementos da ui, em treco, quando você abre o mapa, ele deita em cima da maleta com seus itens.

interstellar rising

continuando dos primeiros joguinhos que fiz em jams, explorei mais a ideia de organizar a interface como várias caixinhas sem que nenhuma delas fosse a área principal do jogo. a interface é o próprio jogo, ela não fica por cima dele.

o desafio aqui foi pensar numa estética rápida de se fazer, mas que ainda fosse dinâmica. minha solução foi animar coisas puramente gráficas. entre esse floreios estão os pequenos gráficos que aparecem constantemente pela tela, as linhas de conexão entre as caixas da interface, os círculos azuis que representam suas traits e giram constantemente e uns glitchs que podem rolar na interface quando você abre uma tela nova.

outra coisa que gostei foram botões em forma de faixas que deslizam para o lado quando você passa o mouse por cima. é capaz que a inspiração tenha sido Maiden and Spell, mas não lembro ao certo quando esse jogo saiu, talvez seja coincidência.

yorocutai

minha ideia para a interface desse jogo era emular/ me inspirar por livros, tanto na questão dos floreios estéticos quanto em organizar a sucessão das telas de forma linear, uma depois da outra como páginas de um livro, incluindo um index no meio.

as telas-páginas em sucessão

também tenho carinho por esse momento, em que você avança o jogo temporalmente. gosto muito que as pequenas rodinhas nos relógios param enquanto o sol avança.

gostei bastante das nuvens girando em volta da ilha, tentei dar uma sugestão poética de um horizonte.

autonomous agent aramis

acho que um elemento desse jogo que gostei bastante foi o fato de que o menu superior permanece quando você abre novas janelas. queria que o jogo parecesse a interface que o operador do robô gigante usa, ou desse essa sugestão de leve. tentei fazer associações com um browser de internet por exemplo.

 

também gosto muito da temática visual das medalinhas rodando.

bem, foi isso :3

acabei apresentando quase todos os jogos que já fiz jskshsk, consequentemente a qualidade varia muito, mas queria salientar pelo menos um aspecto em cada que eu achei legal.

enquadra pt.1: conceito do projeto novo expandindo o Mesa Posta

iniciei um novo side project pequenininho que eu pretendo terminar ainda em fevereiro. ele dá continuação ao mesa posta e vai inclusive usar o projeto na unity como base, o que vai ser um experimento interessante que eu não tinha feito antes.

com praticamente a mesma escala, o enquadra pretende continuar a explorar a ideia que eu tive no mesa posta de dar pontos de vida e poderzinhos para peças de jogo da velha, mas para tentar estender o lado tático, eu quero que dessa vez cada peça seja mais estável e durável. no mesa posta as peças perdiam pontos de constituição todo turno, aqui eu quero que elas percam ponto apenas quando são utilizadas.

a estrutura básica é que você inicia o jogo escolhendo quatro peças, dentre várias que você possui, através de um drafting. durante a partida em si você só terá essas quatro peças para usar. a cada turno o jogador pode escolher uma peça e mover ela de local. ao baixar a peça em outro espaço ela aciona seu poder de novo, porém perde um ponto de vida.

a ideia então é você precisar balancear o uso do poder das peças com a vida delas, mas podendo controlar a degradação da sua vida desse jeito, ao invés do mesa posta em que isso era automático, levando a um jogo mais impermanente.

o poderzinho das peças seriam muito parecidos com o mesa posta: dar vida para si, tirar vida das peças oponentes ou dar vida para peças aliadas. então você tem a possibilidade de potencialmente repor a vida das suas peças conforme elas desgastam com o uso. porém, se uma peça estiver enquadrada de dois lados opostos por peças oponentes, ela não pode se mover. isso é para que você não possa contar de forma tão previsível que poderá usar uma peça específica em um momento específico, podendo simplesmente desenvolver uma sequência constante de que peças usar. espero que isso leve o jogador a precisar tomar decisões interessantes de improviso.

o objetivo principal seria formar um linha de três peças, assim como o jogo da velha, mas como as peças podem ser eliminadas, perder duas peças levaria a uma perda automática e vitória para o outro jogador.

estou muito interessada em explorar o drafting do começo. isso te levaria a só poder contar com quatro peças dentre um conjunto bem maior, sem poder escolhê-las a dedo, levando a partidas potencialmente muito diferentes dependendo da combinação de quatro poderes que você tem para usar.

um conjunto mais agressivo pode ser muito bom em eliminar as peças do oponente, mas só perdendo vida continuamente sem poder evitar, um conjunto mais defensivo conseguiria durar bastante, provavelmente tentando uma vitória com a formação da linha. poderes mais conservadores que funcionam sempre em peças adjacentes levariam a um jogo mais lento, previsível e com muito foco na manobra das peças. poderes mais fortes com alvos aleatórios no tabuleiro levariam a um jogo intenso e imprevisível. verei.

past projects 01: autonomous agent aramis

presentation

playing team fight tactics led me to take great interest in games that play themselves automatically, allowing you to watch your own game and check the consequences of your strategic decisions without interfering directly in the game. the first game I made to explore these themes was Autonomous Agent Aramis.

you play as the machinist of the last autonomous agent, a robot built to protect society from space threats. machinist because the idea is that you don't control the robot directly, it has an artificial inteligence and battles by itself, your job is making sure this is happening in the most ideal way possible.

the autonomous agent is controlled through five decks of cards, the game being also a deck builder, each deck representing a facet of its structure, its weapons, its physical constitution, its artificial inteligence, its special attacks and its item dispensary. but unlike a conventional deck builder, where cards are played to take effect, in this game cards take effect simply by existing in your hand. by simultaneously manipulating five hands of cards, one for each deck, you control the behaviour of the autonomous agent.

the larger structure of the game is like a dungeon crawler, where you go through a fixed number of levels until you reach the end and have a last battle with a boss. along the way you collect more cards and remove undesired ones from your deck.

 

 

the game's title screen

a level, the medalions provide benefits, the geometric shapes initiate battles

automatic battle

the battle takes place automatically and can't be stopped until it ends. the autonomous agent and its enemies alternate taking their turns. each turn they decide to either move or enact their attack.

the cards of the autonomous agent's hands add tags to its functioning, accumulating on top of the screen of the battle area. the tags affect, for instance, the attacks dealt by the AA when it decides to attack during its turn, how many cells it moves when it decides to move, with what frequency it moves and with what frequency it attacks, if it tries to distance itself or get close to enemies, etc.

 

 

the battle screen

 

the tag <shoot>, for example, hits a random opponent in an area around the AAA when it attacks. the higher the number of the <shoot> tag, the bigger the damage and the reach. the tag <speed> defines the number of cells the AA can traverse when it moves, the higher the number of the tag, the longer the distance it moves.

 

detail of the tags

 

the effect of a tag increases exponentially alongside its frequency. this happens to create the necessity to concentrate the attack tags. each attack tag is an independent attack that deals damage independently, so otherwise the proportion of cards sorted in the arsenal deck wouldn't make any difference. four cards with four attacks would amount to almost the same amount of damage everytime. since the effect actually increases exponentially, having a tag four times gives way more damage than having four tags one time.

each deck is controlled in its respective panel. by pulling the lever the player can sort a new hand of cards and they can do this any time they want throughout the battle. however, everytime the player pulls a lever the AA accrues a bit more heat. because of this, the player isn't restricted to accept a bad hand of cards and is free to seek the best combo possible, but they have to pay the cost in heat and there is always the chance that the new hand is worse.

heat (the first bar in the lower screen) determines the amount of pressure that is constantly accumulated by the AA, represented by the valve left of the screen. more heat, more pressure per second. when the AA reaches the pressure limit it discards every single card currently in its hands, sorts a new hand of cards in every panel and accrues a bit more heat. which means it will accumulate pressure faster the next time, reaching this limit even faster.

this can be exploited by the player, who can pull the lever right before this to prevent good cards from being discarded. this has the cost of accumulating even more heat, making the next discard happen even faster.

 the AA also accumulates ultra energy (third bar on the lower screen) throughout the battle. when the ultra energy reaches its limit the AA releases its ultra attack, much stronger than the normal one. following that, the limit the ultra energy needs to reach to unleash the attack decreases, meaning the next ultra attack will arrive faster and faster.

when the AA takes damage it increases its damage bar a little (second one on the lower screen), that also has a "break limit", like preassure and ultra energy. when damage reaches its limit, damage cards are added to the player's decks. these cards are just empty cards, without tags, that occupy space in the decks and the panels. when the break limit is reached it decreases, arriving at this point faster the next time.

 

damage and degradation

as the decks fill with damage cards the AA starts to become less effective, since its hands start to get bogged down by useless cards. because of this, instead of damage being something imperceptible until it reaches a final limit and the character dies, it's something that constantly affects the functioning of the character, making it worse and worse.

a class of enemies explores a similar mechanic. it injects virus cards on the AA with a heating tag, increasing the heat it gains and making the discard of the hands arrive faster. a negative effect that goes beyond numbers and actually makes the character harder to handle.

this was inspired by the game Slay the Spire, where many enemies will attack you by inserting negative cards on your deck. specially the slime monster that inserts cards that are just useless, forcing you to spend actions points to remove them.

I found the damage mechanic to be interesting, but it also has the side effect of making the AA continually simpler and less effective. despite making sense from a narrative stand point and being an effective way to punish for taking damage, it creates an arc that isn't very satisfactory where the character get progressively weaker and simpler wich isn't very fun.

accelerated rhythm

heat/ pressure, the ultra attack and damage accumulation all work in an accelerating rhythm where the break limit is reached faster and faster. so increasingly the AA will be discarding its cards, triggering the ultra attack and accumulating damage.

your cards get discarded so fast as heat accrues that eventually you won't be able to controle it, on top of that your decks get increasingly full of damage cards. to balance, the ultra attack happens faster, cleaning the field of enemies with a powerful attack. the goal is for the player to arrive at the end of a though battle crumbling, unlike other deckbuilders or engine builders where the feeling is of an increasingly more powerful engine.

deckbuilding

I tried to strenghten this feeling of a crumbling and shody, even if still potent, machine with the deckbuilding part. the autonomous agent being made up of so many decks and so many cards means that the player can't manage them as precisely as in other games of the genre.

 

card kit installation screen

 

 

instead of the cards being inserted and removed individually, they come in thematic kits that can contain cards of any deck, but usually form a bit of a combo, to ensure its usefulness.

the impossibility of managing the cards individually means that not only will there be many undesired and single cards, coming together with otherwise good kits, but also that it's too difficult for the player to even know all the cards the autonomous agent has. with this, I wanted to transmit the feeling that the AA is truly massive, a whole vehicle that is being more directed than truly piloted, instead of a succint character.

the game comes with music by Ra Irigaray and can be downloaded here: https://umunum.itch.io/aaaramis