Fight in the Arena - turn-based fighting game from Sonucido creator

[Moaning_Clock]

Spoiler

I'm working on a new game called Fight in the Arena which will release in two weeks on February the 20th!

It is a small text-based, turn-based fighting game. I really liked the combat of A Legionary's Life and Dungeon Rats and wanted to make my own game with a complex fighting system - Sonucido: The Mage was pretty simple after all.

Overview
- Turn-based fighting with optional perma death
- Simple story with a couple decisions and stat checks
- Character customization (different stats, play as a man or woman, three different weapon choices (dagger, sword, hammer))
- Visually minimal, only character portraits vary; mostly text-based

Right now, the game is about 50% done, the fighting system is completely done and most of the other programming, sounds and music are still missing and around half of the story and fights are implemented.

It will be available in English and German, on Windows and Linux, 3,99$/€/£.

Screenshots

 

[Victor1234]

No offense meant, I have 0 games created after all, and more games are always a good thing, but how is this more complex fighting than Legionary's Life?

Aggressive/Defensive is a slider setting there, you can ram there too (that dude called it charge), you could hit for the head/leg there as well, but also torso/arm/groin, half of the fighting system was feinting/positioning (taunt in yours?), and stamina (exhaust in yours?) was there too.

From the Steam page and your screens, it looks like maybe 80% of the fighting system from Legionary Life is here, but I don't see how it's more complex. Is there more to be added later?

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Oh, the wording was bad, certainly not more complex than A Legionary's Life, I meant more complex fighting system like a category, I'll change that.

 

[Covenant]

Looks very similar to TextRPG - Rise of Diablo.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Looks very similar to TextRPG - Rise of Diablo.

Never heard of that game - I tried to load it but there only appears a black screen after a second. Couldn't find a screenshot online, can you share one?

 

[Covenant]

Looks very similar to TextRPG - Rise of Diablo.

Never heard of that game - I tried to load it but there only appears a black screen after a second. Couldn't find a screenshot online, can you share one?

It's a Flash game, so I doubt it'll work anymore without fucking around with an emulator. It was basically a black screen with text boxes, similar to yours, with what seems to be a similar level of combat complexity (different types of attacks, magic, potions, gear, etc). The main draw was in the humour.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

For everyone who is interested here is an explanation of the fighting system.


Aggressive

Your damage is higher but your shield is less effective in the next round to enemy attacks if they hit you.


Aim Head

Deals a lot of damage but it is hard to hit your opponent. The only defense your enemy has in this case is his head armor.


Aim Leg

Attacks the legs of your opponent. A successful hit reduces his dexterity and damages him. He defends himself with his shield and the leg armor.


Aim Shield

You don't deal damage to the opponent but only to his shield. Destroying his shield reduces his defense but it is harder to hit him (the enemy dexterity is now used more strongly in calculating the chance to hit your enemy).


Analyse

To see the enemy stats you need to have a successful intelligence check.


Defensive

If you attack defensively your attack value penalized but your shield defense will be higher when the enemy attacks you in the following round. It is also harder to get critical hits. You need a shield to perform this attack.


Exhaust

After a couple of turns your character/the enemy is exhausted. This depends on your vitality. You can shorten this time when you exhaust your enemy. Exhaustion doesn't mean a lot, you get a 10% on your attacks. If you are already exhausted further successful exhaust attacks reduce your stats.


Ram

If you successfully ram your opponent he will be on the floor and has only two actions in his next round, aim leg or get up. If he fails the get up check he stays there. He also has reduced strength and dexterity values while he is on the floor. This is reversed when he gets back up. Ram requires a shield and deals minor damage.


Disarm

It is similar to ram but you can do it without a shield and the opponent has only the option to get his weapon in the next round (and maybe failing that). Disarm doesn't reduce his stats. You can disarm your enemy and ram him.


Taunt

You can intimidate your enemy once, this depends on your charisma. This reduces strength, dexterity and charisma. After a couple of turns (this also depends on your charisma) the effects are reversed.


Now a few words about the weapon you can choose in the beginning.

Dagger

Has higher chance to hit an enemy critically.


Sword

Increases dexterity damage if you attack legs. This is especially useful against enemies who don't have a shield right from the start.


Hammer

Higher chance of critical armor hits which damage the enemys' armor.


And the stats.

Strength

More damage, increases the chance of hitting the enemys' armor critically.


Dexterity

Hit chance, if you have no shield it is also harder to hit you.


Vitality

Determines your maximum health points, is used in stat checks when you want to get up or get your weapon and determines who attacks first.


Charisma

Only used for intimidating your enemy while fighting. Stat checks outside of the arena.


Intelligence

Is used to analyse your enemy and a successful stat check after a fight increases the stat points you get on a level up by one (after an enemy you normally get 2 stat points and 3 if you have a successful intelligence check). It plays also a role in the exhaustion attack.


There are also

Weapon Training

Increases the damage a bit and is used for critical hits (non-armor).


Shield Training

Is used in different ways in the ram attack, increases the protection a bit if you defend with a shield. If you rely heavily on ramming, this is the way to go.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Had a good day of work! I implemented how the sounds will be played while fighting. Like in A Legionary's Life they all have are randomly pitched to give it more variance. Furthermore I also vary volume a little bit. This should help to make the sounds a little bit more natural sounding.

After writing down the different mechanics I found out that I did not assign any values in regards to shield training to enemies. They all defaulted to 0. It also did not show up in the values when you analyse your opponent (or look at your own stats). Presumably because I thought of cutting the mechanic but after writing the post above I think it is actually worth it if a player focuses on ram attacks. I am actually quite happy because I did not intend a playstyle which focuses on ramming but here we are! Would certainly like to see the different fighting styles people will come up with and if a certain strategy will be touted as best.

The interest in the game is low but this was expected; it is a great project, I can make an interesting fighting system which I wanted to do for quite a while and doing something small after Sonucido: The Mage is refreshing. Albeit I noticed that I do not enjoy writing the story parts too much. It is not bad either, just not as fun as building levels, programming or doing my simple pixel art.

Speaking of pixel art - here are a couple of portraits of the enemies to show you the variety. Most participants of the tournaments are men but you will fight a few women.

 

[Turn_BASED]

but you will fight a few women.

Son of a bitch, I’m in!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The save system is implemented! After fixing some bugs it should now work flawlessly.
It is stolen from Sonucido which stole it from Bring Back The Sun which stole it from a YouTube tutorial.

I also decided to make the perma death optional. There is now a normal mode without perma death and a hard mode which has it. The game saves after every tournament now, no manual saves, so it is still a challenge (and, as a bonus, you cannot softlock yourself). In the normal mode you can distribute 20 points on your stats, the hard mode only gives you 15. I think it is a decent challenge but not as extreme as the Sonucido hard mode.

The last important programming task is done. Left are: The last part of the story and the endings, music, most sounds, the German localization, and testing the game as a whole.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Game is almost done, music is added, a few bugs squashed. Just the ending and the localization is missing!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Just the ending and the localization is missing!

Wasn't me

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Steam approved the build, so I can hit the release button any time now.

I still need to write the last couple of sections and do the German localization but the game will definitely be released February 20th.

If anything needs more time, I will postpone the German localization but I doubt that this will happen.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The endings are implemented and I completed the game successfully. On the way I fixed a couple of bugs and improved the balancing of the game. There are still a couple of story sections which I need to shorten a bit but the game is playable from start to finish! The German localisation is still on the todo list.

Given the overall state of the game I can give more information on the game.

How long is the game?

It will take you 1-2 hours to finish the game.

Is it replayable?

In comparison to Sonucido: The Mage it has more freedom on making your character but less branching paths. A few decisions have consequences down the line and there are a few random events. So, yes but it is more of a touch.

Who should get this game?

If you want a short game with a simple story and complex turn-based combat and do not mind it being text-based you might be interested.

What's the story?

You are living in a village and saw a fight in your childhood. Since then you were fascinated by it and always wanted to become a fighter. Unfortunately, there were no fights in your village for a long time until a sponsor organizes a small tournament to find a new face for tournaments in the city. Fights are an important part of the culture i.e. the main spectacel that interests people and the participants always fight until one of them dies.

How many fights are there?

There are 40 opponents although 3 of them are just a weakened version of the same person, so 37 people. In a typical playthrough you might encounter around 30 of them.

System Requirements

I get on my integrated Intel Graphics dev machine over 300 FPS in the story screens, over 200 while fighting before enabling VSync. The graphics card or integrated graphics must be capable of using Open GL 3.3 but every PC in the last 10 years should be fine and many PCs before that also.

Discount at launch?

Yes.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Fight in the Arena is out now!



You can also get it on Itch.io



The German localization will follow in a few days.

Here is the trailer:

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Not even going to post your own release trailer?

Here is the trailer: https://youtu.be/ZTehIN70jws

Just didn't embed it

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Aside from the German localization the update will also feature custom portraits for players. Just drag and drop a file with the name player1.png into the game folder and you can select it while creating a character.

This is how it looks:

I already implemented failsafe code if you decide to remove the portrait and continue to play!

The game automatically resizes the image you put in. You can add up to 4 portraits, player1.png, player2.png, ...

 

[Late Bloomer]

I enjoyed Sonucido well enough. The stairs were a nice touch.

Few things.

Why not make this random with boss fights? Just keep going as long as you can. Maybe have points where you can replenish.
AI art for an infinite variety of portraits/monster types would be cool.
Battle text with more robust descriptions

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I enjoyed Sonucido well enough. The stairs were a nice touch.

Thanks! Did you leave the five stars on Itch?

Few things.

Why not make this random with boss fights? Just keep going as long as you can. Maybe have points where you can replenish.
AI art for an infinite variety of portraits/monster types would be cool.
Battle text with more robust descriptions

I actually thought about making an endless roguelike out of it but I do not think that it would be engaging so long.

AI art would be possible but not infinite (if I do not implement the AI stuff in the game which is beyond my capabilities and I do not know how ressource intensive it would be; GDScript is not the right language fit for that I think), I would need to render it beforehand and implement like 1000 portraits in the game. What would be possible however is that I make some kind of random elements fitting together - like the player character. 10 face bases, 3 eyes, 25 hairstyles, 2 skin colors. This alone would result in 1500 possible combinations.

About the battle text, just to get the idea what you mean exactly, how would you write for example:

You attack aggressively
You hit your opponent (critical)
You destroyed his armor

Ultimately, I do not think this is going to happen. I doubt that it would be engaging enough or sell much more copies because of it. Just for the joy of programming it would be interesting though!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

You can add up to 4 portraits

This limitation is now gone. Theoretically you can now add a thousand portraits and choose between them. The game will load slower with every portrait but it should not be noticeable if you use a sane amount of pictures. Every portrait replaces the picture for the man and for the woman. It starts with player0.png and goes up to the number you want it to be.

I added the possibility to change the enemy portraits too! enemy0.png, ...

I think the update will be ready somewhen next week and I would advise to start playing with the update. Aside from all the improvements it also fixes a couple of typos and improves the quality of the text. Gameplay wise not much will change, there is a minor bug which gave the enemy a slight advantage which will be fixed but that should be it.

 

[Serus]

Good luck. I also hope that your next project, if ever made, is slightly more ambitious. And I don't necessary mean adding graphics (personally I enjoy roguelikes with simple tilesets, even ASCII on occasion) but overall complexity.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I also hope that your next project, if ever made, is slightly more ambitious.

After working two years on Sonucido it was good to do something smaller and I learnt way more than I expected.
I am not sure right now what I want to do next but I will not stop making games anytime soon.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Did you leave the five stars on Itch?

Nope, I stay away from that place.

About the battle text, just to get the idea what you mean exactly, how would you write for example:

You attack aggressively
You hit your opponent (critical)
You destroyed his armor

You attack the skeleton aggressivley for 6 points of damage
You land a critical hit on your opponents leg for 10 points of damage, knocking him down.
You bash his armor apart for 16 points of damage.

I'll pick up this game too. It looks like you are giving a good honest go at this. Some games for inspiration perhaps are Dungeon Scavenger, Warsim, and Ultimate Arena.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I'll pick up this game too. It looks like you are giving a good honest go at this. Some games for inspiration perhaps are Dungeon Scavenger, Warsim, and Ultimate Arena.

Thank you! I would advise to wait to play it until the update is out, as I do the German localization I fix more English sentences than I expected. Put the games on the wishlist but really dunno when/if I will play them, my pile of shame is way too big.

You attack the skeleton aggressivley for 6 points of damage
You land a critical hit on your opponents leg for 10 points of damage, knocking him down.
You bash his armor apart for 16 points of damage.

I deliberately did not include the damage numbers but I need to think about it. I like the minimal approach but also see the appeal of a more descriptive one. I need to ponder about it. Thanks!

Nope, I stay away from that place.

I wonder who that was

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The first update for Fight in the Arena is out! The German localization will be released next week. Custom portraits, few fixes and improvements!

1.0.1 Update - Custom Portraits!

The German localization is not ready yet but I thought it would be better to release an update before it is ready, so you can get your hands on a more polished version right now. I fixed a few bugs and improved several text passages. While localizing the game, I obviously need to read the English version once more and changed/corrected quite a few sentences.
I mostly improved the first 40 sections because I only got so far in localizing. I think the German localization should be done next week, I certainly need to be a bit faster.

One player requested a feature for Sonucido: The Mage, my previous game - a custom player portrait. The game does not feature a player portrait normally but I implemented it anyways. Since I already had the code I reworked it to fit Fight in the Arena and you can now have custom player portraits and custom enemy portraits! Just add player0.png in the game folder, you can do as many pictures as you want, player0.png, player1.png, player2.png, player3.png, ... - you can do the same for the enemies, enemy0.png, enemy1.png, ...

Full Changelog

- Custom portraits for the player
- Custom portraits for enemies
- Many improvements to the text
- Improved the playback of sounds (in very fast situations it could happen that a sound did not play properly. This should be fixed now or at the very least happen much less often)
- Fixed a minor bug which showed Continue in the start menu when it should have shown New Game
- Deleted a few unused elements
- Minor code improvements
- The code that gives you back your values after being intimidated was falsely in the code of the enemy turn which meant that you were intimidated a turn longer than the enemy
- Fixed a bug which made the ram more powerful than intended if you or your enemy had low dexterity