Path to the Showdown Part 2: Why Magical Girls?

So, welcome back! This blogging thing won't get easy quick, sadly, but! I'm trying. The thing right now is 'why magical girls? Why THAT for your game's core identity?'

And honestly? Because they're cool. That's it. I got started on the magical girl train years ago, around 2016 when I ran across online tabletop rpg game that was about magical girls. The name of it is lost to time, but I thought the idea was absolutely fascinating even though I'd had little exposure to magical girls outside of Sailor Moon.

This concept didn't start like this, however. It took several years to decide to make it a game. Initially, it took form as a fellow online tabletop RPG. It proved popular enough in a small circle, and I'd always been into game design and the game industry. So I looked into something more solid. Initial forays had the thinking it could be an open-world game, and so some basics setups were developed in Unreal.

These were about as far as it got.

Something where you'd play a primary character or three and go on player-chosen missions. Even from the start, the 'three-at-a-time' element was always there in one way or another. Eventually, however, the idea shifted to a multiplayer game, mostly out of the desire to see multiple characters playable in all their stylish glory. A large part of the tabletop was the character variety, and I wanted that borne out in gameplay as well. However, the other element to be important was TEAMWORK, much, again, like how the live game had been working. My history with games had me quickly realize that if the game were to be a typical deathmatch focused game, people would be unlikely to work together, instead focusing on kills and personal success at the cost of team success.

At that point, the concept seemed sound. After some initial feedback and gauging if there was indeed an audience for such a thing, which it was determined there was, it was decided to move full on to getting a proper team together.

Blog: The Path to the Showdown, Part 1.

Hello! We are Blue Comet Games, and, well, if you're here, you likely know of the project in question. But, in case you're not sure, I'll break it down here:

This is a general update blog for Magical Showdown's development; you'll see announcements, works in progress, and perhaps brief dives into the development process here. To be completely honest, blogging isn't normally my wheelhouse, but people are interested in this game's journey, so I'm going to try!

First of all, a bit of a deeper breakdown of what the game is about, just for an easy start.

Inspiration

The game itself was inspired by not just cartoons, anime, and other things, but several old games. But if you had to ask me, three in particular stand out- one helped form the game's mechanics, the other the 'ethos' of the game- the core interactions, and the third sort of tied it all together.

The mechanics: Anarchy Reigns

Anarchy Reigns, for those that don't know, is an action brawling game. As Wikipedia would put it: "Anarchy Reigns, known in Japan as Max Anarchy, is a beat 'em up video game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the spiritual successor to the Wii video game MadWorld (2009), and was released in Japan on July 5, 2012, in North America on January 8, 2013, in Australia on January 10, and in Europe on January 11."

It was also a game that captivated my attention for several reasons. I felt its combat system to be intriguing and visceral, and the character designs were very interestingly designed. Being completely honest, I only liked a few of them, but enough were fascinating that I played and rather enjoyed the game. It's from this game that Magical Showdown takes a lot of its combat functionality from- lights, heavies, a 'get off me' attack, it's all there as it was in AR.

Where Magical Showdown differs, however, is the use of Stamina for its special attacks, and the functionality of its aerial attacks. Where Anarchy Reigns' aerial attacks were generally very basic punches and otherwise stuck to a ground game, Magical Showdown fully intends on having an aerial combat element, which requires a bit more...floatiness. Understandably, the enjoyment of that can vary, so we're being very careful with how it's implemented. Nonetheless, Anarchy Reigns informs a great deal of the combat style of Magical Showdown, and I think that if you enjoyed that game, this one will feel at least somewhat familiar.

The Ethos: Splatoon

Splatoon is one of my favorite series of all time, for MULTIPLE reasons. I have all three games and fully plan on getting Splatoon Raiders whenever it comes out (as of this post). One of the many reasons, but the most important in this context, I like the series is its focus on accomplishing tasks, over fretting about kills.

In no mode is your K/D ratio paramount to winning; you must accomplish the objective of the mode. Is killing your rivals helpful? Absolutely. Is it a direct win condition? No. This allows Splatoon to garner a wide, wide audience, allowing for even people unskilled in shooting the opportunity to contribute to a team's forward progress.

Magical Showdown has a similar ethos, in that we want to allow even players unskilled at combat-centric games to be able to contribute. Thusly, the PvE element of the game is paramount; putting in lesser challenging NPC enemies that can be taken down with only basic understanding of the mechanics- but is still a factor that cannot be ignored on the whole, and allows you to contribute to your team in most cases. We're hoping to essentially get the same or at least a similar wide playerbase as Splatoon in terms of skill level.

The Rest: Fighting Games In General (But in this case Guilty Gear Strive)

Almost in direct counter to that prior section, the last major element that inspired Magical Showdown's gameplay is fighting games- in particular, Guilty Gear Strive. Guilty Gear is a series I am very fond of and used to play regularly (and still play off and on; May/Slayer player if you're wondering). The way the characters act and interact with each other, the way human players learn, push, and pull in matches, the combo system, the Burst mechanics, moveset data...yeah, it's a lot of little bits. All of that helped inform how the combat system would work alongside Anarchy Reigns, and Splatoon helped understand how this combat can be influenced by certain other elements of the game due to be revealed (Equipment, which I won't go into yet).

Ultimately, this game is a fusing of a lot of fun games, as well as other interests (perhaps to be delved into later, and may not be what you expect). As things progress, keep an eye on this blog to learn more!