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!