Hey People,

I know that it’s been all of one day since I last posted, but I’ve done a bit of work since my last dev blog, and I decided that I may as well give you a proper update as to what’s going on. While I’ve still yet to properly go over the various questionnaires that were filled out at the Perth Games Festival, I was able to identify several things that I could work on between now and the end of the semester. So, without stalling any longer, let’s talk about the most recent changes!

New Features:

Screen Flash:

At the request of many of the people who played Samurai Showdown at the Perth Games Festival, I have added in a screen-wide, white flash to the game when the two samurai clash after a round of the game. This flash blocks the vision of both players and really ratchets up the tension felt while waiting to see who won the round as players only just glimpse the two Samurai start their attacks before their vision is blocked completely. In the future, I hope to accompany the flash with the sound of clashing swords (and maybe someone getting stabbed) so that the tension is further enhanced.

Support for More Controllers:

I also found the time to add support for additional controllers to Samurai Showdown in order to increase the number of people who’re able to play the game once it’s released. This time, I was only able to add support for PS3 controllers, however, I’m expecting to be able to do some cool stuff with additional controller types such as DDR dance mats in the very near future (ideally before PAX Aus, but I can’t be certain).

Dynamic Button Sprite Assignment:

This change was also due to feedback from testers, but in hindsight was a long time coming. Due to the response from playtesters at the PGF who mentioned that they were had only ever used PS4 controllers in the past and that they couldn’t remember where the buttons were on the Xbox controller, I finally got around to creating a system that would dynamically change the button prompts given to players based off of what controller they were using. While it isn’t exactly a solution to the problem that players were having with the game, it does mean that people can mix and match controllers until they find one that works for them.

Replaced Shoulder Buttons with Directional Buttons:

As before, this change was also the result of feedback from the players at the Perth Games Festival, although it was gathered through observation rather than from the questionnaires I provided. In short, players would often have difficulty telling which shoulder button they were supposed to hit, and as a result, they would lose points needlessly. In response, I removed the shoulder buttons from the potential lists of buttons to press and replaced them with the directional buttons. Right now the art is still a little difficult to understand due to being taken from open-source art rather than something designed specifically for the game, but it’s a good start and works fairly well in my opinion.

Not a great example, I know, but it’s a directional button *shrug*

 

 

In Progress:

Steamworks Integration:

I’ve also begun adding Steamworks integration into Samurai Showdown! While it’s nothing too impressive right now as I don’t have an AppID and I’m not putting too much effort into it, anyway, Steamworks integration will be very important in the future due to my ideas for player profiles and progression. In time, it’ll also help with online multiplayer, but we’ll cross that particular bridge over a crocodile-filled, acid river when we come to it.

User Profiles:

As mentioned before, this will play a pretty big role in the future, but for now, all that this particular system does is save and load user profiles to and from text documents. In the future, I’ll probably change them to be binary files (and when Steamworks integration is working I’ll tie this system into their steam account), but they’re a pretty good start so far. When this system is done, it’ll form a solid base from which I can hang things like level and character selection.

 

Bug Fixing:

Removed Tutorial Due to Bugs:

The tutorial was horrible due to being a rush project I made for the PGF. It was buggy to the point where starting it would prevent you from playing the rest of Samurai Showdown’s game modes and had to be removed. In the future, I’ll try and fix or replace it, but for now, it’s just disabled.

Either Controller Can Now Dismiss The Versus Screen:

This one is a proper bugfix and was a long time coming! I’m not entirely sure why this was an issue in the first place as I literally copy-pasted code that worked for another script in Samurai Showdown into the script for the versus screen, but for whatever reason, only player 1 could dismiss the screen from the multi-round game mode. In any case, I’ve since fixed this issue and now either player can tell the game to start.

 

 

Future Plans:

Support for More Controllers:

With luck, the DDR dance mats that I ordered will arrive before my next update and so I’ll be able to give players the ability to fight via dance-offs. I can’t be certain that these input systems will work with Samurai Showdown as I’m using the Rewired input management system and I can’t find an existing implementation, but if worst comes to worst I can always create a custom controller map for them (and/or ask the creator for help :v). With that said, however, I’m hoping that it’ll be treated like a normal Xbox controller by the system and so will be handled by my existing input maps.

Finishing Saving/Loading for user profiles:

This is pretty self-explanatory, but a little extra detail never hurt. Essentially, I want players to be able to create, load, and delete profiles at will much like they can in almost literally every other game.

Level Selection:

This shouldn’t be too hard as I can copy-paste scenes and change backgrounds, but I’d very much like to give players the option to select a level in which to duel their opponents by my next update.

 

Final notes

As you can see Samurai Showdown is getting there slowly. There’s a fair bit of work left to do before I’ll make a demo for it and upload it to Itch.IO, but I feel like it shouldn’t be too much longer now. I’m also really looking forward to PAX Australia as, while I’m not showcasing anything there, I will be bringing along my new business cards and (hopefully) will be wearing my company shirt!

Bye!