Punch First, Plan Later- Making Combat Impactful in Muffles’ Life Sentence
Hello to the all the gamers (big and small).
With the Demo of Muffles’ Life Sentence having released earlier TODAY, I’ve been busier than ever fixing a crap-ton of bugs. I’m so excited to say that, with today’s patch, the game is cleaner, better looking, and more fun than ever.
In between going on some truly gnarly bug hunts, I spent some time this last week doing some actual design work on every gamers favorite RPG feature- COMBAT! Screw the story- it’s all about making smart plays, getting stronger, and stickin’ it to those goblin menaces (or like, whoever).
What players think about combat
There were a few really clear bits of feedback that emerged from beta testing and more recently with the demo.
What they liked:
- Enemy designs were cool
- Unique fights; No random encounters
- The core State bar mechanic is engaging
What could be improved:
- Attacks lack impact
- States and key terms are unclear
- Combat rewards lack a dopamine hit
In other words- players enjoyed combat overall, and praised the core mechanics, the visuals, and the music, but there was room for improvement. The first major patch for the MLS demo wouldn’t address all of these potential areas of improvement, but by golly it would do its best with the most important ones!
Adding the Oomph
An attack in MLS is made up of 2 critical halves that are equally responsible for bringing life to abilities. These are the animation and the sound. To make enemy attacks feel more deadly and dangerous, I would have to improve both of these halves in some key ways.
Animation:
- Short and snappy for regular attacks, longer and more dramatic for massive ones
- The animation visual ties into what the ability does
- Flashes times with bassy sound effects, with more/longer flashes the bigger the attack
Sound:
- Quicker sounds with less decay for regular attacks, and more build up/fade out for massive ones
- Most abilities have a mixture of low/mid/high sound effects to help add interest and make them cut through the music
- Timing bassy bits with flashes and key animation frames makes you ‘feel it’ better
Acquainting players with the rules of the ring
I’ve played a lot of games that have mysterious combat systems. What exactly does that debuff do? What happens when you reach that level? Do enemies change their attack patterns based on X?
It became quickly clear that these sorts of ambiguous aspects to combat were not going to fly in MLS. And that makes sense- combat is far more strategic and exacting compared to a lot of other RPGs. I wasn’t able to have amazing visuals or real-time mechanics, so I leaned further into making choices during combat plentiful and impactful.
To help mitigate confusion and frustration during combat, the guide was born! A one stop shop to read up on different states, tips on combat, and summaries of the key terms involved in deckbuilding.
One of the biggest goals for Episode 1 of MLS is to build a strong foundation for future episodes, and making combat fun and versatile is a huge part of that. Thanks to player feedback, I’m going to be to craft so many great future fights for Muffles and company.
In other news…
Wow- the MLS demo has been out for over a week at this point! We are already getting some reviews rolling in, and even a few people uploading playthroughs.
There are some massive plans for MLS on the horizon, especially for the Discord, that have been on my mind a lot recently. Working on MLS has been more demanding than ever, and a lot of that work is going to be panning out real soon- stay tuned.
