Alpha Rising Spirit: Traditionally Animated Fighting Game

feels strange for me, but not in a wrong way.
It feels more like a kata movement then something I would see in a fighting competition (Sincerely, it immediately triggered memories of training at the dojo; funny so many years later :p).
But I suppose the main reason for that is how the positions of the hands and foots are inflated. In competition, you try to not repeat your movement/attacks and mask them so your opponenent can't read you/cant anticipate your attack.
In a game well it's fair to design it so, to give the player that litle hint with those extra inflated frames that help him anticipate and press the block or attack button :)
Ha, feels like kata (though I've never done any) to me, too. Perfect for a game animation, though!
 
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kupo15

Member
I love how far this has come, looking good, man.
About video recording though... That bandicam watermark...
If you don't like Fraps, OBS is a great free alternative with no ugly watermarks. It might take some tinkering to get the quality where you want it but I believe it one of the better options.
Thank you, it indeed has come a very long way. Just wow :)

Yea definitely about the watermark. Well my question was if the quality of Bandicam was good because if everyone likes it then I would purchase Bandicam which would remove the watermark. I think the quality is really good and the performance was pretty great also. Unless anyone has any objections to the Bandicam quality, say so now before I get the full version!
 

kupo15

Member
Hey everyone, excited to share some new game footage with you. Last weekend I took the game to a smash tourney and set it up to have people play and we even ran a side tournament as well to get people to play. I recorded some matches with the people who played there and wanted to share them! I currently have 4 videos uploaded from players who just picked up the game that day and am in the process of uploaded about 10 more matches that feature me playing against someone who picked it up the best to showcase more experienced players. I hope to have those uploaded tonight if not tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy these!
 
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lolslayer

Member
Wait..... Gaston?

[LEFOU]
Gosh, it disturbs me to see you Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd love to be you, Gaston!
Even when taking your
lumps
There's no man in town as admired as you
You're everyone's favorite guy
Everyone's awed and inspired by you
And it's not very hard to see why


No one's slick as Gaston
No one's quick as Gaston
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston
For there's no man in town half as manly


[BIMBETTES]
Perfect, a pure paragon!


[LEFOU/MEN]
You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley

And they'll tell you whose team they'd prefer to be on

Who plays darts like Gaston?
Who breaks
hearts like Gaston?
Who’s much more than the sum of his parts like Gaston?


[GASTON]
As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!


[ALL]
My, what a guy, that Gaston!


[GASTON]
I needed encouragement
Thank you, LeFou


[LEFOU]
Well, there's no one as easy to bolster as you!
Too much?


[GASTON]
...Yep


[ALL]
No one fights like Gaston
Douses lights like Gaston


[LEFOU]
In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Gaston


[GASTON]
When I hunt, I sneak up with my quiver
And beasts of the field say a prayer
First, I carefully aim for the liver
Then I shoot from behind


[LEFOU]
Is that fair?


[GASTON]
I don't care


[ALL]
No one hits like Gaston
Matches wits like Gaston


[LEFOU]
In a spitting match, nobody spits like Gaston


[GASTON]
I'm especially good at
expectorating!

[spits]

[ALL]
Ten points for Gaston!


[GASTON]
When I was a lad, I ate four dozen eggs
Every morning to help me get large
And now that I'm grown, I eat five dozen eggs
So I'm roughly the size of a barge!


[LEFOU/MEN]
Who has brains
like Gaston?
Entertains
like Gaston?

[GASTON]
Who can make up these endless refrains like Gaston?

I use antlers in all of my decorating

[ALL]
Say it again
Who's a man among men?

Who's the super success?
Don't you know? Can't you guess?
Ask his fans and his five hangers-on
There's just one guy in town
Who's got all of it down...


[LEFOU]
And his name's G-A-S...T...
I believe there's another T...

It just occurred to me that I'm illiterate
And I've never actually had to spell it out loud before...


[ALL]
Gaston!




For real though, did you use a special system to get art as HD as this to work?
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
@lolslayer: Not sure almost 2 screen heights' worth of off-topic text is the best thing to dump in this topic, just saying...

The new footage looks really cool, though, especially now when you gradually start getting the placeholders replaced :3
 

kupo15

Member
Wait..... Gaston?

For real though, did you use a special system to get art as HD as this to work?
I really like the name Gaston in general even though that movie introduced me to the name. Such a nasty, cool sounding name I love it haha
I didn't use any special system, no. Just what's within GM and doing some smart programming with the backgrounds. Still have some more things to optimize with that though :)

@lolslayer: Not sure almost 2 screen heights' worth of off-topic text is the best thing to dump in this topic, just saying...

The new footage looks really cool, though, especially now when you gradually start getting the placeholders replaced :3
Thanks! Yea the new backgrounds and music make looking at the prototype characters much better to look at!
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I really like the name Gaston in general even though that movie introduced me to the name. Such a nasty, cool sounding name I love it haha
You might be interested out the french/belgiumch (not sure about the origin) comic Gaston Lagaffe, then... that's what I associate the name with the most :p
(some of the Spirou / Asterix people were involved in it)
upload_2017-5-8_18-17-11.png
...and yeah, that means I wouldn't exactly classify it as a horrifying name, I guess :p

(for context, Gaston is a lazy reporter / DIYer that generally messes things up... like a mix between Garfield and Groucho Marx, I guess)
 

lolslayer

Member
@lolslayer: Not sure almost 2 screen heights' worth of off-topic text is the best thing to dump in this topic, just saying...

The new footage looks really cool, though, especially now when you gradually start getting the placeholders replaced :3
Ever heard of 💩💩💩💩posting? xD

But did you at least get the joke?

(for context, Gaston is a lazy reporter / DIYer that generally messes things up... like a mix between Garfield and Groucho Marx, I guess)
No, Gaston is an extremely strong and handsome guy from beaty and the beast

I really like the name Gaston in general even though that movie introduced me to the name. Such a nasty, cool sounding name I love it haha
I didn't use any special system, no. Just what's within GM and doing some smart programming with the backgrounds. Still have some more things to optimize with that though :)
Noice, great to see that GMS can handle such HD art without your own drawing pipeline, I never thought that was possible xD

And Gaston is a fine name, I just really like that Gaston song :p
 

kupo15

Member
You might be interested out the french/belgiumch (not sure about the origin) comic Gaston Lagaffe, then... that's what I associate the name with the most :p
yea I remember you showing this character in the old forum. Still funny how there is such a different personality trigger than the famous Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. That personality is of course the inspiration for our character and for some reason just saying the name Gaston sounds very visceral. Especially if you emphasize the crap out of "st" part. Though funny enough lots of new people who say his name pronounce it as Gas-ten instead of Gas-tahn! Is that the pronunciation of your cartoon character?

Noice, great to see that GMS can handle such HD art without your own drawing pipeline, I never thought that was possible xD

And Gaston is a fine name, I just really like that Gaston song :p
You mean this sound? :p
https://soundcloud.com/matthewlemmel/gaston-orchestration-exercise

I love it too I decided to orchestrate it myself for fun!

Also here are some more matches I recorded. This time I'm playing in them against the most experienced player who picked it up. These matches are much faster and exciting than the first ones I showed off. I am not playing as Ninja btw


 

kupo15

Member
Showing off some new quick and rough animations and overall progress. Just blocking things out and continuing to focus on replacing all the prototype stuff for now and things are coming along well! Hard to show off things with just me recording but should give a good idea so far!
 
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Conbeef

Member
*bump*
hey guy, its been awhile. I'm hoping everything is well with you. as I was looking through games to play my mind went straight on this game. Is it still in development?
 
WOW! Looks amazing, eye-candy for my eyeballs. The foreground and background planes move much more naturally in the new camera version, good work!
 

JackTurbo

Member
Parallax zooming is sweet! Great implementation too.

Rising Spirit is consistently one of the most interesting and impressive GM projects around!

Is the project fully ported over to GMS2 now? If so how is that going?
 

kupo15

Member
Thanks for the amazing feedback everyone! :)

Technically, old one is the better zoom. The new one isn't a zoom at all - it's moving the camera forward! Perspective! Hohoho. ;D

New system is way better, though, obviously. Looks great!:D
Haha I guess you are right, technically now its looking like a camera movement but simulated via image scaling effects offsetting the actual camera zoom. Thanks man, looking at the sun get huge in the first one looks just atrocious now haha :D Does the sun actually get bigger when you zoom in via a camera? I guess it probably does...?

Parallax zooming is sweet! Great implementation too.

Rising Spirit is consistently one of the most interesting and impressive GM projects around!

Is the project fully ported over to GMS2 now? If so how is that going?
Thank you, Jackturbo! Yes I'm happy to say the game is fully transitioned over to 2.0 as of a couple of weeks ago! Had to update the joystick to gamepad and use the new camera system but the transition went surprisingly smooth and I'm so glad I made the switch, so much better after adjusting to it!
 
Haha I guess you are right, technically now its looking like a camera movement but simulated via image scaling effects offsetting the actual camera zoom. Thanks man, looking at the sun get huge in the first one looks just atrocious now haha :D Does the sun actually get bigger when you zoom in via a camera? I guess it probably does...?
The sun does get bigger when zooming with a camera, yeah. That's why movies actually use zooms *and* pans, even though our eyes don't have the ability to zoom - they give different effects, and zooms can actually look cool in certain situations. Everyone knows the famous "two ninjas fighting on a roof in front of a huge moon" kind of scene, right? That's only possible in real life with a zoomed in camera, telescope, eagle's eye, etc. =D

With that in mind, the first might almost be more cinematic than the second... because physical cameras don't have the power to pan so quickly, zoom has been used for years instead.... only with the advent of cg and green screens have we seen intense (impossible for physical cameras) pans happening.

One option you could try to see how it feels - keep the parallax zooming of the new one, but tone it down 80%-90%. This would make it feel much more like a traditional movie camera, would lessen extreme movement of the background (might be better for gameplay), and it would still give a good sense of the level being 3D. It might turn out that what you have now looks better, since it does look great, but just an idea for you. When I see something that looks great, I can't help trying to think of ways to maybe make them even better. Good thought exercise, haha.
 
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kupo15

Member
The sun does get bigger when zooming with a camera, yeah. That's why movies actually use zooms *and* pans, even though our eyes don't have the ability to zoom - they give different effects, and zooms can actually look cool in certain situations. Everyone knows the famous "two ninjas fighting on a roof in front of a huge moon" kind of scene, right? That's only possible in real life with a zoomed in camera, telescope, eagle's eye, etc. =D
Cool, might be worth it to re-add in that zoom functionality so I have both at my disposal for cutscenes and the like. Then I can be really cool and do the vertigo effect like OOT did if I wanted! !=D
 

kupo15

Member
This is looking amazing! Keep it up.
Thank you! :)
With that in mind, the first might almost be more cinematic than the second... because physical cameras don't have the power to pan so quickly, zoom has been used for years instead.... only with the advent of cg and green screens have we seen intense (impossible for physical cameras) pans happening.

One option you could try to see how it feels - keep the parallax zooming of the new one, but tone it down 80%-90%. This would make it feel much more like a traditional movie camera, would lessen extreme movement of the background (might be better for gameplay), and it would still give a good sense of the level being 3D. It might turn out that what you have now looks better, since it does look great, but just an idea for you. When I see something that looks great, I can't help trying to think of ways to maybe make them even better. Good thought exercise, haha.
Hm that's definitely an interesting idea. So cinematic cameras on the big booms and dolly incorporate zoom in with their movement shots? That certainly makes sense. Is your suggestion to try having 80%-90% be handled by the zoom and the rest handled by the new z motion or the other way around?

So interesting that I never thought to notice the differences between zooms and pans in for movies. How do 3d games handle it these days? Are they doing 100% movement like this for their gameplay or are they mixing it up? The one camera I really like is the Smash Melee camera, I don't think they use zoom but now I'm not sure. I think the sliding scale between zoom>movement goes (zoom) more cinematic> (zmovement) more dynamic

Now I want to look back on the classics like oot and sm64 to see what they did!

*bump*
hey guy, its been awhile. I'm hoping everything is well with you. as I was looking through games to play my mind went straight on this game. Is it still in development?
Hey so sorry I was looking back and somehow missed your post! Things are still going well and still are in development :)
 
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Ha! I was actually thinking about Melee, too. It's a camera I like, too. It's not a perfect comparison though, because that game is rendered completely in 3D. The camera moves in that game, no zooming.

My suggestion was to tone down the new effect by 80% or so. Basically, move the planes much closer together... have the movement be 80% normal (old) zooming in, and 20% "forward movement" (new). I suggested this because the new effect is extremely powerful and dynamic looking...I was wondering if a "less is more" approach might look even better. Because your game isn't pure 3D like Melee, the extreme and fast camera movement of the new system really highlights that each plane in your scene is 2D. I thought toning down the panning to a very small amount and using mostly zoom instead would mitigate the negative effects ("these planes are so 2D" and *maybe* "this movement is confusing to gameplay") while still giving you the positives of your new system: "holy 💩💩💩💩, this looks cool and dynamic, and the scene is 3D!"

That was my intuition when I saw it, anyway. I could be wrong, of course. My suggestion might just lead to "wow, all the planes on this scene are really close together. This looks so fake and terrible!"

No way to know without trying it out, though, so I figured I'd throw the suggestion out there, haha. X'D
 

kupo15

Member
Ha! I was actually thinking about Melee, too. It's a camera I like, too.
Haha that's awesome we thought the same. Such an amazing camera! :)

My suggestion was to tone down the new effect by 80% or so. Basically, move the planes much closer together... have the movement be 80% normal (old) zooming in, and 20% "forward movement" (new).
Funny you mention that because after I implemented the new system I realized the mountain island in the middle moved way too much and it didn't look right so I had to move them closer together. I also moved them even closer after those gifs were made actually.

I briefly tested this out and there may be some merit to your idea that maybe taking the edge off of the zmovement would blend things a bit better. I don't think 80%, maybe 40% but I have a feeling that if any blending is to occur it would be based on the stage. A heavily layered forest for example I think would benefit much more with the full blast of the new motion than perhaps the stage I showed above where things are much more open. Its something to look into so thanks for the suggestion! :)

For example here is the new system at 60% with 40% old zoom (the gif is running a little bit fast)


I still don't like how the sun gets bigger so much. At least now I don't think its as atrocious looking after talking with you and realizing the technique behind zooming.

I also think that perhaps it looks so dramatic and dynamic because I'm going to max zoom from min zoom which will never happen in the game. The video link from before shows a little bit of more normal zoom
 
I'm curious about your input system. Does the game support complex button sequence combos like Street Fighter? If so, how are you handling that? Can you give me a high level run down of how you track inputs and check for specific sequences?
 

kupo15

Member
I'm curious about your input system. Does the game support complex button sequence combos like Street Fighter? If so, how are you handling that? Can you give me a high level run down of how you track inputs and check for specific sequences?
Yes it does! Its actually a very simple system. I simply assign a number value to each direction and when you press that direction you add that number to a ds_list. Then you read off that list converting it to a single number via *10 (3,4,5 would be 5*1+4*10+3*100=345) Then you compare and say if input = 345 you performed a quarter circle or whatever motion you assigned those numbers to
 
Yes it does! Its actually a very simple system. I simply assign a number value to each direction and when you press that direction you add that number to a ds_list. Then you read off that list converting it to a single number via *10 (3,4,5 would be 5*1+4*10+3*100=345) Then you compare and say if input = 345 you performed a quarter circle or whatever motion you assigned those numbers to
That's an interesting approach. Does it support things like holding a direction (like Guile's flash kick) or multi button combination like forward + PK or something like that? What if the player has accidental inputs, like for an uppercut they do: 6,2,3,6+P?

I've been messing with a fighting game input system where I record the entire state of the controller as a single bitmask value, but didn't get as far as defining move lists and checking for specific combos.
 

kupo15

Member
That's an interesting approach. Does it support things like holding a direction (like Guile's flash kick) or multi button combination like forward + PK or something like that? What if the player has accidental inputs, like for an uppercut they do: 6,2,3,6+P?

I've been messing with a fighting game input system where I record the entire state of the controller as a single bitmask value, but didn't get as far as defining move lists and checking for specific combos.
Thanks! Nope it doesn't do any of that on its own. It simply handles multiple direction inputs and spits out a number to check as a condition. If you want to do any of the other things you asked simply combine it with the other systems you build to handle those parts

if backcharge && (input = 345) // flashkick
if (input = 345) && punch && kick
if (input = 345) || (input = 6345) // accidental inputs

think of accidental inputs as alternate inputs. If either of those inputs occur do this one action
 

kupo15

Member
Happy to show off that we are starting work on Kira to get another fighter in the mix! I intend on having more frequent updates with her, the next one will have more attacks and semi combat to show off :D

Also this video was uploaded to a dedicated Rising Spirit Youtube channel, if your interested in subscribing to it that would be great!

 
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M

Mionad

Guest
Hope it goes well. Making the art, animations and coding takes a long time and should be rewarded greatly.
 
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