Since we've been making more use of videos lately, we've decided to start sharing music from the first Bijoux Red Prologue with everyone via Youtube. We're going to be uploading all of the Bijoux Red music on Youtube piece by piece, starting with these four tracks, which will all be featured in the first few hours of gameplay.
Don't Look Back! Player Mission Theme - The newest soundtrack offering, this piece is heard when the player takes their turn during mission sequences.
A Secret, The Searing Wind, Tall Grass Freegrove Theme - This is the theme of Freegrove, a desolate field of tall grass and unyielding sun. This is the first area players will explore in Bijoux Red.
Red Fox Underneath The Blazing Sun (Ander's Theme) Ander's Theme - The first world map theme, and Ander's theme.
Show Me How! Tutorial Theme - This theme plays while the player learns how to fight and how to control units during missions.
We're going to start taking a more active interest in uploading videos by sharing work-in-progress footage of the Prototype Combat system. Of course, everything we post is subject to change until the game is actually made available, but we figured it would be more exciting to actually see the game in action!
Units in combat build Drive while fighting. Drive is required to use special Techniques in combat and is essential to performing the most devastating attacks available.
There are four levels of Technique made available to units at first, with the mysterious OverDrive Techniques becoming available later. The correct number of filled 'Drive Bars' are required to perform Techniques of the corresponding levels. Predictably, the strongest Techniques consume the largest amounts of Drive and are capable of inflicting significant damage.
Ander's 'Shining Slice' is a strong and dependable attack that harnesses the beaming sunlight through the blade of his dagger.
'Sunburst Crush' is incredibly effective at interrupting enemy attacks.
Try as they might, enemies can't evade Ander's 'Fire Wave' attack.
Channeled through Ander, the power of the Sun is used to deliver an array of condensed solar rays in the form of an attack. 'Solar Spear' can be used to wear down enemy defenses but is best used on unsuspecting foes who leave their guard down.
Ander's 'Solar Cannon' and 'White Haze' will also feature as unlockable abilities early in the game. All of these abilities will be available in the first prologue chapter of Bijoux Red.
Because every action performed in combat consumes stamina in the form of SP, it doesn't take long for some units to run out of energy. Although SP does regenerate passively over time, idling around with an empty stamina gauge and waiting for it to fill can be rather dangerous.
Without SP, you don't have many options in combat. Fortunately, Charge abilities, like Charge Boost and Booster Alpha, will help you regain your stamina in no time.
Charge abilities are activated by holding down the mouse button over a prompt that appears. Once a Charge is activated, removing the mouse button will end the effect. Charge abilities allow units to regenerate SP quickly in combat, but sometimes have additional effects, such as draining a unit's Break Gauge. Units can not react while charging, so this state tends to leave them vulnerable to damage. Receiving enough damage while charging will knock a unit out of their Charge State.
Stronger units will have access to greater Charge abilities. While the most basic 'Charge Boost' will help units regain their SP quickly, the more effective 'Booster Alpha' will allow units to build an even larger store of additional SP. This effect of building additional SP is called Double Charge.
Once units have restored their SP using a stronger Charge ability, they may begin to build additional SP in the form of a second SP gauge, effectively allowing them to double their overall available SP. Entering Double Charge requires the use of part of a unit's Drive Gauge.
With so much SP at your disposal, you might feel encouraged to start throwing around some of the more expensive and powerful techniques.
Stronger Charge abilities can break past even the 'Double Charge' point, reaching a hidden technique called 'Over Charge'. While we've decided to omit the details of 'Over Charge' for the combat prototype, the best way I can think of describing it is to imagine what happens to the Super Saiyans of the Dragon Ball world. Most units with Over Charge techniques will have unique abilities and status bonuses associated with their Over Charge - the most common Over Charge bonus will include access to an infinite SP gauge for a limited period of time. Well, details for another time I guess.
During combat, units have the ability to React to enemy attacks. The most basic Reaction Ability, and the first ability that most units will learn, is Defense. Reacting with Defense at the right time will reduce the amount of damage received from attacks.
Before enemies successfully execute an attack, a React prompt will appear on screen. The timing of the React prompt is based on which Reaction Ability the unit has equipped. Some Reactions, such as Parry for example, can only be used while attacking.
Less damage is received while Defending.
Defenses wear thin over time. As units defend multiple attacks, their Break Gauge will begin to sharply increase. Maxing out an enemy's Break Gauge will inflict Defense Break - a condition that leaves a unit stunned and vulnerable to damage.
Overwhelming enemies with lots of small attacks is a great way to increase their Break Gauge. As a unit's Break Gauge will drain naturally over time while not being attacked, hitting your enemy with frequent small attacks will also keep your enemy's Break Gauge from depleting too quickly, creating more opportunities to inflict Defense Break.
When an enemy's defense is broken, attacks deal a greater amount of damage. This critical damage is indicated by the red numbers displaying the amount of damage inflicted. The screen also flashes whenever critical damage is inflicted.
When hit with a Defense Break, the afflicted unit is Stunned. They can't perform any actions, nor can they respond to enemy attacks. All attacks deal critical damage to Stunned units.
Certain attacks, like the multiple-hitting Triple Combo, are more effective when used against a Stunned opponent. This is a great opportunity to attack opponents with punishing moves that might otherwise consume a lot of resources or require a lot of time to execute.
You might notice in that last screenshot that this Freelancer has -3 HP. Their is no end condition to combat at the moment - in the current build of the Prototype, HP just keeps draining past 0 as more damage accumulates.
Because a lot is happening in combat, one of the toughest parts of designing the in-game HUD was deciding how to arrange information in such a way that the most relevant information would be easily visible - while maintaining that other less essential information would still be accessible.
I decided to keep things compact so that the player's eyes wouldn't have to wander around so much when looking for important information. Also, because we want to experiment with camera controls and generally larger sprites (an idea we got while playing SNK's NEO-GEO versions of The Art of Fighting), we thought the the HUD should take up as little room as possible.
As you can tell, certain information is more highly visible, with coloured gauges representing the most vital and relevant combat stats, such as HP and SP. Following those integral combat elements are other stats with more contextual importance that the player will be able to reference as needed during battle.
The Breakdown...
1 - Unit Name - The name of the unit currently in combat. 2 - HP - When a unit's hit points, or HP, reaches zero, that unit has been defeated. 3 - SP - Performing actions in combat drains SP. SP is the currency of battle in Bijoux Red. 4 - Drive - Drive is required to use Techniques. Four different levels of Techniques can be acquired for use in combat. 5 - Impulse - A passive gauge that is constantly regenerating. Once the Impulse Gauge is full, the Command Menu will open, allowing players to perform attacks and other actions. In turn, performing actions will drain the Impulse Gauge. Some actions don't require the player to have a full Impulse Gauge to execute, such as certain Evasion and Defense abilities. 6 - Avatar - The unit's portrait. Generic units don't receive a unique portrait. 7 - Threat Level - Numeric representation of the unit's natural fighting abilities. Threat Level can change during combat as units unleash powerful techniques and exchange blows. A higher Threat Level typically yields a higher damage output, as well as other passive bonuses. 8 - Break Gauge - Constantly defending attacks builds a unit's Break Gauge. When the unit's Break Gauge fills completely, the unit suffers 'Defense Break' and is rendered completely vulnerable to enemy attacks. The unit will be unable to move until the Break Gauge drains completely.
9 - Fighter Grade - A grade given to units representing their skill level in combat. The attacks and techniques of a unit with a high Fighter Grade are generally more effective in combat, especially when fighting against units of a lower Fighter Grade. Both Fighter Grade and Threat Level must be considered when gauging your chances of survival in combat. Fighter Grade is always reassessed at the end of combat based on that unit's average combat performance over the last few battles.
When we decided to do a complete style makeover for Bijoux Red, we also decided to redo the entire game from the ground up. The programming and the combat style for Bijoux Red's ARC Combat System have been completely redone to maintain the same spirit of fast-paced menu-based combat while being more intuitive and user-friendly.
What we're working on at the moment is a stand-alone Prototype Combat program that we'll be using for testing and tweaking while we build the world map, world menus and mission portions of the main game.
Below is a brief overview of some combat basics as they're being developed.
Units engaged in combat do battle in the Combat Screen. Units initiate combat from the main map by interacting with adjacent units, similar to other tactical RPGs.
When units are ready to act, the Command Menu will appear. Players will be able to select from an assortment of attacks and abilities equipped to that unit for use in combat.
Executing attacks successfully will inflict damage to enemies.
Players will sometimes be prompted to React to their opponent's attacks. Reacting successfully could help mitigate damage, or to avoid harm entirely.
As units grow, earning greater attributes and combat abilities, more combat options will become available to the player. Techniques, Defense Breaking, Chain Attacks and more will encourage players to take advantage of the variety of units in their army, creating a strong and versatile team.
The main focus of the new game design has been centered around ease of use. Bijoux Red's ARC Combat System is meant to be a versatile combat system that will give the player a large number of choices in battle. What we've learned that this means however is that players will become easily overwhelmed by the breadth of their options. By keeping actions contextual and giving the player more room to think, the streamlined Prototype Combat program is quickly growing into the type of combat system that we'd originally envisioned.
For every day this week, there will be a post on Prototype Combat - which will give us a chance to explore our progress, and to reflect on our current work.
Anybody interested in seeing what the original ARC Combat Prototype was like can find it here. The demo is still available online. Because it's so different from the direction we're headed in now, I'm not sure whether or not to remove it from the site entirely.
