What Makes Up A Good Fighting Game?

[Ongokiller50]

Hi , I been recently developing a fighting game . Then I started wondering what kind of mechanics should I include in this game.
I don't want my game to be a copy of another one, but would still would like to know what people like in their fighting games and more than general game mechanics and What Makes Up A Good Fighting Game?

[SpeedoSausage]

At 8/16/12 04:33 AM, Ongokiller50 wrote: Hi , I been recently developing a fighting game . Then I started wondering what kind of mechanics should I include in this game.
I don't want my game to be a copy of another one, but would still would like to know what people like in their fighting games and more than general game mechanics and What Makes Up A Good Fighting Game?

Big, seizure-inducing special moves, unique character design and cheap-ass final bosses.

[Wavepad]

At 8/16/12 04:33 AM, Ongokiller50 wrote: Hi , I been recently developing a fighting game . Then I started wondering what kind of mechanics should I include in this game.
I don't want my game to be a copy of another one, but would still would like to know what people like in their fighting games and more than general game mechanics and What Makes Up A Good Fighting Game?

Blood,Gore,Special Moves,Final Special moves,Unique character looks,Cool Character Select.

[Quinny]

Ridiculous special attacks and dumb, well endowed female characters with the tiniest outfits imaginable.

[TheMajormel]

-Frame data
-accurate hitboxes
- a really good mechanic
- recoveries
-counters
- a really good community (no I don't mean only online, every fighting game, local or not has a good community.)
-BALANCE,BALANCE,BALANCE. Don't make a character overpowered (if it's a boss fine, but if that boss is unlockable, he shouldn't be so over powered) Balance MAKES a fighting game great.

[Freaki-boy92]

interesting characters
energetic music that kinda gets you pumped up for a fight
accurate hit detection
balance
impressive moves
varied movesets

[kiljoy96]

Responsive controls
Good hitboxes
fluid combos that feel good to hit
balanced characters/moves
the ability to do juggle combos but also an ability to get out of being juggled
and not juggle combos that you can do until they die, they have to be limited
MK9 did a good job on that.

[II2none]

Oh snap the man behind one of the best fighters on NG!

Character individuality and balance

The moves are interesting to look at.

local & online multiplayer

Reasonable special moves/transformations.

No gimmicks with the fight mechanics (lookin at you Brawl) victory should really on pure skill not because the game decides it hates you.

[Ongokiller50]

thanks guys , I understand all of you.
quick question.
How do you know if someone is balanced?
Are there rules I need to follow when creating a balanced character if so what are they?
I see alot of fighting games have a "Tier list" for characters , is this a rank for characters in the game on its own?

[Gobblemeister]

At 8/16/12 03:03 PM, Ongokiller50 wrote: thanks guys , I understand all of you.
quick question.
How do you know if someone is balanced?
Are there rules I need to follow when creating a balanced character if so what are they?
I see alot of fighting games have a "Tier list" for characters , is this a rank for characters in the game on its own?

Character balance in fighting games comes down to answers. If a character can do this or that, then for it to be balanced every character needs to have an answer for it. A game is unbalanced when a character has abilities that are so strong that some characters cannot escape them without great difficulty or, in games that have it, wasting a lot of meter. Balance in a fighting game is about making everyone different but ensuring that everyone has an answer for everyone. It can be more difficult for one character to answer another but as long as it is possible then people will work until they can do it. This is what makes games like Street Fighter so much better than the standard fare in fighting games, the balance is almost perfect.

[Ongokiller50]

Wow, Gobblemeister that really help me alot. Thanks dude!

[dmansland]

For balance, I suggest having other people play as well. You won't be able to find everything that is too good or needs to be improved. But don't be discouraged if there are a few things that seem that way, its impossible to achieve perfect balance unless every character is the same, and if they are the game would just be boring as it won't matter who you choose.

[DarkShadowblade]

lol @ Street Fighter being balanced Yun and Yang were intentionally made to be overpowered as stated by Ono.

That being said, it's not as unbalanced like the likes of Ultimate Marvel vs Randomness:Fate of two Scrubs.

What makes a good fighting game is all of this

-Accurate Frame Data and Details in Fighting designs and mechanics. Every move should have specific data and be somewhat detailed. The fighting needs to be robust, mobile and have mechanics that add to the gameplay without detracting from a show of player skill/ actual gameplay.

-Balance. It's impossible for every character be on equal footing as one another. However balance lies in the fact that every character should be able to have an answer for their opponent and vice-versa. On a grander scale, balance allows two opponents to test their skills on equal footing. Balance is usually represented by a Tier list, however a tier list is examplified by Balance by how small or large the GAP in the tier lists are. For example, in a game like Marvel vs Capcom, the gap within the tiers are extremely large with someone like Vergil being on a completely different level than someone like Arthur (being one of the worst characters in the game).

Responsive button inputs and Robust Innovative Mechanics. A Fighter needs responsive button inputs so that a player can 100% of the time input whateverso he chooses in any given situation.A combo system isn't always necessary (Street Fighter didn't have one originally), however that didn't mean it didn't have responsive button inputs. Responsive Button Inputs allow a Player full reign over his/her character and allows that to use said character to their best potential. Responsive Button inputs also can evolve into allowing combos, which falls under a robust mechanic. A Fighter must have stable mechanics which equalize the gameplay for all those involved without loosing the intrest of players.

-Interesting Characters who are different from one another. A Fighter needs different characters to garner intrests of said player and allow said player to play whoever matches his playstyle. It offers individuality and leads to more diversity within the game. A game without interesting characters will not survive. Within said interesting characters must lie different movesets for each and different individual moves for them as well.

A tier list is a theoretical list that ranks each characters matchups and strengths against others when both are played at full potential by two equal players. Usually a tier list shows which character has the best matchups, and which character has the worst.

[yanaikillerex]

Blood may help..
Mostly the gameplay style better be easy to controll and contain many difficulty levels.

[Gobblemeister]

At 8/16/12 09:23 PM, DarkShadowblade wrote: lol @ Street Fighter being balanced Yun and Yang were intentionally made to be overpowered as stated by Ono.

I figure that was just a stunt to sell AE to scrubs who wanted to win without the effort. They've taken huge hits since and the game is much more open. Akuma is still a bit much but as a Zangief player I find I might be biased.

[orangebomb]

There are so many mechanics and other things that go into a good fighting game that people have already mentioned, but what I've found on any good fighting game, {be it a flash game here or on a video game} are the following:

Tight & responsive controls is a must, especially if you want to pull off big combos or special moves. Clunky controls can make a huge difference between making said fighting game GOTY consideration and utter crap.

Competitive balance between fighters is also a big thing, let's use BlazBlue as an example. Ragna is one of those characters who can dish out huge damage with an ability to gain some health back with most moves and is relatively fast, but is pretty bad when it comes to defense. On the other hand, Tager is ultra-powerful at short range and has the best defense in the game, but is slow as hell. {at least in his regular form.} That probably isn't the best example, but I think you get my drift.

Having unique characters/storylines can make a fighting game stand out, considering that a lot of them tend to copy off Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or to a lesser extent Samurai Shodown, with mixed results. While there isn't a glut of fighting games now compared to the early 90's, it still doesn't hurt to make a fighting game stand out from the rest, especially if you can attach a half-decent story or have dynamic characters that you either love or hate.

There are a bunch of others as well, but those are largely either window dressing, or go with one of those 3 things I've already mentioned in some way.

[Chdonga]

A large roster full of unique, unlockable characters.
Some iota of a plot would be nice, but any cookie cutter plot could work.

[Ongokiller50]

That's where I was targeting for game series Combat Tournament (unique characters/Tight & responsive controls/ make the game stand out for it self/stuff no other fighting games done). One of the reasons why I didnt put the gameplay something like street fighter (player 1 hp/special on the left , player 2 hp/special on right , 2 people fight only) in part one is because it already been made like 500 times, and there isn't nothing special in there already. So I put it side scroll up to 8 players in one room. I know it sounds like more like a brawler but I was not aimming for that. You can play the latest combat tournament on my profile .
I feel like I did a horrible job on character balancing but then again its good Competitive balance at the same time , and doesn't take much skill to do crazy long creative combos( because I want players to do exactly what they want them to do).
I tried making the player "think fast" as they fight through a match. Hard mode really test on this. I think I did a good job there.

Quick Question , Do you find Skilled Based Button Commands more fun to you or not?

(example what I mean: timing the attack correctly to do a link combo in street fighter or (DOWN ,front , Attack) to do a simple move or just button mash it.)

[sweet21]

At 8/16/12 03:38 PM, Gobblemeister wrote: This is what makes games like Street Fighter so much better than the standard fare in fighting games, the balance is almost perfect.

Unless you're fighting fucking vega.
Also OP aside from balance another important thing to include is combos, things like air combos, ground/wall bounces, well maybe not wall bounces, but the ability to create hit strings longer than two hits.

Also don't fall victim to the gaming sin that is fighting game bosses. Nobody has been able to make a fighting game boss without making them complete fucking assholes.

[Ragnarokia]

Balanced fun characters and arenas.

[II2none]

At 8/17/12 01:16 AM, Ongokiller50 wrote:

(example what I mean: timing the attack correctly to do a link combo in street fighter or (DOWN ,front , Attack) to do a simple move or just button mash it.)

Being more of a fan of brawlers and obscure fighters like Smash Brothers and of course Dragon Ball Z fighters I prefer the brawler style you have currently have it's unbalanced in a good way and just great chaotic fun. The only thing that you should do is input a more solid dodging mechanic to avoid getting spammed by 8 other cpu's with one-hit specials at the ready after the player just respawned.

[DoctorStrongbad]

I like shooting fireballs or throwing objects.

[Ongokiller50]

At 8/17/12 02:42 PM, II2none wrote:

At 8/17/12 01:16 AM, Ongokiller50 wrote:

(example what I mean: timing the attack correctly to do a link combo in street fighter or (DOWN ,front , Attack) to do a simple move or just button mash it.)

Being more of a fan of brawlers and obscure fighters like Smash Brothers and of course Dragon Ball Z fighters I prefer the brawler style you have currently have it's unbalanced in a good way and just great chaotic fun. The only thing that you should do is input a more solid dodging mechanic to avoid getting spammed by 8 other cpu's with one-hit specials at the ready after the player just respawned.

Yea , but thats the thing I dont like on what I currently have. You dont need no skills to do them crazy combos, Just button mash it all the way. It gets boring real quick. U can already do everything all the moves on that character. The game was men't be balanced and epic at the same time. To me skilled based commands adds another layer of fun to any fighting game.
Because your figuring out what he/she can do , when where and why.
I will improve Dodging/Blocking Mechanics in the new one. Thanks for the heads up .

[II2none]

At 8/17/12 04:36 PM, Ongokiller50 wrote:

Yea , but thats the thing I dont like on what I currently have. You dont need no skills to do them crazy combos, Just button mash it all the way. It gets boring real quick. U can already do everything all the moves on that character. The game was men't be balanced and epic at the same time. To me skilled based commands adds another layer of fun to any fighting game.
Because your figuring out what he/she can do , when where and why.
I will improve Dodging/Blocking Mechanics in the new one. Thanks for the heads up .

Cool I look forward to the change it'll give the game more depth. Juststating how much I like your brawlers regardless of how deep the combo system is.

[f12guy]

i would have to say Balance there has to be no Cheap or over powered Character that would just destroy anyone

[DarkShadowblade]

At 8/16/12 10:51 PM, Gobblemeister wrote:

At 8/16/12 09:23 PM, DarkShadowblade wrote: lol @ Street Fighter being balanced Yun and Yang were intentionally made to be overpowered as stated by Ono.

I figure that was just a stunt to sell AE to scrubs who wanted to win without the effort. They've taken huge hits since and the game is much more open. Akuma is still a bit much but as a Zangief player I find I might be biased.

Yun and Yang were pretty much OP until AE 2012 where they both got nerfed to high hell. Akuma's pretty high up there tier wise, however he has a huge execution barrier (not as large as vipers though), that requires you to know when to buffer his ultra.

He's pretty good due to the fact that, when your fighting a competant akuma player, you can't press buttons against them unless you want to get Raging Demon'd, and Akuma plays both the horizontal and vertical plane really well.

Unfortunately, I don't play much street Fighter, I played C.Viper up until AE 2012, went to Juri then Switched my focus to Blazblue where I main Carl.

[SneakyGameBoy]

Lets see...

1. Overly drawn anime characters

2. Over 1000 combos and specials for each character

3. Cheap backgrounds

4. All female characters should have huge boobs and bouncing boobs animations everytime they move.

5. Final boss should be ridiculously hard

And you got yourself a good fighting game.

[BoredLooney]

At 8/17/12 01:54 AM, sweet21 wrote: Also don't fall victim to the gaming sin that is fighting game bosses. Nobody has been able to make a fighting game boss without making them complete fucking assholes.

does that include super smash bros brawl?

[BloodCoveredWolf]

Blood, gore, charaters, moves, and how Brutal it is

[The-Psycho-Ragdoller]

A good, lengthy story for each character, or just on big story, preferably featuring all (or as many) characters as you can fit in without messing it up. Having move sets that are a challenge to master, but not too hard. Don't make the buttons used for playing stand for a different symbol in-game (like how Soul Calibur 5 uses Square as 'A', Triangle as 'B' and Circle as 'K' for who knows why). Don't make every character play the same, make sure their attacks deal the correct amount of damage. A default round should be between 3-5 minutes, but not too many scenes should be shown within each character victory screen, it gets old and annoying later on. An arcade mode, preferably with individual character endings non-canonical to the main story. Stages that are alive and sometimes interact with the player (Kung Fu Khaos). A training mode that guides you through each characters moves, even letting you view the combo before you try to execute it (like in Tekken 5). Online features, like regular player/rank matches, tag team mode, 2v2 tag team mode, "Scramble" mode (I guess like Street Fighter X Tekken) and a tournament mode. Also spectator mode and no laggy multi-player or online passes.