itch.io

Found a QoL issue; I did a 100+ streak in survival mode, but when I finished playing I used the pause menu to exit instead of letting myself get beaten.  As a result, the game never submitted any of my scores :C

Idea vomit and feature-creep:
-Sprite damage.  The nose, left/right eye and cheek could update with scuffs/swelling according to where the damage has been concentrated during the fight.  Arm bruising too if blocks are being abused.  This can be expanded to the torso with the addition of lows, or the jaw for uppers.  It would be a nice visual cue for players to focus their defense and attack respectively. [The following ideas go together.  Sorry for the length.] -Hold ducks / low punches.  I've mentioned this one before.  Admittedly it's tough to do with minimal inputs and touch compatible controls.  I actually gave this a fair amount of thought, and wondered if instead of having a block button and duck button, you could instead have a standing block and a ducking block, and then have punches aimed at whichever zone you most recently blocked in.  This removes the need to toggle stances, so quick ducks would still be possible.  The duck button then becomes extremely versatile.  Tap it once to dodge highs and change aim, hold it to block lows, let it go to start throwing lows, and when you wanna punch high again you can do a high block?  IDK this one is really hard. -Context-sensitive aim.  I don't like the idea of repeatedly whiffing highs when the opponent stays ducked.  To combat duck spam, standing boxers could automatically punch down at ducked boxers after the initial dodge.
-Context-sensitive punch animations.  What if there were different animations for the punches depending on stances and aim?  For example instead of hooks, boxers throw straights aka crosses by default until the opponent is blocking, after which they throw hooks/uppers to try getting around the block.  Or when throwing hooks downward at a ducked boxer, it could instead do a body-upper motion.  This variety would create the illusion of more technical boxing without complicating actual gameplay.  It would make guard breaks more believable too.  The guard break animation could even change depending on what punch animation caused the break.

I'm so happy the update is finally here, and released one day before my birthday no less!  It looks great, and I'm even more eager for the easier tweaks to come as a result of the overhaul.  It looks like the core mechanics are kept mostly intact, and ducks feel faster to execute, but I noticed right away how much less responsive punches feel.  At first I thought it was intentional, but it's probably just buggy.  I guess that's inevitable with an update this big so don't get discouraged.  The new features are mostly great but a few of them missed me.  I was never a big fan of hit "sparks", but sweat and drool work well to the same effect.  I'll dump my full feedback below.

Bugs:
-When starting a match, my controls are disabled until I pause and unpause the game.  This can go for several rounds until I fix it.
-Even with music enabled, it will stop playing on the title screen if I do a match and return.
-The UI for the options menu will reflect selections inaccurately, i.e. they appear enabled when they are disabled.
-CPU vs CPU has like a 90% win rate for CPU 1.  CPU 2 seems to just guard most of the time.
-The input repeat speed is incredibly slow and inconsistent.  Whether using gamepad or keyboard, holding an input, mashing, or just trying to string together fast combos results in random, intermittent timings between repeat punches.  The game takes too long to register my actions and leaves my defenses open.  With such brief windows of opportunity, the inputs should be precisely timed, especially to take advantage of guard breaks.  I wouldn't mind a single action per input though, as long as it's honest and responsive.

[edit] I hadn't realized that the inputs were dropping because the opponent was blocking.  I'd like to be able to keep punching during their block without having to mash the input though.  That feature also makes the game drop my combos when I try to jab+hook.  It's frustrating and kinda feels like training wheels.  Any chance we can disable it in settings?
[re-edit] Actually the game just hates when I queue my next punch during the current one instead of waiting for the animation to finish. It's probably to prevent mashing, but there must be some compromise there.  I feel like I'm being punished for knowing what move I wanna do next. Feelsbadman.

Recommended tweaks:
-Context-sensitive action speed.  Repeat punches on the same arm should be slower than left/right combos.  Jab-into-hook should flow together nicely.  Whiffing a punch could add a slight delay to reward ducking and make it safer to do a follow up attack after a successful duck.
-Punch stamina, as mentioned by Treblegne.  This is more important than a guard meter IMO as it balances jab spam, whereas block spam is already punishable with chip damage.  But to simplify, it could be a generalized stamina bar which is affected by blocking punches as well as throwing them.  Maybe ducking also, idk.  Maybe use stamina instead of action speed to balance mashing.  Or both!

Thanks for all the care you put into this game so far!  It's shaping up nicely.  I'll save the rest of my input for another post below, as it's just my pipe dreams and I don't want to overwhelm/discourage you with expectations.

Maybe I was slightly misunderstood, but I very much DON'T want the block input removed.  My thought was that ducking is already an inherently defensive "move", so blocking while ducking would be redundant, but while standing it takes more effort.  This is how it is in real boxing too, if you're standing upright, you must choose between defending your head or your midsection on the fly, but not while ducking and weaving since your center of gravity is low, and body is curled up and easily defensible, so long as you don't go on the offensive.  Turtling isn't a problem as long as there's a way to defeat it.

Part of why I love this game so much is because even in its simplicity it feels more real than many high budget boxing games.  There's no jank, no flashy fantasy effects, no tacky game mechanics, just a visceral and realistic 2D boxing match with a boxer that looks and moves like a boxer.

The multiplier is a cool idea that maybe you could add, but might warrent explanation as it would have a huge impact on gameplay without being mechanically obvious.  I think that spoils the simplicity more than lows would.

But on that note, lows could actually be really simple as you don't actually need to add a low block at all.  Duck could double as a low block (as long as a low punch isn't being thrown by the blocker.)  The ducking sprite already appears to be blocking face and body, so no double inputs required there.  You could also make it so standing without using block will automatically elbow-block body shots, but that would be slightly less intuitive.  Players would have to think less about specifically blocking a punch, and more about changing stances depending on which zone offensive and defensive play is most needed.  Either case punishes block spammers and rewards the long ducking animation handsomely.

The problem then becomes "why stand at all?"  Simple answer there too, head takes more damage than body, maybe with a multiplier for dodging.  Maybe a hit forces them to stand.  Whatever feels balanced and intuitive/simple.

Thanks for the game and the reply!

Great game.  Duck feels useless, block is op, but I like the simplicity.  I think it can be solved by allowing to hold duck, and throw body punches while ducking.  Defeats standing block and makes ducking useful without adding any inputs, and makes AI less predictable.