INFR1330U - 100830528_M.Williams

Fighting Games are too Hard

After I had finished an Alpha of a previous project named "Draida", I had asked some of my friends to play it. I remember, every time one of them would download the game and ask me "What are my moves?" I would say "Quarter-Circle Back Heavy" to do a Dragon Punch. They would quickly reply... What?? In my opinion, this is one of the main issues with fighting games.

Fighting Game notations and command lists are very intimidating, especially for newer players. Some games like the newest Street Fighter (Street Fighter 6) have attempted a solution called "Modern Controls". These controls allow a player to perform a special move by simply holding a direction and pressing a new "Special Button".

This short Tik-Tok hopefully gives some context behind Classic controls vs. Modern Controls. Performing these motion inputs consistently require dexterity and hand-eye coordination you can only get from practice.
On the surface, this seems like a perfect solution. However, ever since the inclusion of these controls many long-time veterans have issues with them. A "Special Move" button undermines the work that these veteran players have put in.  Imagine spending hours in Training Mode Mastering a difficult input, only to see someone else do the same thing the press of one button. Understandably, this isn't the solution.

My attempt

When I decided to make another fighting game. One of the first things I did was figure out how I was going to make it easy for newcomers, while still keeping challenging gameplay for more experienced players. Thats when I initially though of a "Menu" system. 

In my game "Windam Blitz", special moves and movement options are performed by opening the required "menu" and selecting the desired option by using the arrow keys. This makes the game less about if you can perform a special move or not, and puts more emphasis on reacting to your opponents options or "footsies".