Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Animation Style

I want to munge a few things together:


  • "HD" graphics/art
    • stylized, sculpted characters






    • rendered out to 2D sprites

I'm thinking of a workflow similar to this: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97311#9

I'm going to start finalizing this look and feel tonight/tomorrow -- I see this thing as being clearly HD, sculpted, looking nice, but it will never feel like we're trying to 'fake' 3D. It will be obviously 2D, and I want to embrace that. Hence, this type of animation:

  • Classical animation principles + pixel art expressiveness
    • I want every animation to pop and to feel snappy and immediate
      • most sports games have floaty mushy mocap-looking stuff
      • I want this to feel like an arcade game
      • animation style will have more in common with fighting games
        • key poses are the most important!
          • legibility
    • Paul Robertson is the king of this kind of thing:

  • I want every animation to be as expressive and as minimal as possible
    • with every animation, we ask what's the fewest number of frames we can do this in?
    • what will make this pop?
    • what wil make it as legible as posible?
      • my nightmare is the mushy old 2D 16/32-bit Madden games
        • no no no no no
THINGS THAT WE LEARN FROM THAT ARE GOOD TO LEARN FROM:

Skullgirls @ GDC:
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020017/Animation-Bootcamp-Fluid-and-Powerful

King Of Fighters character animation gallery:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/gallery/character/index.php

They go over the workflow here:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/english/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/index.php

It's insane. I love it.








Thursday, May 8, 2014

Features

In App Purchases/microtransactions

  • Content
    • teams
      • base (free) game only comes with 5? 6? teams, we sell you the rest
    • coaches
      • each coach brings his own playcall style/playbook
      • spread offense guy/Chip Kelly
      • old school ground and pound guy/Vince Lombardi
      • option guy
      • run and shoot guy
      • etc
    • players
      • various players available to make your team better
      • variety of pros and cons
      • rookies have better physical stats, less intelligence
      • veterans have much more intelligence/savvy, less stamina/strength
      • maybe a middle group of average dudes? IDK, seems to muddy the water
    • uniforms
      • throwbacks, alternates, etc
  • Consumables
    • challenge/instant replay
      • a 'do over' for a play that didn't turn out as planned
    • audible
      • change the play at the line of scrimmage
    • others I'm not sure about
      • buffs for individual dudes
        • supercharge your kicker! etc
      • team-wide buff? don't really like this
      • item-based upgrades
        • stickier gloves for receivers
        • better cleats to run better in the rain/snow
        • cold weather gear
    • outright buying upgrade points for your team/dudes?
      • IDK
  • Expansions
    • Mutant League
    • obviously can't call it that, but it will be MLF in spirit
    • skeletons, robots, aliens, mad max dudes, orcs, etc
    • cratered, booby-trapped fields
    • death
    • as much of this stuff as we can cram in with mostly just a re-skin

Kicking

Pretty self-explanatory:



This will apply to Field Goals, Points After Touchdown, and kickoffs -- which will only consist of onside kicks. One of the things we need to figure out is how to turn onside kicks into something makes sense, looks/feels familiar, and has a high enough success rate to not automatically ruin players' games. Onside kicks will be HUGE in scenarios where players must come back from 2+ scores.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Controls/Player Movement

Basic Running

The ballcarrier always has a circular reticle just behind him. This is what the Player uses to move the ballcarrier.


The active player -- the ballcarrier -- is always moving forward. Think Temple Run/Canabalt.

This means that the Player only controls movement on the X axis:


If the Player tries to move the reticle up or down, it remains locked on the X axis. The reticle is basically a single-axis joystick that follows the ballcarrier around.



Reticle movement on the X axis modulates the ballcarrier's Y velocity:



The Player uses the reticle (plus the constant forward movement) to move the ballcarrier around the field:



The ballcarrier will react to sudden/quick motions with...sudden/quick movements (e.g. jukes, cuts, headfakes, et cetera):


This kind of stuff is all ability/statistic based (e.g. a player with low agility won't cut quickly, he'll just sort of eventually lumber towards the new direction, etc).

If touch input on the reticle is lost (Player removes finger from screen, moves vertically off of the reticle, et cetera), the reticle returns to the ballcarrier's on-screen position...


...where the ballcarrier will attempt to avoid defenders automatically:



MAYBE? I dunno, this part might be dumb. He might just run straight ahead into whatever is in front of him.

Option Plays

On most running plays, the QB will automatically hand off/pitch to the HB/FB. On option plays this is not the case -- an option play is one where the QB has the option to either hand off/pitch or keep it himself:


Here's an in-game example:




There are several permutations of the option concept, but this is the most commonly seen today.

In-game, this is what the Player will see:



If the QB hands off, the RB is now the ballcarrier, and is controlled by the Player. If the QB keeps the ball, he is controlled by the player.

Passing


Passing expands on the option concept by adding multiple potential receivers into the mix.

First off, on a pass play, the camera zooms out:




This gives a bit more room to see what's going on downfield. It also gives the QB interface some breathing room.
Each receiver is assigned a color icon; each of these icons corresponds to one of the QB's passing icons:





To pass to a specific receiver, the Player touches that specific color icon, and pulls back:



This is pretty simple: it's Angry Birds meets Madden: the longer/further the player pulls back, the harder the QB will ultimately throw the ball. A short, gentle flick will result in a softer throw. This affects the trajectory of the ball as well (a flatter, lower trajectory vs. a higher arc).

Extreme cases magnify any shortcomings in the QB's ratings: short swipes/flicks that don't meet the minimum threshold will result in wobbly ducks; a swipe that's held down for too long will be too powerful and likely go nowhere near the intended receiver.

For every situation, pass route, and receiver, there will be a happy medium. All the Player has to do is decide who he's throwing to, touch that icon, pull back on it, and let it rip. Aim, distance, etc. are all handled by the game, under the hood (Madden-style).


QBs will still need to be able to move in the pocket, however:



The QB automatically avoid any oncoming pass rushers back dropping back further -- sort of the inverse of the normal running functionality. Note that this will only happen if the QB is in imminent danger; the player can still dodge normally, on the X axis.

To pass, the player has to move his finger from the movement reticle to the little passing icon -- this 'keep dropping back' behavior might work, or maybe we just have the QB continue, slowly, in the direction they were headed before? This one is going to take some trial and error.

Sometimes the Player just wants to pull it down and run, or scramble. By touching/holding the active player reticle with two fingers, the normal running functionality (always running forward) can be re-activated:

Once the QB reaches the line of scrimmage, normal functionality resumes, and the Player can continue controlling with the usual one-finger touch.







Player Attributes

Players have 16 attributes, some are position-specific, some are general-purpose. Each attribute directly affects the way each player moves, reacts, and behaves on-screen.

Each attribute is a normalized value (0.0-1.0); in practice a player will never be a 1.0 or a 0.0 in any category, but having the extra headroom is useful.

I'll come up with specific formulas for each of these soon.

AttributeDescriptionNotes
SpeedTop speed1.0 Speed == 9.5 meters per second
QuicknessRate of acceleration to top speed
PowerStrength/hitting power
Break TackleAbility to get free once engaged with a tackler.Function of Power + Quickness
Pass StrengthArm strength; ability to get the ball downfield predictably
Pass AccuracyAbility to place the ball correctly/predictably
Pass BlockingHow well a player blocks on pass playsAffected by Intelligence, Quickness, Power
Run BlockingHow well a player blocks on running playsAffected by Intelligence, Quickness, Power
FumbleHow frequently a player fumbles; higher number == more fumbles
HandsCatching ability
Pass DefenseAbility to defend a receiver/back in pass coverage; also knocking passes out of the airthis + good Hands rating == more INTs
TacklingTackling ability
Kick PowerStrength of kicker's leg; more power == more distance; more predictable kick arc
Kick AccuracyKicking accuracy; narrower aim cone
IntelligencePlayer's awareness of what is going on around him; e.g. players in his zone/picking up blitz/etc
InjuryPlayer's probability of injury; high number == more injuries

Monday, March 10, 2014

The High Level

Pick up and play, fast-paced, bite-sized arcade football


Tecmo Bowl meets Angry Birds



  • super-distilled football experience
    • pressure-packed
    • last two minutes of game
    • come from behind
    • big hits
    • hostile environments
  • Coaches call plays
    • from coach-specific playbooks
  • Player completes a series of come-from-behind last-minute victories, each more difficult than the last
    • Angry Birds-style level progression
    • each 'level' is a game on the schedule, each more difficult than the previous
      • e.g. Week 1: at home vs Detroit/Week 17: on the road vs New England
  • Victory Condition: score the required number of points in the allotted time
  • Failure Condition: turnover/turnover on downs/time runs out, etc